PROLOGUE

I began to gather the first information for this guidebook many years ago, but never got it together to print. After David Robinson's Jasper Sport Climbing guidebook came out in 1994, the need seemed to diminish. As time went by however, many people began asking about the "other" routes in Hidden Valley. Then about a year or two ago I ran into Dave Robinson at Lost Boys and eventually we talked about his production of a second edition of his book. In April of 1998 Dave and I got together and climbed nearly fifty pitches of rock in two days in order to familiarize him with many of the older routes that I had intimate knowledge of. We even found time to put up a couple of new routes together. I then gathered up all my old notes and newsletters and compiled a batch of route beta for inclusion in his new book. Due to unforeseeable circumstances, the publication of his new book had been delayed until spring 1999 and this mini-guidebook had been produced from my data as a stopgap measure.

This mini-guide is simply in response to people's cries for information while they waited for the real thing. As a result, there is a heavy leaning toward routes that I have personally been involved with. That's life! If your route is missing or you did one of the routes that was included but your name was left out on the first ascent, don't complain. Send me the beta. I will change it instantly. Through the wonder of computers and the small volume duplication of this document, I can have the revisions completed and distributed for free in no time. I will also select from the names of people who send me updates and buy one of you lucky folks a copy of the New Jasper Sport Climbing Guidebook when it comes out.

Thanks go out to:

• John Wheeler, may he rest in peace, for letting my friends and I stay in the old ACC Poco Hut many, many years ago. It was a haven, packrats and all.
• Scratch, Vern, Richie, Stu, Brian and Sandra.
• Rick Checkland of the Alpine Club of Canada - Edmonton Section for his unending volunteer struggle to educate newcomers to climbing, myself included.
• Members of the now defunct NWMC for fostering my interest in climbing in the early days and partnering up with me for many of my early adventures in Hidden Valley.
• Lisa and Terry at Osprey Clothing Company for all the excellent outdoor clothing I get to trial.
• Peter Amann, Dave & Cheryl Devin, Vic Marchiel, Morgan Neff, David Robinson, Harvey Struss and my wife Sandra for putting up new routes with me and helping to retrofit dozens of older routes to make Hidden Valley a safer place for ALL to play.
• David Robinson for his inspiration in getting together another Jasper rock guidebook.
• Dale Diduck at Gravity Gear in Jasper for his stellar support of Jasper climbing and also for providing me with hundreds of dollars worth of bolts and hangers at below cost to facilitate route creation and the upgrading of aging anchors and belay stations here and elsewhere.
  

Climbing as we presently understand it has been taking place at Hidden Valley for sixty years. Fur traders, hunters and miners were here before that and indigenous First Nations Peoples likely predated all others. Prior to the First World War the mining town of Pocohontas was in full swing. In 1910, George Brown and H.H. Needham built a stone house about 200 meters south and west of the present Hidden Valley parking lot. They operated a kiln and had a section of railway track along what is now Highway 16. The white pile of lime alongside the water beside the present parking lot is one of the few remnants of that operation. When the War began they tore up the tracks, abandoned the building and left for France. The site of the building is now marked by a new growth of poplars and a commemorative plaque.

The area was known as Disaster Point and one version of how that name came about relates an incident which happened to the Sir Sanford Fleming party well over a hundred and twenty five years ago in 1872. Secretary of the expedition, Principal Grant, recorded the events as follows:

"The Chief's bag got a crush against a rock, and his flask that held a drop of brandy carefully preserved for the next plum pudding, was broken. It was hard, but on an expedition like this the most serious losses are taken calmly and soon forgotten."

The formal climbing history in the area covered by this mini guidebook almost certainly started at the end of the 1930s. In 1939 the Alpine Club of Canada Pocohontas Hut was built beside the approach to Hidden Valley using the older stone building as a foundation. Persons who had driven this section of Highway 16 prior to 1985 will remember it as the green building beside the road. Recognizable climbers such as Rex Gibson, Cyril Wates, Frank Smythe and Jo Kato are known to have stayed at the hut. Rock climbing seems to have begun in earnest sometime during the 1940’s. The area was used for leadership training and even mountain warfare training.

