ice climbing

Canmore is nestled in the Bow Valley, with Kananaskis and Banff ice all around us. The nearby Junkyards, Wedge Smear, and King Creek ice crags make great learning venues, with Bear Spirit, Grotto Falls, Tasting Fear, and Johnston Canyon offer steeper cragging opportunities.

Multi-pitch ice lines like Cascade Falls, The Professor Falls, Kidd Falls, and Moonlight are great climbs that form every year.

“The Ghost” is a very special and remote place and is a Mecca for ice climbs. Broken into North and South Ghost, access is condition-dependent and a 4x4 vehicle is usually required. (Arise Guiding provides a “Ghost-mobile” at an additional cost).

North Ghost involves frozen (and sometimes un-frozen) 4x4 river crossings and passes GBU (The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly), to reach “WI-Fun” adventure climbs up multi-pitch tiered canyon-like systems such as This House of Sky, Valley of the Birds, Beowulf, and Fang and Fist. Big monster WI5 climbs like The Sorcerer and Hydrophobia are also found here.

South Ghost has a mellower approach and is a better choice when North Ghost driving conditions are dicey. Popular South Ghost favorites include Wicked Wanda, Malignant Mushroom, Anorexia Nervosa, The Joker and Hidden Dragon.

Classic lines at Lake Louise include the iconic Louise Falls and across from it, Dark Nature.

Past Castle Junction is the entry-point to Protection Valley. If you are willing to brave the 3-hour approach uphill (both ways!), excelling ice and mixed lines exist up here and you’ll likely have the place all to yourself.

Continuing 20 minutes west down Highway 1 and just across the provincial border into B.C. is the small mountain hamlet of Field. Collectively called “The Beer Climbs”, Field hosts a slew of ice climbs ranging in difficulty from WI3 - WI6, boasting some the shortest approaches imaginable to single and multi-pitch climbs: Guinness Gully continues up to Guinness Stout, Carlsberg Column and Cascade Kronenbourgh are side by side, Pilsner Pillar, Labatt’s Lane, Super Bock provides more of an epic, and Twisted hangs mystically but delicately on the east buttress of Mt. Stephen.

South down Hwy 93 towards Radium and just across the provincial border into B.C. is where you’ll find the very popular Haffner Creek Crag and Tokkum Pole single-pitch dagger, accessible only by rappel.

Just before this is the legendary Stanley Headwall, home of steep and hard ice and mixed lines in rugged terrain such as Suffer Machine, Man Yoga, French Reality, Nemesis, and Nightmare on Wolf Street (featured in the film: The Alpinist).

Nearby, an approach not for the faint of heart, Storm Creek Headwall has a number harder ice and mixed lines like Buddha Nature, Xena and Cosban, Silmarillion. This is a great exploration area, and I’ve recently put up some new lines here in November 2023:

• Smear Campaign, WI5 M5 60m (R?) with Jasmin Fauteux

• Mob Justice, WI4+R M4 45m, with Mikael Williams and Chelsey Benna

More details can be found in our “New Routes” section.

One of the most beautiful winter drives in Canada, the Icefields Parkway passes glacier after glacier of ice on its way north, finally ending in Jasper. It should be no surprise that an abundance of ice waterfalls pour out of these mountains, and the colder temperatures helps maintain these big ice lines into the spring.

Weeping Wall is the most iconic ice, right next to the highway, with a 5-minute approach and a plethora of ice climbs higher up past the main curtain of flows. Next to Weeping Wall, you’ll find a fun mixed route called Mixed Master, and further along the parkway, Shades of Beauty, Sniveling Gully, Kerkeslin, and more.

Murchison Falls is a high-alpine climb you will never forget, with funky and varied ice terrain at a playful WI4 grade. To the left, But My Daddy’s a Psycho kicks things up a notch to a WI5 (often mixed) line. To the right of Murchison is the highly coveted Virtual Reality offers a spicy WI6.

East of Saskatchewan Crossing into David Thompson, some beautiful and less traveled ice climbs exist, most notably, Kitty Hawk (WI5).

This magical ice haven is likely the single best ice climbing location in North America. It is most conveniently accessed by helicopter out of Golden, and by using the brand new lodge as a basecamp - winter camping is no longer necessary! Spending a number of days out here is like being in ice climber heaven, with some of the tallest ice waterfalls in Canada cascading all around you. There are over 25 routes available, and we might have them all to ourselves. If you are interested in a guided trip here, please reach out and we’ll gladly go climb its amazing, deep blue lines.

Check out this link for exciting footage:

https://youtu.be/E0ldwJIJ5cQ?si=Wh59cn9-txjkCtyB