Bottleneck Direct, 5.10a

1st Pitch- 60m- 5.10a/ Andy’s guidebook has the length of this pitch incorrect. He calls it 50m, but my belayer claims she had to simul climbed just a bit. There is a piton mid station opportunity about 2/3rds up after the roof pull if you want to split this pitch in two. This is a fantastic pitch, one of the best for the grade on Yamnuska in my opinion. Start in the corner and stem your way at below the grade, 5.9 or so, placing gear at will until set deep under the large roof. Make some exposed traverse and stem moves at the grade to the right wall, clipping one piton along the way. Make sure you use double length runners for pro leading up to the roof. Move out right to a mid piton station. I cleaned up quite a bit of bail tat in this region. Continue straight up jamming several fine cracks until you get into a squeeze right before topping out. Make a hard stem with rope drag no doubt, moving out away from the wall to grab some jugs and land on top of a nice ledge to belay off of. Bottleneck Direct, 5.10a, 7 Pitches, Bottleneck Wall, Yamnuska, Canmore, Alberta, July, 2009