Developing 5.14d in Canada with Evan Hau

Climbing 5.14 is hard work. Bolting routes is hard work. What about finding and developing entire cliffs? In this piece, Petzl athlete Evan Hau shares his process of discovering, bolting, and eventually sending one of Canada's hardest sport routes — 'Bow Valley Challenge' 5.14d.

As of 2023, Bow Valley Challenge is one of ten routes graded 5.14d in Canada.
Photo by Mike Hopkins Photography.

Describing my dream route would just about match the description of the route Bow Valley Challenge. Twenty meters of steep limestone power endurance with a variety of cool holds and fun moves complete with a standard Bow Valley triple crux: first the actual crux (hardest individual moves), next the redpoint crux (hardest section when linking from the ground), and finally the heartbreak crux (hard part near the top where someone on the send shouldn’t fall, but easily could). There’s even some tufa holds which are rare in the Canadian Rockies.

Bow Valley Challenge was the 4th route to be graded 5.14d in the Bow Valley.
Photo by Mike Hopkins Photography.

The Vsion cave where the route is located is named after the Vsion, a beloved climbing gym in Canmore that sadly closed its doors in 2013. Bow Valley Challenge was the name of an annual fall scramble competition the gym used to host that was always a good time. The Vsion Cave was looked at by climbers in the 1990s but abandoned in favor of developing the more vertical walls nearby giving rise to Stoneworks, one of the earlier crags developed in the Bow Valley. 

Approach into Stoneworks canyon. Photo by Sheena Hau.

In 2017 I was on the lookout for new walls and new routes to develop. Two friends mentioned the cave to me and I was immediately inspired when I walked into the cave for the first time. The cave is hidden behind trees up a hill and it’s hard to notice the cave until turning around a corner on the approach and suddenly standing inside of a moderately sized cave that currently houses 8 routes around 20 meters tall.

Ty Chapman climbing in the Vsion Cave. Photo by Evan Hau.

Bow Valley Challenge is right in the center of the cave and is the line that immediately drew my eye on my first scouting mission into the cave. I didn’t bring any route building gear that day but it didn’t take me long to get back there and start bolting the route. I was able to bolt the route relatively quickly, taking 1 long day to do it. The route has so few holds that not a lot of cleaning was required. While hanging on the wall, the holds felt just as cool as they looked from the ground and it definitely looked as hard up close as it did from the ground. I could only guess at what potential sequences through the crux parts would look like and how hard the moves would feel. 

Bow Valley Challenge is my fifth 5.14d ascent.
Photo by Mike Hopkins Photography.

My first tries on the route were promising. There were a lot of sections I couldn’t figure out right away but it seemed like beta could be found which inspired me enough to keep trying. A first ascent experience is way different than getting on an established route with a grade, chalked up holds, shoe rubber, possibly tick marks and even beta videos on the internet these days. I was able to try the route with a few others and together we slowly unlocked all of the moves. Many of the intricate sequences would have taken me much longer to figure out if I was just trying it on my own. In the end there were a lot of holds I used that didn’t seem like they could be used at first but with the correct body position and foot trickery, it worked.

Bow Valley Challenge is the third 5.14d that I’ve bolted.
Photo by Mike Hopkins Photography.

The Vsion cave is the second sector I have played a large role in developing nearly from scratch. It’s a neat experience seeing an undeveloped wall for the first time and envisioning possibilities of what could exist and where lines could do. I tend to be drawn to larger eye-catching features and Bow Valley Challenge has plenty of those. At first, Bow Valley Challenge was the only route on the wall ready for climbing. I needed to build some other routes to climb and eventually an entire sector was developed with Bow Valley Challenge as the centerpiece.

Sheena Hau climbing in the Vsion cave. Photo by Ty Chapman.

I tried Bow Valley Challenge a lot in 2018, mostly just working out the beta. I took a break from the route in 2019 and went back for it in 2020. Over the summer climbing season I progressed from barely doing the crux in isolation and wondering how I would ever do it from the ground to passing the crux consistently and falling off at the redpoint crux over and over again until eventually sending. Thankfully I never did fall off on the upper heartbreak crux. I don’t generally count my tries or days on a route but it was effectively a 2 year long process. Getting the first ascent in August 2020 was an amazing feeling but also bittersweet. It really is a dream route for me and while nothing stops me from getting on it again after the send, and I have been back on it afterwards for fun, it’s just not quite the same experience anymore.

Bow Valley Challenge has 10 bolts but I only ended up clipping 6 of them on redpoint.
Photo by Mike Hopkins Photography.