Aftonroe

July 30, 2026

Groups today went back to Quaite Valley and the Banff hot springs. Paul, Eric, Yifeng and I decided to tackle Aftonroe, on Mount Cory. This is a classic nine pitch 5.7 limestone route. I had climbed it a number of years ago with Tana, where she lead nearly every pitch. I was looking forward to trying it again while swapping leads.

After a long steep approach trail, Yifeng and I took point on the lead rope while Paul and Eric followed on the second rope. Yifeng took the first pitch which was lovely, and I followed up leading P2 which was frankly an awful pitch. Yifeng made brilliant work of the P3 crux pitch, and I lead a lovely P4. I also lead P6 which starts with an incredibly difficult blank wall. The guidebook suggests that "liberal use of the tree keeps this pitch in the grade" at 5.7. I embraced my inner monkey and very liberally used the tree. In fact I found myself at one point completely in the tree with no connection to the rock whatsoever! This made the climb managable... in fact it was probably one of the easiest 5.7 pitches of my life. My favorite lead pitch was P8, which I then linked with the P9 scramble to the top out.

Approaching the climb

Eric

Yifeng

Yours truly

Eric and Paul showed up right on our heels, and then a couple guys from Toronto showed up right behind them. We all crowded onto the small summit ledge for a snack and a chin wag. Finally it was time to go so I set up a double rope rappel hoping to link the first two pitches down. This went well, though was somewhat crowded as four of us ended up on a hanging belay on the rapel route. Pulling the rope was difficult as 60m of rope on sharp limestone has a lot of drag. Suddenly as we were hauling with all our might, the free end started ascending faster than we were pulling... a little bit of help was very appreciated from the Toronto boys at the top. One more 30m rap got us down to a ledge where we could walk off.

Prepping the rappel at the top with ACC Toronto folk

The walk down to the start of the route was typical Rockies scrappiness, but much nicer than the Cascade Falls walk off. Reached the car after 6.5 hours on the mountain, with plenty of time for a visit to the Georgetown on our way back.

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