The Rockies are full of old projects, routes that were too technically difficult to free at the time. Urs Kallen told Sonnie Trotter about one such project.

By Sonnie Trotter

In 1975 three Rockies legends scoured The Bow Valley in search of the next great aid line. At the time, they were preparing themselves for a very early repeat of the Shield on El Capitan in Yosemite, and hoped to find the perfect training ground close to home. The Shield is a thin, technically challenging seam, and the three local boys (found in this photo below), finally discovered what they thought would be the ideal line, a rare and steep splitter finger crack on a blank wall.

Unfortunately a snow storm prevented them from reaching the crack itself, and they retreated from the second pitch, leaving behind some classic Chouinard knifeblades and shallow Cassin bolts. Some of which we removed for Kallen’s collection, other’s we left in place for protection for future free ascents.

Urs Kallen, Rob Mitchell and Billy Davidson never returned to the climb on Little Goat Mountain and it sat uninterrupted for 39 years.


Two days ago, Jon Walsh, Sam Eastman and Myself hiked back up to the route and I made the first free ascent. Although the climbing wasn’t as challenging as it looked from the ground, it gave me great pleasure to finish what was started in the Golden Era by three inspiring hard-men of the day.

The line goes at 5.12-, and we called it 1975.

Check out Trotter’s new website here.

Follow him on Facebook here.

–Sonnie Trotter is one of the world’s best climbers. Be sure to check out his website for his recent adventures.