Bridal Veil Falls is a two-pitch WI3 located just off the Icefields Parkway between the Weeping Wall and Parker Ridge. Dan and I climbed it while we were spending two weeks in Lake Louise on an ice climbing trip. We stayed in our RV in the campground. This gave us great access to the climbs on the Icefields Parkway.
This climb seemed a little less well known than some of the other WI3s in the area and we weren’t planning to do it. But we met a couple of guys from Jasper, with a lot of experience in the area, when we climbed Meltout a few days before and they recommended this one. We put it on our list.
On February 1, 2026, we drove out to the Weeping Wall to do Snivelling Gully. Some warm days leading up to this had made it very thin. When we saw it, we decided to drive up and take a look at Bridal Veil Falls instead.
There is parking in a large pullout at the top of a hill. You can’t see the ice from the road but if you get out of the car and hike up onto the large snow banks at the back of the parking area, you can look across the narrow valley and see the second pitch on the far side.
When we saw this, we had to go for it.
Beta:
- WI3
- 2 pitches
- 2-bolt anchors at the top of each pitch
- descent: rappel the route
- we used two 60 meter ropes but we would have been fine with our single 70 meter rope
Access
Driving up the Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise, the parking for the climb is up the hill after the big bend in the highway. The map below shows the big bend and Parker Ridge on the left. The hike to the climb is the bright orange line.
The Approach
The map below shows the hike from the parking lot to the climb. The trail leaves the parking lot on the far right side (as you’re facing away from the road).
We started by hiking up onto the snow bank at the edge of the parking lot.
We quickly spotted the well worn path. This follows the summer trail and a trail sign shows where to enter the trees. Here the sign is circled in pink.
We followed the trail to the sign.
It says that Bridal Veil Falls is only 0.4 km but we followed the path to Panther Falls first and then to Bridal Veil Falls. We ended up going about 0.7 km to the start of Bridal Veil Falls.
Behind the sign, the trail dropped steeply into the woods.
The path traversed the hillside below the parking area.
Eventually it arrived at Panther Falls, a WI4.
On this day, there was a lot of water running through the middle and it looked pretty thin. The recent warm days seemed to have deteriorated it.
At Panther Falls, the path turned down the valley to follow the creek.
We crossed the creek and followed the path down the left side of the creek, eventually entering the trees.
The Climb
The first pitch of Bridal Veil Falls came into view.
This turned out to be a shorter, warm up pitch for the magic above. It started with some steep step-like ice and got smoother and steeper above.
Dan led this first pitch and I followed. As I came over the top, I saw Dan was set up at one of the two bolted anchor stations. The other one is on the right side of the photo just to the left of the tree on the lower ledge. The second pitch is in the background.
Once at the anchor, we picked up the rope and hiked up the hill to the base of the second pitch.
This photo is looking down the hill from the base of the second pitch. The first pitch is out of sight below.
The second pitch looked amazing. I couldn’t wait to climb it. I was really excited to lead.
I picked out a line up the middle that I thought would go really well. At first, it didn’t look more challenging then other WI3s we’ve done, like Meltout.
The side view gives a better indication of how steep it really was.
Another view from the side, showing the snow cone at the bottom and the steeper sections above.
Here I am at the top of the snow cone with a lot of climbing left to do above me. At this point, I still hadn’t realized how steep that top part would feel.
As I moved into the more vertical section, I found it very challenging. It was a lot steeper than any WI3 I had climbed before.
But I took my time and made sure each placement was solid. I made my way up to a bulge at the very top. It felt awkward and I paused to consider the best foot and tool placements. I was a bit nervous as I considered where to go. Dan called up to remind me to protect the bulge. It was the perfect suggestion! I placed a high screw and moved up with confidence.
When I first looked at the climb from across the valley, I thought we might have to climb up the final narrow bit of ice and it looked a bit sketchy.
We noticed that there are footsteps in the snow up to the rock face on the left and not above. We figured there must be an anchor there.
When I topped out, I found the 2 bolt anchor where the pink arrow is pointing in the photo.
This is how it looked as I hiked across from the top out. I was feeling pretty triumphant as I made my way across the ledge to the anchor.
The anchor was two bolts connected with some old pieces of cordellette and a quicklink. We added a new piece of cordellette and rappelled from the quicklink.
Dan wanted to lead the pitch so once we were on the ground, I put him on belay. I climbed it again, this time on second as he brought me up.
The rappel was super fun too. Here I’m clowning around, putting my foot up on a large icicle.
We hiked back down to the lower anchor station and rappelled the first pitch. The hike out was quick and we headed back to Lake Louise to celebrate. This one felt really good to have completed. It was my most challenging lead yet and got me feeling like a WI4 was not too far away.
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