To place things in perspective, in other parts of Jasper, in 1947 the famous British climber Frank Smythe, who scorned the use of pitons, used his first piton for ascent in 1947 during the first ascent of the SE ridge of Mt. Colin (5.6). In 1948, Garner and Lewis climbed the NE ridge of Brussels (5.7), still a remarkable route by today's standards especially in light of the fact that they climbed it in running shoes, during a storm, while making a film. This climb is also the first recorded use of bolts for protection in Jasper!

It is unfortunate that none of the earlier activities from the Forties, Fifties and Sixties in Hidden Valley were recorded. It would have been interesting to see precisely what had and had not been done in those times. The only early recorded ascent described in this guide took place at Hidden Valley in 1957. Jim Salt reportedly ascended a multi pitch line that has become known as Old Salt. Climbing continued in Hidden Valley until the early Sixties when interest waned and the area was virtually forgotten.

Climbers from Edmonton and Hinton began making regular visits to the area again in the latter half of the Seventies. This is the time at which my personal interest in the area began. By 1975 the hut was in poor repair but was occasionally used as a jumping off point for trips out of Edmonton. When I took the Introductory Mountaineering Course offered by Rick Checkland (Alpine Club - Edmonton Section) in about 1974, the group used this as our staging area on our way to the Icefields and I instantly knew I would be back to this dilapidated old relic of a hut.

In the mid Seventies, I was back exploring and the present recorded history of routes begins around that time. John Wheeler, the Edmonton keeper of the hut keys at the time, took pity on a few of us young lads and would often let us use the hut for free in return for keeping the place tidy and fixing any easily reparable damage done by vandals, hobos and packrats.

The name "Hidden Valley" was the term I began using at that time based on the fact that an ACC hut log entry from the Sixties referred to the valley as such. The name has continued in use since then and is used in preference to other names which came later and are less descriptive.

In the late Seventies, the NorthWest Mountaineering Club (NWMC), part of the Canadian Hostelling Association in Edmonton, had a number of club trips to the area. Most of the routes descriptions from that era are based on published trip reports in the Rappel and Breeze newsletters and the Canadian Alpine Journal, my occasionally cryptic climbing logbooks and fuzzy personal recollections of what others had done at that time.

Beginning around 1980, the Blue Lake Outdoor Leadership Training Centre started using Hidden Valley as well and various instructors including Peter Amann, Jason Maitland, Vic Marchiel, Al and Marion Schaeffer, Cyril and Sandra Shokoples, along with others conducted trips here. Much of the activity at that time centered around the Basic and Intermediate Slabs, Crescent Wall, Old Salt, Spiral Staircase, Alaska Bob and a few other traditional routes on the Main South Wall. Sport climbing had not yet hit the valley, but several notable routes had already been done. Fluff had already been climbed, wildly runout on gear, by a couple of unknown climbers from the NWMC and Alone and Afraid was soloed after numerous top roped ascents. The 5.10 standard was already in existence here and in incredibly bold fashion! None dared to claim 5.10 ascents at this point however, due to fear of being pretentious. (See the Rock Gardens Guidebook for a discussion of route grading in Jasper during that era.) Climbing was still a game of understatement in Jasper at that time. A number of other bold leads and solo climbs were done in various parts of the valley, most of which escaped record or formal recognition.

From this discussion you can see that vast numbers have climbed in Hidden Valley before now and left no written record of their ascents. In deference to these earlier climbers I choose to think of most multi-pitch routes in Hidden Valley as first "recorded ascents" rather than first ascents and encourage you to do likewise. Similarly, anything 5.10 or less may still have been climbed in unbelievably bold fashion prior to the era of bolts. That is not to say that all of the sport routes are simply bolted traditional climbs, for that is NOT the case at all. Simply try to recall what is within the realm of possibility. One only has to repeat hard routes of earlier generations around Jasper in the style of the time to realize that hard climbing is not the exclusive province of the sport climber. It is also without doubt that boldness was the character of many routes from days gone by, a feature occasionally missing from well bolted sport and neo-traditional routes.

