Canadian athlete Adam Mertens has completed a unique alpine traverse in Bow Valley in the Canadian Rockies, combining trail running, roped climbing, free solo climbing, scrambling, and even paddleboarding.
Mertens took 70 hours and 20 minutes to complete the 146.53km loop he has dubbed the Bow Valley Cirque. The route includes a huge 11,181m of elevation gain.
Last year, Mertens attempted the Bow Valley Cirque on the same weekend, but didn’t manage to close the full loop, finishing 20km and several peaks shy of his target. “We set these dates in May, basically the exact same weekend as last year, with the hope that we would get a weather window to do it,” Mertens explained to ExplorersWeb.
The Bow Valley Cirque, with the start and finish point marked in red.
“All summer has been super rainy. I don’t think we’ve had three straight days of sunshine until the last two weeks, where it’s been 30°C and so hot that I was a little bit worried it was going to be an issue. But we had spectacular weather on that first morning.”
Day one: Cascade and Rundle traverse
This time around, the 32-year-old Bow Valley resident started his mammoth effort at 2 am on August 30 at Johnson Lake in Banff National Park. Running alone in the dark, he headed north to 2,998m Cascade Mountain, where he joined a friend. Together, they summited six-and-a-half hours later, having taken a technical route that included 5.10 roped climbing as well as some simul climbing.
Sunrise on Cascade. Photo: Adam Mertens
“We were able to complete that first section an hour faster than last year. We did a little bit more simul climbing, just by knowing the route better and traveling lighter. So it went super smoothly,” Mertens explained.
Steep terrain on Cascade. Photo: Adam Mertens
From Cascade, Mertens descended into Banff and made his way (with a friend in support) to the next big target, the Rundle traverse. This nearly 25km traverse takes in around 2,500m of elevation gain, includes class 4-5 scrambling with some rappel sections, and requires climbing skills beyond typical trail running.
Mertens (right) catching a break on the Rundle traverse. Photo: Adam Mertens
“I came into Banff feeling really good, really strong. We got to the ridge of Rundle, where we climbed the Rundlehorn. It’s a really classic introductory multi-pitch route that goes at 5.5, so we soloed that.”
By 6 pm, Mertens was on the 2,948m summit of Mount Rundle and charged on into the evening, completing the majority of the traverse alone. At this point, he was around four hours ahead of last year’s marker. He descended off the east end of Rundle to a break in the chain of mountains that envelop the loop, and slept for three hours at Whiteman’s Pond.
Day two: Ha Ling, Big Sister, Wind Ridge, and Grotto
As refreshed as possible after only three hours’ sleep, Mertens headed off into the darkness at 4 am. He was bound for Ha Ling, a 2,407m peak scooped out of the limestone bedrock. Mertens again teamed up with a friend to climb the technical northeast face.
“We simul climbed the majority of the route, pitching out the cracks. It’s a route that I’ve probably done a dozen times. It’s certainly real rock climbing, and I wouldn’t consider being on there solo, but lots and lots of bolts too, which makes it easy to protect and simul climb,” Mertens explained.
Mertens was on the summit of Ha Ling by 7 am. Next, he moved on to Mount Lawrence Grassi and then the three peaks known as the Three Sisters, reaching the most prominent of Big Sister at 12:30 pm.
Mount Lawrence Grassi, 2,685m. Photo: Adam Mertens
“The next section is one of the most miserable, up and over the Big Sister, and then down to Wind Ridge. It’s got some exposed scrambling up the north side of the Big Sister, and some incredibly exposed down climbing,” Mertens reflected.
The terrain didn’t ease up on the next section, known as Rim Wall. “I think it’s on the map as Rim Wall W2, it’s like a sub-peak of the Rim Wall. And it’s probably the part of the whole circuit, to my knowledge, that is the most intimidating. It’s exposed.”
The Big Sister (2,936m) looms ahead. Photo: Adam Mertens
Mertens completed that exposed section solo, including a difficult section of down climbing. “I hope to never have to do it again. I was able to scurry over to Wind Ridge and meet people, and from there, it’s one of the most spectacular trail runs in the Bow Valley, running down off Wind Ridge. Pink Floyd filmed the video for learning to fly on this ridge,” Mertens said.
