It's been an amazing summer of route development at The Apocalypse Cave and I'm super excited about the quality of the climbs the wall has produced so far. With a few weeks remaining in the season, here is the first run of the topo. There are currently 8 completed routes and 1 project. I anticipate the wall will have over 20 routes eventually.
The Apocalypse Cave is a free climbing area. Do not climb these routes with ice tools! The wall is located in the Middle Grotto of Grotto Mountain, the same canyon as The Playground and Silent Auction multi-pitch. The tallest climbs are roughly 25m high and a 60m rope is required.
Approach information: Park at the Ratsnest cave parking. This is a large dirt unsigned turnoff of Hwy 1A. If approaching from Exshaw, once the speed limit hits 80km/h, the road goes uphill and over a bend. The parking is the third pullout on the right when driving downhill, about 2km past the turnoff for Gap Lake. The majority of the approach is the same as for The Playground.
Follow the Ratsnest cave trail for approximately 5 minutes up a steep hill. The climber's trail forks left partway up the steep hill (see photo). There are many forks and it can be hard to find the proper one. It usually has a cairn and should quickly turn into a power line road. After about 40 minutes, just before the road goes downhill into the mine site, the trail leads up into the tress and into the Middle Grotto canyon. Follow the canyon and the trails along it's banks to a fork just before the Playground. The right fork leads to the Playground, take the left fork for Apocalypse Cave or Silent Auction. The trail re-enters the canyon to a fork in the drainage. Take the right drainage but do not follow it, instead look for an orange flagged trail that leads to the base of the wall. Approach time is approximately 70 minutes. The wall gets sun from late morning until early evening.
Enjoy!