The nature of climbing and the pattern of route development here was not to change until climbers began putting up sport routes around Jasper. Up until the end of the Eighties, routes were entirely climbed from the ground up in traditional style and rap bolting was not yet in vogue. Hand driven 3/8" bolts had been used extensively for belay anchors in places used by climbing schools and were occasionally placed on lead as protection pieces. Sport climbing came to Jasper in 1987 at the Rock Gardens with the establishment of the 5.11 grade by Will Gadd and Brian Webster. Development of sport climbs began at Hidden Valley in 1991. Eric Hoogstraten retro-bolted three 5.10 top rope routes which became the first sport climbs (Romulus, Remus and Duo Arboretum) on the Crescent Wall. The era of bolts was ushered in, albeit somewhat quietly. Although the Crescent Wall area was a popular top-roping venue with Blue Lake courses, none had dared to bolt the routes for leading, as that ethic had not yet been fully embraced by the locals. With the change in thinking, a whole new era of sport route development and retro-fitting began.

Hidden Valley began to attract attention from locals and visitors alike, many of whom thought they had discovered a totally NEW area. They began renaming some features and routes oblivious to the half century of previous climbing activity. To their credit, they consolidated the 5.10 standard in the valley and began pushing 5.11. Sport climbing had pried open the lid on this previously quiet venue and many fine routes were the result. The first guidebook to Jasper Sport Climbing was published in the spring of 1994 by David Robinson. The portion devoted to Hidden Valley was five small pages which included only eighteen routes. This mini-guide contains nearly one hundred named routes!

At the end of 1994 Lost Boys, a beautiful steep quartzite crag near Leech Lake, was discovered and new route activity once again shifted away from Hidden Valley. The last four years has seen mostly measured activity in the valley with a great deal of retrofitting being done to old traditional routes to reduce the amount of runout climbing and enhance the safety of belays. The term "neo-traditional" was coined to describe the nature of many of the recently retrofitted multi-pitch routes here in which bolt belays are often the norm, protection bolts are common, some gear may be required and runouts are more in keeping with alpine rather than sport climbing norms. It is interesting to note that on almost all of the multi-pitch routes at 5.8 or lower, all protection bolts were placed on lead.

Although many fine sport and neo-traditional routes have been created or retrofitted in the Nineties, the most significant recent event has been the first red-point ascent of Spiderman. This exceedingly steep slab / face climb is very thin, technical and sustained, requiring tremendous balance. It resisted a redpoint for five years since its' creation in 1993 by Dale Diduck and David Robinson. It finally succumbed to the concerted efforts of Steve Stanko on the last day of August 1998. At 5.12a/b, it serves to show that all has not yet been said and done in Hidden Valley. Spiderman is currently the hardest route in the valley.

Getting There

From Jasper: Drive east towards Hinton for 36 km. On the East side of the road is a large paved parking lot bordered by ponds on each side.

From Hinton: Follow Highway 16 into the Park. Continue past the Pocohontas Warden Station and the turnoff for the Miette Hot Springs. Stay on Highway 16, don't turn off anywhere. Keep driving until in a few minutes an imposing North facing wall is on your left and the speed limit drops to 70 kph. The next large paved parking lot on your left (East) bordered by ponds on each side is where you want to be.

Syncline ridge is visible above to the right. Roche Miette is no longer visible once you are at the Parking Lot. Hike up between the ponds onto a steep sheep / goat / people trail which is followed throughout. Head up the Valley. Further descriptions of what you encounter along the way will be found under the heading of "The Sentinels".

Special Considerations

All of the routes, sport climbs included, are subject to spontaneous rockfall, animal generated rockfall, climber generated rockfall and even wind generated rockfall. WEAR A HELMET when at the base of the cliffs. I have witnessed many close calls when rock apparently came out of nowhere to land beside an unsuspecting group. Anytime the cliff is higher than you can see, you should be cautious. Goats and sheep frequent the area extensively and occasionally use rockfall as a means of protection from perceived threats. They also don't care if they kick something down. We are in their homes! In addition, be aware that almost all of the belay ledges here are covered in scree and rock. If you are below any multi-pitch climbs, some rockfall is inevitable.

NEVER lower off a route with a rope actively running over a stationary sling, no matter how short the lower. Several accidents have occurred in Jasper due to the rope cutting through a rope or webbing sling.

Some of the pitches on the multi-pitch routes may seem short. This is often to reduce rockfall from rope drag. In addition, the wind here can make communication a real problem if you are 50 meters apart. It is usually best to use the established stations. They are there for a reason.

