Hau on Earth

Queen Bee Direct 14d/15a

Photo: Mike Hopkins Photography mikehopkinsphotography.com

Queen Bee Direct, 5.15a, at The Coliseum in Echo Canyon was bolted by Matt Pieterson during the initial development of the wall in the early 2000s. The Coliseum is located halfway up Grotto Mountain in Canmore, Alberta. It is home to long 40m pitches and has some of the hardest routes in Canada.

Hiking up to the Coliseum in spring. Photo: Mike Hopkins Photography

Queen Bee Direct goes straight up the blankest part of the gently overhanging center of the Saddle Up sector at Coliseum. Matt immediately recognized it as one of the most stunning lines on the wall, and also one of the hardest and he left it open for others to try.

Crux of Queen Bee Direct. Photo: Mike Hopkins Photography

I first started trying the route in 2015 and it seemed on the cusp of being possible. However, during my early attempts, I broke a couple holds which I had considered key holds at the time and I decided to give up. Although Matt’s grand vision for the climb was to climb straight up, he also recognized a very difficult crux near the bottom and also bolted an easier linkup variation to bypass the bottom crux to access an incredible fin feature at the top of the route which he also left as an open project. After walking away from the direct start, I began trying the easier alternative variation and was able to complete it that year, the route became Queen Bee, 5.14b, which has seen a number of repeats over the years.

Queen Bee 14b. Photo: Kevin Wilson

I always had the direct start in the back of my mind to one day revisit, especially as I continued to get stronger and improve in my climbing. I was mostly focused on other routes, but whenever I thought about the remaining holds on the direct start, I started believing again that it could still be climbed. Adam Ondra tried the route briefly during his visit to the Bow Valley in 2018 and agreed with the assessment although he was not able to send during his trip.

Queen Bee Direct. Photo: Mike Hopkins Photography

I didn’t get back on Queen Bee Direct until 2020 and I was able to unlock all of the moves in the crux section and got inspired to work on it again. However, it would take another 4 years to link it all together. There were some years I would get close, but I wasn’t able to finish it off in the brutally short windows when conditions were good enough to climb the route. The Coliseum seeps badly and is often wet. Queen Bee Direct is one of the routes that take the longest to dry and is rarely dry enough to climb.

Queen Bee Direct. Photo: Sheena Hau

Knowing I would only have a short window of time to send, I dedicated my entire winter 2023-2024 training season to training specifically for Queen Bee Direct to make sure I would show up ready to send in the spring of 2024. In the end I couldn’t get it done that spring and had to walk away for the summer due to wetness, but I was gifted another great weather window in the fall and on October 14, 2025, I sent Queen Bee Direct.