Climbing
What it took for Sasha DiGiulian to complete the Canadian Big Wall Trilogy
Follow Sasha DiGuilian on her epic climb of the Canadian Rockies Trilogy. Fire, heat and a shoulder injury set her back, but she turned those challenges into an opportunity.
Looking for her next big goal, in mid-2018 and hot off an ice climbing trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Sasha DiGiulian picked up a copy of Rock and Ice magazine and became inspired. Gracing the cover was Sonnie Trotter on the Rocky Mountain Trilogy, the three hardest big walls in the Canadian Rockies. That’s 9,000ft [2,743m] of steep, demanding limestone climbing and all three are rated 5.14. She wanted to repeat Trotter’s routes and become the first woman in the world to climb them.
Then, two weeks before her trip, her partner cancelled and she found herself alone. But that was just the beginning of her troubles. “I was in a chaotic scramble,” she says of the weeks building up to her trip. “That spring was tough, as my grandmother died and there was the social media cyber bullying event that left me feeling isolated. I was looking for a personal goal to focus on, so I drove solo from Boulder, Colorado to Banff, Canada for the Trilogy project.”
DiGiulian was glad to be out doing what she does best
© Peter Hoang
Once in town, she spoke at the Bow Valley Climbing Festival, where she secured her first wave of climbing partners, such as Mike Doyle, who joined her on War Hammer on Castle Mountain and supported her on Shining Uncut on Mount Louis. For her final objective, several American friends, plus Devon Delattre, helped her on Blue Jeans Direct on the south face of Mount Yamnuska. When it came to her film of the project, Trotter played a dual role on War Hammer, where he not only showed her the area, but also recorded the climb. Climbers Peter Hoang, Dexter Bateman and Alex Fricker also supported DiGiulian’s efforts. Each day on the big walls, she and her partners were “looking at 18-hour days of suffering,” she says.
DiGiulian was supported by several climbers on her Trilogy ascent
© Peter Hoang
Climbing with new people made her nervous. Just as she was starting on her second objective, War Hammer, she found herself over-gripping because she wasn’t yet comfortable, putting too much strain on her shoulder. During one move she felt pain, which turned out to be a sprain to the joint between her collarbone and left shoulder blade. At first, she couldn’t lift her arm. “That was a big potential setback and wait out,” she says. Luckily her injury turned out to be minor enough that she only needed 10 days of rest, time she used training with local physical therapist Fabienne Moser.
“To go to an area alone, you can connect with people versus having your climbing partner and having a goal,” she says. “I lucked out with my approach. It was enriching to get to know the community there.”
Roping up with the local climbers benefitted her and she ended up completing the project – shoulder injury and all – three weeks faster than expected.
The walls in the Canadian Rockies are steep and then some
© Peter Hoang
To complete her second goal, The Shining Uncut, she had to overcome the crux that combines two hard pitches into one single 80-metre rope stretcher. To keep rope drag down, she climbed the first half with one rope, then switched to the second on the top half. All the rope weight, some 25 extra pounds [11.3kg], dangling from her harness, made it much harder for her to crimp credit card edges while standing on tiny nubbins, but she still pulled it off.
Then came her final goal, Blue Jeans Direct, where she had to deal with wildfires and poor air quality.
“That last route in the Trilogy I could see the end in sight, but I was getting sick,” she says. The air quality app she tracked on her phone said that conditions were bad; it was equivalent to smoking six to eight cigarettes a day. Because of the challenging conditions, “I couldn’t do the crux moves,” she says.
DiGiulian understandably happy after completing The Shining Uncut ascent
© Peter Hoang
Sometimes the smoke was so thick that she was forced to stay inside. But, after resting two days to heal her lungs, she saw her moment and dashed out to make her free ascent. The day after she completed the project snow coated her route and signalled the end of the climbing season.
The Trilogy became her first film where she worked as executive producer for her company Female Focused Adventures. “With the Trilogy, this is me and my voice and what I went through [and] a final product that I feel passionately invested in,” she says. “I’m so excited.” In autumn 2019, The Trilogy won People’s Choice at the Banff Mountain Book and Film Festival.
