Shine

This climb is located on Syncline Ridge in the Canadian Rockies near Jasper Alberta.  It is a 3 pitch sport climb that tackles the middle of the Second Buttress of Syncline Ridge.  The rock is excellent and all the belays are bolted.  The crux is the last pitch..

The parking for all climbs on Syncline Ridge is a large pullout area on the south east side of Highway 16.  When travelling from Hinton (Alberta) the parking area is found in the middle of the second 60km/hr zone after you pass the east gate to Jasper National Park – this approximately 40 kilometers from Hinton.  From Jasper, the parking lot is located approximately 38 kilometers east of Jasper, and about 4 kilometers east of where the Highway 16 crosses the Rocky River.  There is an outhouse located at the west end of the parking area. 

Once parked, the Syncline Ridge climbing area can easily be seen from the parking lot (see photo).  The area is characterized by three large buttresses that are separated from one another by two large gullies.  Follow the obvious hiking trail (located at the east end of the parking area) up over the first steep section, where it levels off somewhat and starts to gently climb up toward Hidden Valley (another climbing area).  Walk another 200 meters and you can see where the main trails heads up through a broken cliff band – turn right here and walk down and up through the large obvious gully.  From there you scramble through the lower cliff band and then just pick your way up (no trail) steeply until the first cliff face is reached.  The approach takes approximately one hour.

This climb is relatively straightforward to find.  It’s located approximately 1/2 of the way along the Second Buttress (see photo).  The first and second buttresses are split by a large obvious gully – you need to walk down and through it to access the second buttress.  Walk along the bottom of the second buttress until you come to the second bolted climb on this buttress.  It starts near a big left facing corner and tackles a large roof by skirting it on the right hand side (see photo)

Pitch 1 (5.10b) - Climb the inside of the broken left facing corner until you reach the obvious large roof.  This roof is surmounted by climbing through its right hand side.  Some more tricky climbing leads to a bolted belay.

Pitch 2 - (5.10a) - Follow the line of bolts on perfect limestone up the middle of the wall.  Cool pitch with great exposure.

Pitch 3 (5.10c) - The crux pitch is the steep smooth bit right off the anchors.  Get past the third bolt and you'll have the climb in the bag.  

Rappel the route.