Climbing in the Ghost

By: Jeff Shapiro

By KAVU

September 17^th, 2024

It had been far too long since I'd had the opportunity to climb with my best friend, Chris Gibisch.

We've been adventuring together for the past 25 years, and have flown hang gliders and paragliders together, gone on some BASE jumping adventures, fly fished Montana rivers and climbed rock and ice all over the world. Beside being one of the best humans I've been lucky enough to know, he was notably my partner on two expeditions to the Himalaya, one in eastern Tibet and one in India's Kashmir, that led to first ascents and probably the pinnacles of my climbing related life. In all of our adventures, we've always come out the other side better friends than we were at the start, and to me... there's no one more reliable than Chris to have that metric for any expedition be not only important, but successful.

So, with an upcoming fun/work trip to Canada with the Citizen crew (more on that one later).... I made travel arrangements to fly into Calgary a few days early, and Chris agreed to drive north from Montana so we could spend a few days rock climbing in the Ghost River wilderness. We'd climbed ice, and mixed rock and ice there many times, but always during the winter months. This would be the first time either of us had been in the area to climb rock in the summer. Needless to say, it was as beautiful as ever!

KAVU days ahead

Chris picked me up from the airport, and after a relatively short drive, we pulled off the highway and started driving into the Ghost. The day was getting long so we camped on the way in, celebrating with some scotch while watching the sun set.... and wishing we were nowhere else but exactly there.....

The next morning, another short drive down into the river drainage (and a creek crossing or two), we were soon at the end of the road and set up for a few days of climbing. After the tents were up, a local came to welcome us and say "hey".....

We walked up to "crag" a few pitches before the sun set, and to get to know the style of climbing. Chris styled this pitch in typical Chris form... and it ended up being a great warm-up for the days ahead.

The following morning, we walked up to one of the bigger walls above camp, hoping to climb one of the 7 or 8 pitch established routes. There was a "30% chance" of afternoon thunderstorms forecasted (which in the Canadian Rockies usually means it's likely going to thunder, and lightning.... and rain). But, the nature of most of the routes here is that getting down is relatively straight forward, so taking into account the likelihood of storms, we chose a line with that in mind.

The hike up to the wall was steep but mellow, and we apparently had (at least that part of) the wall all to ourselves. The morning was totally KAVU and we were exactly where we wanted to be.

After a pitch, we noticed that the clouds were drifting overhead, directly from behind the wall (where we couldn't see). There was some darkening to the bottoms of the Cumulus signifying some convective buildup, but nothing too worrisome yet.....

After a few more pitches, the sky overhead changed with speed, per usual in the Rockies, and soon there was loud claps of thunder and our blue sky dissolved into dark and heavy clouds.

So, we began rappelling pitches, totally satisfied with an afternoon's outing, while the thunder got more frequent and the lightning began to flash in the drainage we were in.

We managed to get to the ground, get packed up, and cruised the hike back to camp, arriving with just enough time to set up a tarp over our chairs before the first heavy rain drops. We sat for an hour or two, re-hydrating and eating good food while it poured, and just like that..... the storm passed and the evening got beautiful once again.

Gotta love being in the mountains!

We watched the sun set and the moon rise while looking at the guide book and talking sh!$ about the climbing we'd get into the next day. New adventure, but just like "old times".

Definitely thankful to the mountains for giving me so much over the last 3 and a half decades. Most of all, the friendships I've been lucky enough to find there.