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Belaying on Forbidden Corner

It was sweltering. We were dripping sweat hiking to the base of Yamnuska. ALL three of us ran out of water. The temperature was above 30 degrees Celsius most of the day. You would never believe it was January 18th in Canada. But alas, the weather gods showed us some mercy last weekend. Will, Brandon, and I reveled in the feeling of hot rock under our fingertips while we remembered the strange pleasantries of summer.

Its hard to imagine that that was only one week ago- as the temperatures yesterday at Rogers Pass were minus 25 when we left the car a ten o’clock in the morning. But we did not let the heat fool us. We carried our jackets and our gloves up the eleven pitches believing that it was too good to be true.

I had never met Will or Brandon before- so was not quite sure what I was getting into. We were planning on doing four pitch routes up until the very last moment. Suddenly, eleven pitches with two guys I had never tied in with before, in the short days of winter, when obviously none of us had been climbing much, sounding like a huge objective. Nevertheless, I threw my headlamp in my pocket. And really, as the boys made sure to point out, they did not know what they were getting into either- after all, I was a girl.

We wiped the snow off our climbing shoes when we launched- realizing that the nuts were still in the car. It was my first time climbing on Yamnuska, but from what I could tell, the limestone was probably a good type of rock to not forget the nuts. But it was hard to get too worried about anything in such perfect weather- so we charged on. Then I realized that none of us had sunscreen. We were going to be in direct sunlight all day- and the rays were already piercing at nine o’clock in the morning.

Somehow, the sunshine erased all of our worries allowing us to climb as if it were the 32nd day of Rocktober. We laughed at the belays, heckled the leaders, and made phone calls to our friends to brag about our solarium. We were making excellent time until Brandon’s rope got stuck in a crack causing such sever rope drag that it took every ounce of strength and fierce effort to lower back to the belay. Poor Will was hauling up his pack the whole climb being sure to avoid having to post hole with a recently injured ankle in running shoes. We were all hot, out of water, and feeling the effects of the epic January sun. But, after pulling it back together, we raced to the summit where finally there was a bit of a breeze to cool us off.

Apparently, nuts are superfluous to Forbidden Corner, the cracks are superb- and if you climb it in January, be prepared for some serious post-holing to get back to your stuff.

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