New Route in Rocky

Checking in from the North Pacific Seaplane base of Tattoga Lake, British Columbia, I have to post a cool video my friend Graham Zimmerman crafted about our new route, established last week, on the Northwest Face of Chiefshead Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park. This wall is notorious for tough routefinding and long runouts. We were happy to do the line ground-up, onsight, and without the need for bolts. I've found that not owning a drill or knowing how to use one has significantly reduced the time spent bolting on new routes.  There's potential for a couple excellent variations, so check out Graham's video and get on it!

Tuesdays in the Park

July 20th was my fifth consecutive Tuesday spent in Rocky Mountain National Park going climbing on the high peaks. Two weeks ago, I climbed Birds of Fire on the Chiefshead Mountain, which is a fantastic route, but follows a mostly bolt-protected line. Last week Scott Bennett and I climbed the Diamond face on Long's Peak (my first time on the mountain) and carried our sleeping bags over to Glacier Gorge, where we bivied at the base of Spearhead Mountain. The following day we did all but one pitch of Stone Monkey on Spearhead, before a hail storm scared us off. And in my trips to this beautiful little cirque, I noticed an appealing line of corners and cracks on Chiefshead, just left of our line of ascent. When I found out that the line was apparently unclimbed, I was determined to give it a go before leaving for Mt. Ambition on 7/25...

Wet Weirdness

One of the oddest things I've ever seen in the mountains.

Solstice Day 4.1

I went back to Rocky Mountain Nat. Park this week with Scott Bennett, intent on trying to cram even more climbing into a car-to-car outing. We planned to climb 5 spires in two different valleys. Here's my amateur attempt at a video of our day.






Tower Day from Blake Herrington on Vimeo.


Nuts and Bolts:

1x 70m 9.7mm rope
2x approach shoes
1x light axe and aluminum pons (did not need)
1x set wires
1.5x set cams to #3
1x long sleeve, wind shirt, and toque
~15 hours round trip
Zowie is an adventure