New Lines on Stanley Headwall

Local climbers have completed two major new routes on the famed Stanley Headwall, home of such Canadian Rockies testpieces as French Reality and The Day After Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot.

In December, Sean Isaac and Dave Thomson finished a line they had started back in 1998 to create Dawn of the Dead (140m, M8+ WI6), a direct route to the final ice pitches of Monsieur Hulot. The climb goes in four leads, with a long crux mixed pitch followed by three stout pitches of ice climbing.

In early January, Chris Brazeau, Jon Simms and Jon Walsh climbed Drama Queen (170m, M7 WI6), a four-pitch line to the right of Dawn of the Dead. Last March, Simms and Walsh had forged up a “scrappy” ramp and corner system to the wild and bouldery mushroom formations below the final daggers. This winter they returned with a drill to add eight bolts protecting the crux final lead, a rock headwall to a hard ice finish.

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Dawn of the Dead in red; Drama Queen in yellow.Photo courtesy of Sean Isaac.