NOB HILL (CROWSNEST SLABS)
Introduction
This area goes by several different names. Locals call it "Knob Hill", some local climbers refer to it as the "Bible Camp" area, and previous editions of this guidebook have just referred to it as the "Crowsnest Slabs". By whatever name you choose to call it, the climbing is generally straight forward, well protected slab routes with high quality rock. Unfortunatley there are few exceptional routes, so the area gets infrequent traffic. The majority of the rock is a well textured, highly featured dark gray limestone. The laid back angle and abundance of features means most routes are fairly straightforward with short difficult cruxes. The bolts on the lowering stations have recently been replaced. A few routes require gear to augment the bolts. Small tri-cams and wires are the most useful. Explect a relaxed atmosphere with a short approach. It is a reasonable area for new climbers.
Getting There
Head west from the town of Coleman for about 5 minutes to Crowsnest Lake. On the north side of teh highway, in front of Crowsnest Lake is the largest paved pull out one will likely ever encounter. Park here and carefully cut across the busy road. An indistinct trail wanders through the small saplings, becoming much more distinct as it enters the woods. As the trail enters the trees, it steepens, and in 50m or so passes by the lower slab where almost all the climbing is located.
To get to the upper climbs one can continue to follower the trail past the lower slab. Continue on up for another 100m until the trail heads up a dry creek bed. The upper slab is located at the top of what looks like and old rock quarry. If going directly to the upper slab, the best bet is to walk west along the side of the highway for about 100m and then head up the near side of teh large embankment. If you can find the trail at the strat consider yourself lucky. If not, just wlak up the dry streambed.
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Updated route information provided by Ralph Eckman from the Medicine Hat climbing club. Thanks for the help, and hope that you keep getting all those new routes up.
Due to some recent coments on live-the vision, I have decided to take down any arbitraty names that were given to routes. These names were orginally given for a few reasons. After 9 years trying to find out who did what, I figured little new information would come out (FA's either not being interested in having the area published, or having moved away, died, or become removed from the climbing scene). Hopefully we can get some route information and history of the area, but I still hold my doubts. I will have to figure something out for the next guide book for it to make sense without route names.