Seven Women Explore Saskatchewan’s Remote Rock Climbing
"Nothing had been recorded, but some river guides told stories about climbing during their trips throughout northern Saskatchewan in the 80s"
Photo by: Katee Pederson of Sabrina Heywood on rappel
For those in the know, Saskatchewan is known for having some of Canada’s most remote wilderness. North of the province’s prairie is a vast network of lakes, rivers, boreal forest and cliffs. It’s a hard place to get to, which means any attempt is an expedition-style trip.
Earlier this summer, seven women drove from north for five hours from Saskatoon to Missinipe where they caught a float plane that took them to Lower Foster Lake. From there, they paddled 180 kilometres to their destination of Eulas Lake. We recently touched base with Sarah Hicks about the trip.
Where are you based? I’m currently based in Canmore, AB but am originally from rural Saskatchewan. The whole crew of women were born and raised in Saskatchewan.
Who’s plan was the trip to Saskatchewan? The trip was Katee Pederson’s brain child. She asked all of us back in December if we would be interested in doing the trip while taking into account that someone may not be able to make it fit in their schedule, but we were all so stoked on the idea that all seven of us made it work.
Who was on the trip? Katee Pederson, Ashlyn George, Sabrina Heywood, Ada Krahn, Courtney Hancherow, Kristen Moore, and myself.
Did the trip have funding from any organizations? We were super fortunate to receive the ACC’s Jen Higgins Memorial Grant to support our expedition. We also received support from the Churchill River Canoe Outfitters who helped us with gear and endless knowledge when researching rivers.
Had you all climbed together before? Katee was the mutual friend that brought us all together for this expedition. Some people knew each other from other canoeing or climbing trips, but I met everyone for the first time during a Zoom meeting in January and first time in person the night before we flew out. It’s kind of stressful going into a trip not knowing everyone and how group dynamics will pan out, but I couldn’t be happier with the team we had. We all meshed super well and had a diversity of experience in climbing and canoeing, which allowed us to set climbing routes or scout runnable lines in class III rapids with lots of confidence.
What was the itinerary, from paddling and camping to climbing? We didn’t have a set itinerary going into the trip, since we couldn’t be fully certain of what we would come across. We marked a few spots on our maps in hopes they’d be promising for climbing based on map contours or previous trip reports that may have mentioned or shown cliffs in a few areas. For our drop-off location, the contours on the map were in fact cliffs. We went right into climbing once we unloaded the planes and kick-started the expedition with a new route and a lot of stoke. Our next objective was just over a day’s paddle away. Unfortunately, when we got there it was raining, so we took a look at it and carried on. There was so much potential on that wall for developing face routes and sweet looking corner systems for trad. Another potential cliff we had some beta on was near a possible take-out location, so we paddled on for 5 more days. In total, we covered 180 kilometres through 37 rapids ranging from class I – III and 13 portages. The long days were worth it as we made it to another area with lots of beautiful cliffs. We spent a day paddling out to our climbing location, stopping to explore some spots along the way, and establishing two more routes. In total, we were out for nine days during the beginning of July.
Had anyone climbed there before? Nothing had been recorded, but some river guides told stories about climbing during their trips throughout northern Saskatchewan in the 80s, mostly consisting of bouldering.
What climbing gear did you bring? We brought a single rack and a few ropes. One of our goals for climbing was to do it sustainably and manage our environmental impact, so we didn’t bring any equipment for bolting. Since we may be the only people to ever climb these routes, we felt it wouldn’t be necessary to bolt, as we could scramble up the sides of the cliffs and safely set tree anchors from above to climb on top rope. There were some cliffs with lots of potential for trad routes, but couldn’t get on them due to rain and limited time.
How many routes did you climb? We climbed three routes:
1) Flight of the Eagle 5.11b – This was the first route we climbed, and it was right where our drop-off location on the river was. To access it we had to head into the trees then scramble up a mossy boulder garden. The wall was around 10-metre with a 20 degree overhang. Once we scouted a line up a corner system, Sabrina and Kristen got to work on setting up an anchor. Once they finished and rapped down, they gave me the honour of climbing the route first. The route followed the corner’s sloped ledges with sustained spaced-out crimps.
2) Bonnie and Brian 5.7 – Sabrina scrambled up to set the anchor for this one, then effortlessly flowed through the moves. This 10-metre route went up a large boulder, following a series of nice lichen covered holds on the face.
3) Unnamed 5.10+ – Once we paddled up to the location of the cliffs, there was a 25-metre arete feature that really stuck out to us. Ada and Kristen scrambled up the side to scout and set an anchor. Once everything was in place, and they rappelled down, Ada got to work on working out the moves up the arete. The start had a slight overhang with some hard moves to pull, then finished on a beautiful crimp line with some sweet exposure.
What was the rock like? Lots of cleaning and lichen? The rock was mainly granite, but we also found a bit of quartzite on some cliffs while paddling. Flight of the Eagle was probably the crumbliest line with some flakes we had to be mindful of on the face, the corner system we climbed was more stable. The other two routes were overall better-quality rock and more aesthetic climbs. All the routes had a lot of lichen on them, but some we didn’t have time or weather windows to climb were absolutely loaded with lichen. The days we did climb happened to be the hottest on the trip (mid-30s) so all the dirt and lichen was plastered all over us from the sweat.
How far was the rock from shoreline? The cliffs we saw and explored were either right above the water or a short walk from shore. There were a few cliffs more inland that were slightly visible from the water that we didn’t have time to explore.
How was the trip overall? It was so good. Very empowering to dream up something different and put it all into action.
Were the bugs bad? On the water, the bugs weren’t too bad, just some pesky horse and black flies. Once you got into the trees along shore, especially during the morning and evening, they were quite bad. Once the sun started to set, it was like an instant swarm of mosquitos, so we’d scramble to finish the last of the camp chores to run and hide in our tents.
Did you have any wildlife encounters? Luckily no bears but lots of signs of activity. We saw three moose, about seven otters and seven beavers, an osprey, and probably around 30 bald eagles. The eagles were my favourite. As I was climbing the first route two eagles were soaring over head for a bit, then right before I topped out one flew a few meters above me. That’s what inspired the name Flight of the Eagle. After that, it seemed like every corner we came around, an eagle would fly out of the trees. Near the base of the 25-metre route there was a dusky flycatcher nest, so as you were belaying you could hear the chicks’ tiny peeps.
How fun was a backcountry trip with a group of rad women? So fucking rad. Such an empowering and supportive experience.
What should people know about northern Saskatchewan? Northern Saskatchewan is a beautiful and remote area. Depending on where you go, you may not see another person the whole time.
What’s the next big climbing trip for you? Right now, just some local alpine objectives being schemed and potentially a climbing trip somewhere abroad in the winter, depending on Covid.
Be sure to follow the climbers below for more stories, and watch for a film by Katee and Ashlyn about the expedition.
Check out the latest buyer's guide:
