Mt.Baldy North Face Direct, 5.2
FA- G.Cornell and J.Miller, June 2012
**I incorrectly named this ‘Barrier’ but is actually Mt.Baldy and I hope I can fix in the future**
A hard scramble with an exposed 70m start of 5.2 climbing, old climbing shoes will boost the confidence.
Exposed and fun, this roughly 250m line of climbing is visible on the drive south on Highway 40 as the farthest steep rib of the north face before the face turns eastward into an impossible wall which would require bolts etc. Best way to spot the line is to look at the large Pine Beetle cutblock of the north forest, follow it up and left and spot a very narrow tree-less gully running straight up the steep forest through a cleavage of rock and up to the base of the north face rockwall and just slightly right where the rock low down(crux) is white in color.
Park at the University of Calgary Field Station visitor area. Head north into the woods and follow a signed trail up into the forest, which eventually veers off for more tourist signage. Do not go that way. Continue down the old road for about 15 minutes once it hooks west and keeps going west. There is a small boulder on the side marking the best bushwack into the clearcut, but anyway will work. Light bushwacking for 15 minutes heads up south and steepens as you pop out onto the Pine Beetle Cutblock. Go straight up or slightly west to catch an old logging road that runs east-west. Follow this until you see the narrow gully talked about earlier. Get into this which is steep but without any problems for an hour. The trees will end right at the rock proper.
Climb the exposed arete on the left of the final treed ledge for about 70m on 5th class terrain, passing one very exposed crossing on the ridge. It gets easier the higher you get passing some single trees here and there. After this it kinda forms into a gully with the arete/ridge blocking any further exposure. From here up its about 200m of fun broken slab that requires a bit of good footing and smearing so old rock shoes help. Continue up until you pop out onto the flat summit col with the true true summit seconds away.
Descend as per the normal scramble back to Highway 40. Maybe 6hours roundtrip.
Mt.Baldy Righthand North Face Route, 5.6
FA- Glenn Reisenhofer and Marc
This is the second north face route up Mt.Baldy in Kananaskis and looks like the backbone of the mountain protruding outward ,from the highway it is very obvious.
Park at that little paved parking area just before the road drops down and up again where everyone parks for Barrier Bluffs. It is at the top of the hill on the north side before the guardrail begins.
From here head up into the forest and bushwack or hopefully find a flagged trail that leads up into the north face bowl. Follow cliffs along the until you can spot the route.
The route is only 5.6 at the very bottom with two technical pitches, the first being the real pitch. A slanting left facing ramp leads with some traversing to a large left-facing corner higher(the action photo is this spot). The second pitch heads up a obvious low angles corner/gully. This first rockwall encountered has water ice form about 100m to the right in a groove and was climbed about 10 years ago.
The ridge above is mostly 3rd class with a bit of 4th class. Follow it to the summit.
Descend the normal hike up route.
