West Face, 5.10RX

5th Pitch- 30m- 5.10RX/ A local in Jasper had advised we take a hammer and pins up the West Face route. His advice should be well heeded. However, we had left ours back in Canmore and thus went without. That said, my partner, who aid climbs a considerable amount in Zion, and pulled this pitch on lead, claims that a hammer and pins would not have assisted him in protecting this pitch. Therefore, minus a bolt kit, we are giving this pitch a RX rating. An R rating is rather obvious, but even more obvious is the X rating. This pitch starts at the center of the huge ledge on the west face of Roche Miette. From the ground, it is slab like climbing before you can finally get a .75” or .5” in a varnished cleft about 10m off the ground. From there, one more 1” piece can be secured about a meter further up, then nothing that could hold a fall for the rest of the 25m it takes to reach the upper ledge. My partner had placed a 2” and a nut, but both failed when he took a fall right below the final move to mantel up to the higher ledge. The resulting whipper was caught by the 1” and very close belay management, as he barely bounced off the ledge and injured his hand. Since he thought his hand was broke, we had to descend the route at that point. West Face, 5.10RX, 8 Pitches, Roche Miette, Jasper National Park, Canadian Rockies, August, 2009