Finally - The Grand Sentinel

So after postponing our day on the Grand due to rain – yesterday was finally G-day. We left Mike and Claire’s at the bright and early time of 930…. Yes we’ve been all about the early alpine starts on this trip!

We drove the 45 minutes to Lake Louise in Banff National Park and parked in the super crowded parking lot for Moraine Lake (there are RV’s all over this damn park). Upon getting to the trailhead we had to hang out for a bit to find 4 other people who wanted to hike up to Sentinel Pass. There is a very grumpy grizzly bear who lives in the area and the park is very strict about only allowing parties of 6 or more to go up there – going in a smaller party means a $2000 fine.

5 minutes later Al and I were hiking up to the pass with an Australian couple and a UK couple… The hike up to the pass normally takes 2 hours… however our new friends were the most athletic bunch so it took a bit longer – but the company was enjoyable and the views were spectacular.

Upon arriving to the high-pass we got an amazing view of the Sentinel. WOOOHOOOO! She is a beautiful unattached spire … rising more than 300 feet above the scree field below her.

Al and I said goodbye to our United Nations contingent and made the descent to the Sentinel. Upon reaching the base we could barely contain ourselves… the route followed this beautiful arête (a corner for all those non-climbers reading this). The route goes at 11a and consists of 4 pitches… sticking to our light and fast approach to long routes Al and I ditched the packs and happily tied into our double-ropes… this ain’t no cragging sport climb boyz… this is alpine climbing… doubles are for sure Al and I’s rope of choice for this environment.


With our doubles Al was able to link up pitches 1 and 2 in a beautiful 150 foot lead. I came up and lead pitches 3 and 4… the crux of the climb being this ridiculously exposed roof. At first I had no frickin idea how the hell to pull through.. I ended up sticking a stupidly high heel hook and doing some kind of crouching tiger move to pull through… hahahaha good times for sure!


Upon reaching the summit we were all giggles… the top of the spire was amazing and the normal ‘stand on the summit’ pics followed. We made 2 loooong raps down (thanks again double ropes!) and we were at the bottom.



Back to the pass we went… where we were suppoda find some tourists to hike down with… there were over 30 hikers up there when we got there in the morning… now around 6pm – there wasn’t a soul. So with no other options – we risked a $2k fine and marched down the mountain into grizzly territory. (We had planned for this however – we left wallets in the car and had made up pretend names – I was Lawfondah and Al was to be Miguel).




Anyways we made it back to the car without incident… and back to Canmore. We found out earlier in the day that I had forgotten my camera charger in Calgary – so after a quick bite with the canmore crowd… back we went to visit Tat and Cuba in the Calgary mansion.

Today we leave for the remote mountain range in the interior of BC called the Bugaboos… some crazy stories and pics will follow for sure! We’ll be in Vancouver sometime on sat – so expect some craze pics posted this weekend.

Good times – eh!