WATERTON

Introduction

The mountains around Southern Alberta are not normally know for thier high quality rock. While this is certainly true of most of the alpine climbs in the park, there are a surprising number of reasonable rock routes. Climbing activity has usually been concentrated on a very small number of longer climbs. Despite the boredom that this has created, new route activity has, for the most part, been lethargic at best. This is perhaps due to the use of teh Park as an early season warm up for other more popular areas. Usually the only climbers who regularly frequent the cliffs are local summer employees who are not around long enough to establish a long term climbing community. As climbing continues to become more mainstream, the steady flow of new climbers from the Lethbridge climbing wall wil no doubt change this. Lately, however, the change from secure indoor wall climbing to the adventurous trad routes in the park has been a bit much for many to handle.