The Seasons First Ascents = Cold Toes and Smelly Clothes

Now that the snow has begun to melt most of northern Alberta, the local GP climbers are starting to salivate at the thought of getting outside. Even more so this spring, because of the newly discovered Bear Mountain Bouldering area, an area so close to home and so full of potential. Also factor in a mid winter scouting trip in January and the anticipation becomes unbearable. During our trip in January we were pumped to find more potential boulders down in the valley. As the day passed and we trudged through waist high snow we came to the realization that there is even more potential at Bear Mountain than we had originally anticipated. After a long cold day we had covered about one square kilometre, and still the boulders in the distance distracted our gaze. It could take years to unlock the areas full potential! My good pal's Julian, Tyler, and myself discovered a few great new spots that we were excited to get back to once the spring melt had finished.

Fast forward to March and a warm spell and off we go. We ready our gear in the traditional overkill fashion and head west. We all had our sites set on a hard problem that Julian had discovered in January, potential V9,  Upon arrival we started here and set up a top rope to clean it up. Julian soon discovered that many of the holds were week and flaky. Not that this completely destroyed the project, I would say it just upped the grade a couple. No big deal right, ha! While a couple of the crew worked on that problem, myself and another went our separate ways to try to clean off a couple more. I set up shop on the same boulder to the left and cleaned a tough project that will need more time and a dry ice free top out to send. My guess would be around a grade of V5. A layback start to a high awkward knife-blade crimp, moving on to a dynamic top-out.

Dyno Knife blade project, potential V5

Another problem was cleaned by Edey and sent by another member of the GP crew it was determined to be a V1 a fun little arette problem. 

V1

After a cold frustrating start to the day that included the disappointment of some broken holds, and me staring a fire that was left to smoke directly under the problem Julian was working on, my bad, we decided to venture to The Tower of Death to see if we could salvage the afternoon. The Tower of Death is another huge boulder that was discovered last year by another local GP climber Trent Hoover. Trent also did all of us the favour of putting together the first guidebook on Bear Mountain Bouldering Area. you can check that out on his blog The Climbing Life. This boulder has endless potential for problems, ranging from V easy and up. I established two new easier but seriously fun problems. I have to mention that this would not have been possible without Julians work of sweeping off a literal truck load of sand from the top out area. Nice Work Julian! The two problems I established on The Tower of Death were close to each other and took advantage of beautiful hueco's. Both of these border on high ball problems but they are easy enough to eliminate the fear factor. 

Julian on the second ascent "Overdressed V0"

Myself and the FA of "A Boot Full V0"

After spending some time at the Tower of Death we decided to take a look at a ships prow that we had spotted in January. After some collaboration we decided it needed to be sent. Although short and relatively easy,  it was a dynamic problem that demanded full commitment due to a swing that could have led to a nasty fall down a cliff that sloped away from the boulder. 

Julian gets the second accent of "Walk the Plank V1"

After all said and done, I would say this trip was worth it. Even if it was a little too cold for the constant switching from winter boots to sock-less La Sportiva solutions. We put up a hand-full of new problems, and got to take another good look at what's to come out there. Now all we can do is pray for warm weather. Come on summer!