He picked up a support crew to reach the summit of Wind Ridge by 3:30 pm. “It was really sweet to get to high-five a bunch of different friends and see familiar faces.”
The fact that Mertens was deep in alpine terrain, yet in view of his hometown and everyday life throughout the loop, was not lost on him: “While I’m dancing around on ridge tops for three days, other people are navigating long weekend traffic in the valley, and I’m just oblivious to it.”
A little behind his projected time now, Mertens hared down Wind Ridge, hitting the valley floor to pick up a paddleboard for the Bow Valley River before heading for the next peak, Grotto, named after a grotto-like cave that contains ancient pictographs.
Joined by another friend, Mertens headed up the east ridge of Grotto, hiking, scrambling, and rope climbing to reach the summit an hour before midnight.
Darkness on Grotto. Photo: Adam Mertens
“I had a moment there feeling I had overblown the difficulty of this thing, because everything had, to that point, felt easy. My body felt good. I was having back-to-back long days with my friends in the mountains,” Mertens said.
By 12:40 am on day two, Mertens was down from Grotto and catching another measly three hours of sleep. This would later prove invaluable. “I wasn’t suffering like I felt I should be for how much I had hyped the overall mission. That was coming, but I didn’t know that at the time.”
Day three: closing the loop
Mertens felt fitter than last year’s attempt after a summer of groundwork in the alpine, so he was in good shape for another early start at 5:20 am. He pushed up to the summit of Mount Lady Macdonald (2,606m) in a little under two hours.
“We got to the summit ridge of Lady MacDonald, which is quite iconic. It’s a knife-edge ridge but within the realm of scrambling. A lot of people experience that [route], but to experience it at sunrise with nobody else on the mountain except for some of your closest friends, was pretty special.”
Runnable terrain on Mount Lady MacDonald. Photo: Adam Mertens
He dispatched Mount Charles Stewart peak without issue by 10:30 am, and was down at Carrot Creek on the valley floor not long after midday. “The pack was a little bit lighter, so we could move kind of unencumbered through that last section down to Carrot Creek,” said Mertens.
This was where Mertens stopped a year ago, and here he stood twelve months later with the opportunity to close the loop. Only a few more peaks and a little over twelve hours of travel stood in his way. Most of this section was unknown to him because of wildlife restrictions.
The temperature climbed to 28°C as Mertens tackled Mount Pechee, Girouard, and Inglismaldie. Once again with a friend in support, Mertens skirted the chossy true summit of Pechee, which requires an out-and-back hike, and would break up the continuous line of the loop.
Mertens on Inglismaldie. Photo: Adam Mertens
Too much risk?
The connecting ridge to Mount Girourard (2,995m) was a “technical, beautiful ridge,” leading to scree on the approach to the summit. On descent, Mertens anticipated hard scrambling, but instead he and his teammate were forced to rappel before edging across an unexpectedly exposed ledge above a 1,500m drop.
“It was the point on this whole traverse where I really questioned whether it was worth it. It felt like I had put myself and my partner in a position that was beyond the level of risk that I wanted to take on,” Mertens reflected. “I was able to belay my partner across, and we immediately got hit with [the threat of] lightning, and our heads started buzzing…everything started to buzz.”
Unscathed, Mertens pressed on and reached the final summit on the loop — Inglismaldie — at 9 pm. Next, he descended to Johnson Lake and closed the loop at 12:15 am on September 2. After 70 hours, Mertens was done, his “perfect backyard adventure” complete.
“It had the makings of a really good goal, where the outcome was not guaranteed, where you knew there was going to be compounding fatigue and moments of wanting to quit, and that’s only exacerbated by the fact that you’re in view of your house and the comforts that you have. So it presents a challenge that I think is really unique.”
Mertens’ Bow Valley Cirque pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in the Canadian Rockies — an ambitious linkup blending endurance, technical skill, and risk management. For him, the reward wasn’t just in the finish, but in testing the edge of possibility in the mountains he calls home.
