New icefalls in Canada by Raphael Slawinski

The first is called The God Delusion and was forged together with Juan Henriquez, Wiktor Skupinski and Jerome Yerlye up the famous Stanley Headwall. Slawinski describes this as "the latest (if not necessarily the greatest) addition to the Stanley Headwall, this route climbs directly through the big arch right of Man Yoga, joining that route halfway up pitch 4. Most of the climbing is on thin ice, with just the occasional section of pure drytooling." The first two drytooling pitches are protected by bolts with difficulties up to M8+, while the crux ice pitch remains the final pitch of Man Yoga at WI5+.

The second addition is located on the remote Maze Peak in the Dry Ranges, a rarely visited area with great potential. Up the North-East Face Slawinski, along with Rich Akitt, Marcus Norman and Lyle Rotter, established Nachtmahr, 85 meters up to M9 WI5. Once again the mixed pitches are bolt protected but, as always given the quality of the Rockies limestone, due care and attention is required.


TOPO: Canadian classics