Ice climbing the Weeping Wall

The Icefields Parkway starts at the townsite of Lake Louise in Banff National Park and travels north to the townsite of Jasper in Jasper National Park. It is a wonderful drive with endless mountain peaks and glaciers to see along the way. This, understandably, makes it a very popular drive in the summer months. In the winter, it can be just as spectacular even if only visited by a comparable few but is my favourite time of year to explore the area.

Along the Icefields Parkway, just at the northern boundary of Banff National Park and located at the western base of Cirrus Mountain, is the Weeping Wall. Comprised of a collection of cliffs that are over 300 meters (1000 feet) high, the waterfalls are fed by a spring higher up on the mountain that never stops flowing. In spring and summer, the cliffs are usually covered with cascading waterfalls, but in winter, the frozen water creates towering pillars of ice, creating one of the best-known and sought-after waterfall ice climbing destinations in Canada.

Nearly as wide as it is tall, it is just a ten-minute hike from the road and presents virtually no avalanche hazard. So, besides its obvious appeal to ice climbers, its close proximity to the Icefields Parkway roadway presents those in the know with a great observation point to take in the view.

It was on this particularly gorgeous day in December 2020 that I set up roadside to create an ultra-high-resolution image of the Weeping Wall. Fortunately, there were already three separate groups of climbers on the ice face, and I was able to include them in the creation of this ultra-high-resolution image. The wall is so vast that at first glance, there is no sign of the climbers in the photo. It becomes a bit like a Where's Waldo challenge. But upon closer inspection, they are easier to spot in their brightly coloured climbing gear as they make their way to the top of the Weeping Wall.

Photo Information: A very high-resolution photograph of the Weeping Wall, a set of cliffs, approximately 1000 feet high, located at the western base of Cirrus Mountain alongside Highway 93 in northern Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, just south of the boundary with Jasper National Park.

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