Cascade Falls part 2

August 1, 2026

For the final day of the camp, I teamed up with Bill along with Eric and Yifeng for another adventure up Cascade Falls. I wanted to try a four pitch 5.6 route on the upper tier called Keeping it Riel (Since 1885). Of course that meant climbing the lower tier on Mini Hapa again, but that route is always a favorite. We dispatched it easily, Bill leading P1, and linking P3 and P4. I got to lead P2 this time which for me is the crux pitch.

Bill boldly leading P1 of Mini Hapa

Following up P3

Yifeng at top of Mini Hapa

Smokey view today

A hop over the waterfall and then an easy scramble up brought us to the base of Keeping it Riel. I lead P1 which was a 50m five-fun scrambly pitch. P2 was only rated 5.4 but I found this the crux. Bill lead it boldly with long runouts between the bolts on slabby limestone. P3 was supposed to be harder which I easily lead, looking the whole way for the promised 5.5 move that never really materialized. Bill quested up P4, finding a couple bolts and then getting stymied of where to go. He ran out the rope quite far, still not finding a bolt to clip. Finally he spied a line of three bolts that went up a ramp and ended at a very difficult roof feature. During this time Eric and Yifeng were on their phones and discovered an online posting from this very morning that warned people not to follow these bolts as they were installed during a rescue that occured a few days prior. As Bill started to try to pull the roof we were all yelling at him that he was off route and should try another way.

Striking out on P1 of Keeping it Riel

Leaving a bail draw, Bill down climbed and then explored a bit further to the right, finally spying a bolt. He continued downclimbing there, secured himself, and declared that he was done with leading on this adventure. Yifeng put me on belay and I lead the pitch fairly easily now that we knew where it went.

Top of Keeping it Riel

Four raps brought us down to (shitty) walking terrain. We stopped on top of Mini Hapa for lunch before continuing down more (shitty) walking terrain to get down off the mountain. 6.5 hours out on this day wraps up the adventure for the climbing week.

On the way down

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