Type: Sport, 8 pitches
FA: Mark Klassen & Todd Anthony-Malone
Page Views: 39,508 total · 260/month
Shared By: Jordan Ramey on Oct 9, 2011
Admins: Dave Rone, Tom Jones, Richard Rose

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From Alpinism.com:
alpinism.com
Guide’s Rock, Aftonroe (5.7)

Rack: 15 quickdraws and 2 long slings.

This climb is on the right-hand buttress of Guides Rock (Take it for Granite area). Aftonroe is the furthest line of bolts on the right side of the buttress, beside the climb For Sure and just before where the cliff becomes more broken. The first bolt is about 5 m up on excellent grey rock and the first anchor is on a ledge just above a tree and just below a short orange wall.

P1 5.7, 28 m, 7 bolts:  To Sofa Ledge: Climb straight up past 4 bolts. At the fifth bolt a few harder moves lead up and right past 2 more bolts and an anchor on Sofa Ledge. (5.7, 28 m, 7 bolts)

P2 5.6, 15 m, 3 bolts: The Orange Wall: Climb up the short grey walls past a bolt to a ledge, being careful to avoid a few looser rocks in a corner. Ignore the rap anchor to the left (the top of For Sure). Walk right a few steps and climb the Orange Wall past a bolt to another corner and a third bolt. The anchor is on the ledge just above. (5.6, 15 m, 3 bolts)

P3 5.7, 28 m, 7 bolts: Formerly The Rhino Horn Pitch: The T-Bam Crack is to the right (5.9, thin hand to fist size cams). Starts up straight off the belay a bit right past a bolt. At the top of the corner, step up onto the wall beyond. Climb the crux of the route past bolts up steep incuts through the bulging Waves of Rock! At the top a surprising change of character leads to the anchor on the right. (5.7, 28 m, 7 bolts)

P4 5.5, 28 m, 4 bolts: The Best 5.5 in the Valley: The second bolt is a bit hidden on the Beautiful Slab. (5.5, 28 m, 4 bolts)

P5 5.6, 45 m, 4 bolts: Rocky Mountain Rambler: Walk up the slab to a bolt on the short, steep wall just to the right of easy ground. Ignore another bolt (ring) to the right, which is used on descent. Climb the wall to a ledge and then up a short layback crack past 2 more bolts. Exit to the right of the Dead Snag. Walk up the big ledge beyond to a bolt on the edge of a steep wall, but climb the easy ground to the right of that past the Rotten Log. The anchor is at the base of the next steeper slab. You can make this into two pitches if required, by belaying at a tree on the big ledge (5.6, 45 m, 4 bolts)

P6 5.7, 29 m, 7 bolts: The Overlap: Climb up the easy slab past bolts. Find the bolt above The Overlap, clip it, and pull the move. Continue up steepening ground and more hard moves on good incuts most of the way and belay on a ledge. (5.7, 29 m, 7 bolts)

P7 5.6, 28 m, 6 bolts: The Gillette Pitch: Handrail right to a slab, understanding how the pitch got its name. Climb up to the anchor on a ledge above. (5.6, 28 m, 6 bolts)

P8 5.3, 15 m: To Aftonroe Ledge: Step left and scramble up to a large ledge above. The anchor is a chain around The Twisted Tree. Check out the chockstone in the tree! Admire the view of the valley below, from Rundle to Pilot. (5.3, 15 m)

Descent: Rappel from the same anchors. The third rappel (Rocky Mountain Rambler pitch) is a full 30 m, make sure you tie knots in the ends of the rope. From the single ringbolt at the bottom of this rappel you can belay a climb down the easy slab to get to the next anchor.

A note on the name: The beautiful scene of river, pond and forest below the climb is now called “Backswamp” but in the distant past locals referred to it as Aftonroe. Local writer and newspaper columnist Jon Whyte regularly lamented this change. Jon died in 1992 and the naming of this route is made in his memory.

New Descent Option: 
Aftonroe on Guide's Rock has deservedly been a hugely popular climb for some time now. Descending parties have always had to rap down over others climbing the route in the past. There is now a designated descent which is entirely separate from the main climb and is mainly a walk off.

From the top chains of Aftonroe, make three rappels (30 m, 25 m, 25 m) on the climber’s right side of the Aftonroe climb to a reach a good ledge. Note: you can bail from the top of pitch 5 on Aftonroe by traversing climber’s right on the same ledge but a large tree with long branches pushes you onto down sloping slabs with exposure.


Walk the ledge east (towards Banff townsite) sticking to the base of the steeper rock. There is a scuffed in trail with cairns and flagging marking where the trail zig zags down around a tree before heading east again to a fixed rope. The rope leads down a short step into a gully which is traversed to the far side (cairn). Follow cairns and flagging down the scuffed in trail until just above a main gravel filled gully. Instead of entering this gully which may funnel rock fall from others descending above, stay on the descender’s left, in and out of a smaller gully past more cairns until the main gully can be crossed lower down on a level trail which leads back west to the base of the climbs.
https://mountainconditions.ca/reports/aftonroe-new-descent?fbclid=IwAR2URmgGBh8N_Uc4QO7tcPlOjvU87DchUHGHgrsCHjZ1gdj6s_L41Mz_Kl0  

F.A. Todd Anthony-Malone, Mark Klassen; September 2011

© Mark Klassen 2011

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All pitches are linkable if mindful of ropedrag by looking at their length. So, only pitch 5 can't be linked with something else.

Location Suggest change

This climb is on the right-hand buttress of Guides Rock (Take it for Granite area). Aftonroe is the furthest line of bolts on the right side of the buttress, beside the climb For Sure and just before where the cliff becomes more broken. The first bolt is about 5 m up on excellent grey rock and the first anchor is on a ledge just above a tree and just below a short orange wall.

Protection Suggest change

15 draws / slings if linking pitches.

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