Hidden Valley is typically sunny, dry and very windy. If there is no wind, consider yourself lucky. The multi-pitch routes have an almost alpine character and have problems similar to alpine routes as well. There is no water once you leave the vehicles and there are no outhouses either. Bring water with you and go to the bathroom before you head up the trail.

Gear purchases can be made at Gravity Gear in Jasper. (618 Patricia Street, Lower Level / Mailing Address Box 178, Jasper, AB T0E 1E0 / Telephone 852-3155). Parks Information can be obtained from the information office on the main street (Connaught Avenue) or by phone at 852-6176. The office is open from 9:00am until 5:00pm, seven days a week. If you have an emergency don't bother with 911 as it doesn't work in Jasper. Instead try 852-4848 for Police / 852-3100 for Fire or Ambulance / 852-6155 for the Wardens and mountain rescue.

Ethics, Style And Route Grading

Hidden Valley was originally a traditional climbing area and has now developed into a unique venue with sport, traditional and "neo-traditional" style routes. Do not be surprised to find fixed pitons or bolts on the routes or at belays. Hidden Valley has not yet been the subject of heated ethical debate regarding sport vs. traditional ethics, so let us be tolerant of each other and keep it that way. Bolts have been placed to facilitate safe leading and to allow leading multi-pitch routes without pitons in most cases. If you find pitons or bolts in place, do not pound on them or remove them. Please leave bolt hangers on the bolts. It is disconcerting to be looking at the prospect of a serious ground fall because some ignorant person stole the protection or, even worse, chopped the bolts entirely.

Most of the bolts here that have stainless steel hangers can usually be considered trustworthy, but use common sense and always back things up when you can. Some of the bolts with rusting heads may be as much as twenty years old, but most are much newer. Never belay from a single piece of any kind of gear, no matter how good it looks. Almost all of the pitons on the multi-pitch routes which have been retrofitted have been replaced in the decade of the Nineties.

Pitons gather a superficial coating of rust within their first season which is actually protective. Unfortunately a fifty year old piton can look the same as a brand new piton. In addition, the first few pieces of protection on a pitch have the greatest potential to sustain the highest impact forces in a fall due to the high fall factor. For this reason I highly recommend the use of fall arresters (such as Air Voyagers®, Screamers®, etc.) on pitons, particularly if they are on the first half of a pitch. In addition, always test pitons by tugging in the various axes before placing your blind faith in them. If one of the fixed pitons is in sad shape, feel free to replace it with a new one, but DON'T JUST REMOVE THEM.

If you find a new route or climb an old one in which protection is missing, leave any pitons or bolts you use in place. This will reduce the amount of damage that occurs as a result of repeated placement and removal. If the fixed protection remains, almost all of the routes can be led with a selection of quickdraws and / or basic gear. Those who abhor fixed pitons and bolts will no longer find this area to their liking, as they are now the ubiquitous form of protection.

The majority of the older routes here were first climbed from the ground up in traditional style and often with lug soled boots. Once rock shoes came into vogue, many harder routes were done in bold style, either solo or with wild runouts. Given that the newer lines tend to be on steeper rock, which may require extensive cleaning, gardening and bolting, it seems to make sense that the sport climbing style of establishing routes from the top would take hold for creation of further difficult sport routes. Many of the best lines have now been done, but potential for a few more exists.

If you are thinking of retrofitting an older route, speak to the first ascent party before proceeding. If you can't discuss it with them, then leave it alone. If you are establishing a new bolted route or fixed anchors, please take the time to carefully plan your placements. Use proper rappel bolts at the top. The Fixe® brand of ring bolts are highly favored at the present as are Petzl® glue-ins. Metolius® Rap Hangers are great for lower traffic routes. Do not leave regular bolts at the top which require climbers to leave slings or tat behind to get off. Most of the sport routes now have two rappel hangers at the top, while the multi-pitch routes all have walk off descents. Almost all of the regularly climbed sport routes have now been retrofitted with Metolius® or Fixe® rappel hangers.

Several of the recent sport routes were not set up this way and had to be retrofitted with proper gear. Don't be a cheap bugger. Do things right the first time. If you can't afford the extra buck or two it costs, see Dale at Gravity Gear and let the Bolt Fund help defray your costs so you can create a well respected route. Please note that local custom does not condone manufacturing or modifying routes by alteration or creation of handholds (chipping). In this and other ways our impact should be minimized when possible.

