UKC

I'm planning a trip to the bow valley next winter specifically to Canmore and the surrounding ice climbs. As part of my research I'm looking into which climbs would be feasible to climb there. On the Mountain Project page for Canmore, the guidebook they recommend is Ice Lines - Select Waterfalls of the Canadian Rockies. All the reviews seem encouraging but I can't find any information about specific crags the guidebook covers. This is important for me know in advance because I've not done too much ice climbing and so I will be starting on easy stuff first. From mountain project, it seems that my best bet is to go to the Junkyards or Heart Creek to begin with and so it would be useful to know if Ice lines covers these areas.

Additionally, I might plan to branch out to Kananaskis or Icefields parkway. Does this guide cover anything from those areas or should I consider some other guidebooks as well?

Thanks for your help.

I can recommend waterfall ice, climbs in the Canadian Rockies by Joe Josephson. Hard to get hold of. Covers all the crags/areas you mention across all the grades.

There is also a mixed guidebook which is good of you fancy a bit of tooling or mixed stuff. Often easier to top rope stuff at some of the crags (though some are full on mountain experiences!)

If you look at the book on the needle sport website it gives you a list of the routes included. You can see it in the photo. Will require some research to get the grades, but I can't imagine the junkyard is in the 53 best routes.

Enjoy!

Send me a message via UKC and I might be able to point you to a version of Waterfall Ice, nudge, nudge, wink, wink. There's Will Gadd's app, which has all of the Waterfall Ice information, plus a lot of other new routes, GPS data on the location of climbs, etc.  It might seem expensive for an app, is a bit clunky, but compared to paying $800 for a hard copy of JoJo's guide, is well worth it.

Brent's guide is a really good selective guide covering the classics from Waterton all the way to Jasper (including K Country), so I'd recommend it.

Thanks for both responses. Will Gadd's app seems like a good idea, I think I'll get that closer to the time of going.

And thanks for letting me know about Needlesport, even if it's just for suggestions.