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Old Lake Louise Project Pushed to Top Called Mountain Fiction

Canmore-based Jerry Auld and Dustin Lynx have pushed an old project to the top of a wall at the base of Fairview Mountain in the Rockies and called it Mountain Fiction. T

he Rockfall Wall is composed of solid quartzite and faces west above Lake Louise across from the popular Back of the Lake. It is home to some old 5.10s and new hard routes.

Mountain Fiction on Rockfall Wall
Mountain Fiction on Rockfall Wall

The most obvious line that cuts up the face had been attempted as a free route a few times since the 1980s when Marc Dube then Peter Arbic sent the first pitch at 5.11a up a steep face to below a roof.

In 2014, Sonnie Trotter sent the Arbic section and continued up, onsighting through the roof, at hard 5.11.

Trotter climbed to where he said the crack was too vegetated and dirty to continue freeing ground-up. After pulling large chunks of dirt and loose rocks from the wide crack, he opted to bail off a few nuts.

Shortly after Trotter visited the wall, Sam Eastman climbed two routes up the face to the right of the project and called them Rehab is Quitters 1 and 2 and graded them 5.12 and 5.13.

In 2016, Auld and Lynx teamed up to push the Arbic-then-Trotter project to the top of the wall. After removing lots of greenery from the splitter, they topped out having aided the route from the ground at 5.7 A2.

Trotter said the upper crack looked about 5.10. Anyone hoping to make a complete free ascent will climb a 5.11a first pitch and the 5.11+ section to the final headwall crack, which has been half freed at 5.10 and half aided. Auld and Lynx fixed up some fixed gear and added a chain anchor to the top.

Auld and Lynx are owners of Imaginary Mountain Surveyors, which publishes mountain fiction. After their send, Auld wrote, “We hiked out in the dark and forded the icy rivulets at the end of Lake Louise while the Chateaux blazed like Gatsby’s mansion in the Gilded Age.

“We called the route Mountain Fiction because it was too good to be true.” Be sure to visit their website here for a number of excellent books and follow them on Facebook here.

Dustin Lynx above Trotter's high point on Mountain Fiction. Photo Jerry Auld
Dustin Lynx above Trotter’s high point on Mountain Fiction. Photo Jerry Auld

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