Rock Climbing at Mount Borgeaux Cliff Face 📷

Had a pretty sweet day out on the rock a few weeks ago by climbing the sheer face cliffs at Mount Borgeaux, towering over the gondolar lift at Sunshine village ski resort parking lot in Banff National Park, Canada. I've seen this place in the winter before for snowboarding and even hiking in the area in the summer, but never even considering this enormous wall to be something for rock climbing. However, it was absolutely AWESOME!

So, here are some of my pics and panoramas from the day on the rocks. This first pic is looking back down the gully we are approaching the cliff at and just gaining some altitude. The hike in was actually really tough with 40 lbs of climbing gear and huge pack, as the hike was not really a hike at all, but a scramble. I've never scrambled with a 40lb pack, so it had its moments that is for sure!

I was really happy to be able to watch these 4 mountain goats on the approach in. They were at a distance and with the angle of the sun, I couldn't get a good picture of them, but they are such an awesome animal, I figured it was a sign of a great day, sharing the rocks with them!

The falls still had some ice at the top, and they were gushing pretty good, since well above the cliffs would still be piles of snow to melt on these hot days.

You can see some of the ice here still. This waterfall is pretty famous for ice climbing in the winter as well. I can totally see why, its an impressive wall.

This is a sample of some of the rock we climbed. We heading up a 4 rope multipitch and knew it would be quite a few hours in the ropes, since we are pretty slow doing multi-pitch climbs since you have to spend a good chuck of time building anchors, changing belay stations wtih your partner and of course, the lead climbs are pretty tough and tiring. I was able to do 2 lead climbs, a 5.9 and a 10b, and my climbing buddy led the 5.10a and 5.10c pitches.

Happy to make the 2nd belay station after the 2nd pitch, the hardest section, a 5.10c. This was my hardest outdoor climb yet, I'm sure glad I was on top rope for it as I couldn't have quite made it on lead, the nerves were freaking me out enough as it was! A great rush though!

The whole reason why multi pitches take time, is all the rope and anchor work to at each belay station. This pic is actually on the way down at once, so we have to build a rappel station, which is even more rope work, than climbing through to a second pitch for a lead climb.

THE PANORAMAS

I love this panorama, as it gives a decent representation of the scale since you can see the two climbings on the right side at at the second anchor. Pretty amazing views up here!

And to appreciate the real scale, a zoomed shot over to the other climbers. This small ledge was just enough to stand on at this second pitch's anchor point.

Here you can see the on the right side and center of the photo, our 4 pitch (100m / 300ft) wall we climbed. We left the ground before lunch and touched back down about nearly 5 hours later! WOW.

Even through the day, we noticed since it was so hot out, the water flowing at the end of the day was FAR more than in the morning. Obviously a lot of snow to melt still!

I loved the lighting on the hike out, since the sun had dropped quite a bit, casting its dramatic shadow on the walls.

Foot Skiing out on the snow saves some energy on the hike out, I know I can never resist the change to glissade or ski out from a hike point with snow like this. Unfortunately, there were rocks scattered in the snow, but luckily I stayed afoot!

From a distance this wall looks pretty incredible, but its hard to tell the scale.

So, I'd be happy to climb here again and try another multi-pitch, its a great view but one for a cooler day, since it is completely south facing and super hot in the summer.

I hope you enjoyed the photos, I sure did taking them! They were all taken just with my Sansumg S4 phone, as I didn't want to carry a larger camera up with me, but I was still able to capture the panoramas I always love so much!

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