Build My Own FeedBD athletes Tommy Caldwell and Sonnie Trotter report on their new routing in the Canadian Rockies
Black Diamond athlete Sonnie Trotter has teamed up with fellow BD athlete Tommy Caldwell for a first-ascent adventure up in the Canadian Rockies and sent us the following email and photos. Looks mega! Good luck to the boys as it sounds like they will be going for the redpoint next week.
From: Sonnie Trotter
Subject: Bonjour from Terry Land!
Date: July 20, 2011 5:15:21 PM MDT
What's up, BD SLC? I just wanted to say hi, and to keep you in the loop about the fun times we kids are having in the mountains. Two weeks ago I finished my third annual week-long Youth Summer Climbing Camp with the Alpine Club of Canada (which was AWESOME), and the very next day, Tommy Caldwell and his wife Becca stopped in Canmore to hang out and climb for a week.
With no time to waste, I put him straight on The Path, 5.14 R at Lake Louise. After throwing a rope down, he managed to flash the 5.13c portion of the climb (called The Great Escape), then he fell on the bouldery crux of The Path. After only a few dogging sessions, he dispatched through the powerful crux traverse and carried on to the top. He looked prime for the sharp end, but the day was closing in on us, and we had bigger fish to fry.
The very next morning we woke up at 6am, and trekked up and behind the Edith Col to inspect a mountain they call Louie and its Diamond Face. It's something I had wanted to investigate for over 6 years. You can see it from the highway. It taunts us as climbers… "come play with me" it begs. It's simply one of the most beautiful climbs I have ever seen in my entire life. Now, we were aware of attempts from other climbers, so we decided it was best to leave their lines alone and instead charge our own path straight up the middle of the face. It was incredibly intimidating looking up from the base of the wall for the first time, not knowing if the rock would be good enough to climb, or even to take bolts, but once Tommy got over the first chossy ledge, which showered me in blocks and rubble, things started to improve.
The Rockies are a crazy place—sun, wind, rain, snow, hail, then sun again, this is the pattern that occurs daily in the Bow Valley… yes, even in July. So we went prepared and brought 105 bolts, 4 batteries, and 3 rain coats. Not to mention, a double rack of gear, shoes, harness, chalk, 4 liters of water, 1 rope, lots of food, helmets, long johns and a dril—and 2 umbrellas and 1 lawn chair. So, after 3 long days and a combined time of 50 hours of climbing, we made it to the top, went up and over the mountain. The line is now complete, but a team free ascent is not. Now all we have to do is go back with a rack of 22 draws and redpoint every pitch in succession. We're still not sure how hard it is as Tommy only did every move between the bolts—mind you he was in a full-tilt snowstorm at the time.
So, we hope, to complete this adventure sometime next week, once Tommy gets back from the Selkirks. Stay tuned, for this in fact is another one of Tommy Caldwell's dreams: "to free climb a limestone big wall, in the mountains, from the ground up". Happy scaling everyone!
— Sonnie
United States / English 
28 Jul 2011, 3:50PM
Is this the completion of the bolted line that Eric Dumerac was working on a few years back?
26 Jul 2011, 12:51PM
...dinosaur talk... but being the first to stand on the tippy top of this feature and having wondered the same ...I'm glad its not requiring a via ferrata...
22 Jul 2011, 7:08PM
Holy cow, we climbed Mt Louis via Gmoser route on 16th July in glorious sunshine. We looked up at that golden face on the hike in and were speculating whether/when someone would put up an insanely hard route on the face ,we don't look at anything above 5.9 if its got more than one or two pitches. Were you guys there on the 16th?