Achilles Spire

Achilles Spire 2834m/ 9300′
International: Canada- Rock Climbing
Total Time: 10:00
Distance: 8 km/ 5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1100m/ 3600′
Crux: 5.8-
Pitches: 13
Protection: dozen quickdraws, 70 meter rope
Companions: Cory B
Trailhead: Icefields Parkway, no services

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On a week-long family trip in the Canadian Rockies and exploring Banff National Park, I had the opportunity to link up with Cory B, who spends most of his summers road tripping across Canada climbing and visiting family. Having never climbed in the Banff area there were plenty of potential multi-pitch options, and after some back and forth, we settled on Achilles Spire, 13 pitches but entirely bolted. I was staying in Canmore and Cory camping in Johnston Canyon, so I left early, picking him up outside the campground. We drove north another 20 minutes on the Icefields Parkway, and parked at the pullout north of Hector Creek with two other cars parked despite the early start time. The approach trail was easy to find just across the road, following Hector Creek and crossing it several times to a shelf above a peaceful waterfall.

Above the falls, the use trail was a bit looser and steeper yet still quite easy to follow. We reached the base of the climb in 1 hour and 20 minutes, well ahead of schedule with comments on Mountainproject suggesting 2 hours.

A party of two was just reaching the first anchor as we began to rope up, and I volunteered to lead the first pitch. This was my first time climbing limestone, and although the rock was dolomite limestone, a stronger subtype of traditional limestone, it was noticeably chossier than my beloved Sierra. The first pitch is only rated 5.5 and I climbed quickly through the lower half of the pitch cautiously but easily. I clipped the last bolt before the anchor before moving into an offwidth groove. The inside of the groove looked wet, so rather than climb it directly, I began to move on the face to the right above a dark roof by pulling onto a large block…. which pulled entirely from the side of the mountain. The weight of the suddenly free block in my hands tipped me backwards and I was suddenly airborne, several feet above my last bolt. I fell against the rock upside down, my left hand getting cut on rock in the fall and the back of my helmet hitting the rock face. Both of us were surprised by the fall on the easy terrain. I slowly righted myself and did a once over of my injuries- some good cuts on my left pinky but definitely nothing broken. I had a crack in the foam in my helmet, and a small screw that holds a headlamp in place had cut into my scalp. My initial shock was very quickly replaced with disappointment in myself- I should know better than to trust so much weight on a single hold in the alpine, particularly when I was already finding the rock suspect. Cory quickly suggested we bail on the climb and that I didn’t need to force anything. With a crack in the back of my helmet, even just the foam, leading was out of the question. But my only real risk following would be rockfall, with the top of my helmet was intact. After some internal deliberation, I told Cory that if he was willing to lead everything, I was still willing to climb, and that we could at least see how him leading the first pitch went. Cory took the reins with steady hands, quickly climbing past the crack where I fell and going past the anchor, stopping instead at a rappel station slightly higher up. I quickly climbed up to join him, getting past the spot I fell without difficulty.

“Let’s keep going,” I said when I reached him, and handed him the quickdraws for the second pitch. The next few pitches were a bit of a blur, still pumped with adrenaline and the climbing all fairly the same, 5.easy on low angled limestone. Although many of the short pitches could be linked, we kept running into the twosome ahead of us, making it impossible to link any of the pitches.

Cory changed from his approach shoes to rock shoes for the 5th pitch, with steeper climbing up to a ledge and traverse off to the right. Another short pitch with a single bolt brought us to the ledge system halfway up the mountain, and we coiled the rope and walked around an arete to the start of the next pitch, catching back up to the twosome that had been in front of us that morning. The rock above the 8th pitch was some of the most vertical rock of the route so far, well featured limestone and more solid than the lower looser pitches.

After given the twosome a gap, Cory launched up into the vertical, reaching another ledge above and bringing me up for the 9th pitch- an awkward offwidth protected by 4 bolts. He made short work of that pitch as well, reaching a sandy ledge below the crux pitch, a series of dual cracks leading to a hanging belay. The twosome we were following were working on that pitch, with a party rappelling the route from above, accounting for the other car in the parking area that morning.

We waited for the other party to rappel through before Cory started up the crux, moving left onto the face below an overhang to the reported “semi-hanging” belay- although we found the stance quite comfortable for two. The last three pitches were considerably easier, back to 5.5 easy, and Cory linked pitches 11 and 12 before the final short summit pitch to the top of the spire.

We topped out around 1:30 PM just as the sun climbed high, painting Mount Hector’s glaciers in sharp relief to the south. It had only taken us about 4 hours to climb the entire 13 pitches, and we were slowed down by the party in front, an inability to link pitches, along with my fall at the start. The views from the top were outstanding with Hector Lake and Mount Balfour to the west, Mount Temple to the southwest, Mount Andromache to the east and Mount Hector to the south.

We took a nice break at the summit, (regrettably) letting the other twosome start their rappels. They seemed a bit nervous about rappelling the route, the description on Mountainproject unnecessarily confusing- in general you rappel the route utilizing intermediate stations as necessary. Although we felt we were keeping a good distance from them, letting them set up and start their next rappel before descending to the next station, one snapped at Cory that we were rushing them too much, and they wound up letting us pass at the intermediate ledge system halfway down.

15 rappels and about 2 hours later, we were back at our packs, stuffing our climbing gear into our packs and beginning the descent down the use trail.

We got back to the car in under an hour, the outing taking under 10 hours overall with 30 minutes at the summit and plenty of slowdowns. I had some canned cocktails waiting for us in a cooler, and after some snacks and tossing my helmet in the trash, we headed back south on the Icefields Parkway, dropping Cory at camp and getting back to Canmore in time to go in the hot tub with Avery before bed.