Route names are in bold followed by the grade, number of bolts if it is a sport climb (where known), and the estimated total height in meters. The word "gear" appears in place of the number of bolts if it is a traditional climb. The term "mixed" is used if a route has bolts in place and also requires gear. Below this will usually be anything from no description for a reasonably obvious sport climb to several paragraphs for multi-pitch routes. Route descriptions are given facing the cliff. Features such as pitons, trees and even bolts are not entirely permanent. They may have changed or disappeared since this mini-guide was written.

For the sake of clarity, camming devices, Hexcentrics®, Stoppers®, Rocks® or other artificial chockstones are generally referred to as "gear" in the route descriptions. A typical rack for the multi-pitch routes would include 8 draws or runners (unless more are called for in the description). Short sport draws may be inadequate for this style of route as pitches often wander. Take at least four regular length alpine style runners on these routes plus some regular length draws. Most fixed routes have two bolt anchors for which a long double length sling or 5m cordelette is best used to bring the points together in a bombproof anchor. A set of wired nuts such as Stoppers® or Rocks® are the norm as well as small to medium cams (SLCDs) in most instances. If pitons are mentioned, long thin Knifeblades, Lost Arrows® and perhaps baby angles will serve you best.

The climbs are rated or graded, using what is commonly called the Yosemite Decimal System. This edition sees a few mostly minor revisions from the 1994 Robinson guide and some newer routes have tentative grades only. An "(r)" added behind a grading denotes a long runout or ground fall potential, where this is known to be a problem. A '?' within a route grade means that the grading or other details may be tentative. Remember, all ratings are subjective. Note that many, if not all of the multi-pitch routes would be considered runout by sport climbing standards. Experienced alpine climbers who are solid at a given grade will usually find the runouts to be quite acceptable.

Caution should be used if you have not climbed here before. If you can lead a given grade of climb elsewhere, it does not guarantee that you can lead the same grade here. The grades on the multi-pitch routes here may feel "soft" compared to other areas if you are very solid on slabs. There is slight inconsistency within Hidden Valley between slab routes and steeper sport routes. Suffice it to say that after 5.8, the route grades become more consistent and are a quantum leap harder than the 5.7 routes here. If you are unsure of how the grading of routes here relates with other locations, start off with the easier routes and work your way up.

Remember that Hidden Valley is within a National Park and our use of the terrain is subject to scrutiny by various persons, both climbers and non - climbers alike. Please do not jeopardize the continued access to this climbing area by thoughtless actions. Hidden Valley is particularly susceptible to erosion. Stay on trails and do not cut straight downhill in areas like Crescent Wall. Try not to disturb the wildlife and leave your pets at home as they often bother the sheep and goats.

Above all, strive to respect the area and keep it clean. Pick up your trash as well as anyone else's that you may encounter. Witness the closure of many areas south of the border and decide if we can afford to be reckless any longer. We must all do our part to preserve and protect Hidden Valley.

Additions And New Routes

There were a few newer routes at Hidden Valley that were not included in this guide. In addition data regarding first ascents of some of the routes that were included was not readily available. The timetable for printing this booklet did not allow extensive research, but revisions are easy to make and always appreciated. Scope for a number of new routes still exists, but much of the remaining terrain has loose rock and extensive gardening will likely be required. Little fixed protection exists on any of the more obscure routes. They usually have more loose rock, dirt and vegetation than the popular routes.

If you have information on any new routes or have first ascent data or corrections for existing routes listed within, no matter how obscure, I would love to hear from you. If more information becomes available it will be posted on the Jasper Rocks website and linked from the Alpine Club Jasper / Hinton Section and Rescue Dynamics websites (http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/resqdyn/). Corrections or additions for future editions of this guidebook can be addressed to Cyril Shokoples and they will also be passed on to David Robinson:

Cyril Shokoples
Rescue Dynamics
5109 - 17A Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta
T6L 1K5
(403) 461-5040 fax / voice
email: resqdyn@compusmart.ab.ca
website http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/resqdyn/

To view the Jasper Rocks website on the Internet for updates to the Jasper Rock Guidebook published by David Robinson, go to this URL:

http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/resqdyn/Jasper.Rocks/

Take care and enjoy!

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