Ice Climbing Adventure: Waterfall Challenge

The Ice Experience initiative is crafted to enable individuals of every skill level to try out the thrilling activity of waterfall ice climbing. Our mentors are exceptional teachers, proficient climbers, and enjoyable company. They possess top-level accreditation from ACMG/IFMGA, offering you the comfort and security of being in capable hands.

Duration: 7 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Grassi Lakes Trail - The Ice Experience programs are designed for you to experience the exciting sport of waterfall ice climbing in the Canadian Rockies.
    You will go to a local frozen waterfall, learn the basic skills, and quickly be off the ground swinging ice tools and climbing! Icefall location may vary.
    This program is suitable for complete…
What's Included
  • All climbing gear provided, including helmet, harness, ice tools, crampons, and climbing boots
  • Guided by Professional Mountain Guides certified by ACMG/IFMGA
What's Not Included
  • Private transportation
  • Lunch
Location
229 Bear St
Bear Street
Meet your guide at the Alpine Air Adventures office located at 229 Bear St on the lower level, under the movie theatre. You will need your own transportation to the climbing site.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
3.0
(10 Ratings)
5 stars
4 stars
3 stars
2 stars
1 star
Tim_c
Feb 5, 2025
Frigid Ice Climbing - Was a fun afternoon, Nolan was an excellent guide! Worked hard in the extreme cold. I feel like the climb should have been rescheduled with the forecast for extreme cold. It was -24 Celsius, too cold for anyone to really enjoy, so the day was cut short. Overall, would love to do it again with slight warmer weather. Again highly recommend our guide Nolan.
Review provided by Viator
Lauren_h
Apr 1, 2024
Awesome experience worth the $ - We were total beginners to ice climbing when we booked this tour with Shea. He was an excellent teacher, and we felt very safe with him. During the activity we got a say in the location we wanted to try, and hiked about 20mins to our ice wall near Johnston Canyon. We learned belaying and how to tie the knots and then strapped in for our climbs! It was truly exhilarating making it to the top & completing the wall. Such a unique experience that we’ve been talking about for days after. Highly recommend and totally worth the money!
Review provided by Viator
D3422vusarahb
Mar 7, 2024
Best staff ever - I stumbled across the office for Alpine Air and popped in to see what they had to offer. The guys could not have been more friendly, personable and professional. They humoured me asking a million questions and steered me both away from things that I wasn’t able to do and helped me find a suitable activity. They never pushed a sale which I found reassuring. The day before my booked ice climbing I injured myself and emailed them to advise. Once again, they was beyond helpful with advice on where to go to get medical help in Banff. I am so grateful for your kindness and help Richard and will be back!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Gregnr8403yb
Jan 14, 2020
High adventure fun - We were on a trip guided by Maarten. He was an excellent guide who not only taught us ice climbing, he also shared all kinds of mountaineering knowledge with us and was happy to answer all of our questions. He provided a high adventure experience while never compromising safety. A true pro and really nice guy. The overall operation was extremely professional and the condition and quality of the climbing gear was top notch!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Robert_j
Mar 16, 2025
Low-key, but memorable experience - Awesome experience. It was a one-and-done for us, and we don’t feel the need to do it again, but would recommend it for anyone in search of adventure. We (and others) had a hard time finding the office, which is in the bottom floor of an indoor mall. We had to coordinate getting a ride to the climbing site, which wasn’t announced in advance. It worked out, but was a little stressful not knowing how that was going to work out. The guides got everything set up and helped us get climbing! Good for a beginner experience, even better for people with some climbing experience.
Review provided by Viator
Ok_bison12
Jan 5, 2022
Great guide. Horrible refund policy! Find another service. - Look for another service. Our guide was great, but their refund policy is horrible! No refund within 3 weeks of service doesn’t work during COVID and flight cancellations. One of our kids got COVID, so my wife and her didn’t make trip. No refund! We got refund on lift tickets. We got refund on ski rentals. During COVID and dealing with cancelled flights you need a more flexible refund policy for your family. Don’t select Alpine.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
D4032ofcarolinem
Feb 28, 2025
A waste of time and money!! - I was excited for this outing originally as it was $225 for the one day of climbing, which I thought was honestly a good deal for a full day out with all gear included. 2 weeks after being home though, I learned that while at the site of the climb, I incurred a $180 parking ticket. There is nowhere on the website, nor was it stated in the final logistics email, that where we would be going required another version of a parks pass to be parked on this land (which, after researching, I found out is only $15/day). I emailed AAA about getting reimbursed for this ticket (as it's ridiculous that I paid almost as much in a parking ticket as I did for the whole outing itself) and received a response from someone named Richard saying the guides have many things to think about beforehand and likely just assume people have the necessary parks passes for the areas they're visiting since they don't know where people are coming from and that it was the fault of the parks to not educate visitors or have signs/kiosks to pay for the pass. This is basically complete bs because we didn't even know where we were going until we showed up to the office the day of the outing to sign waivers and get some of our gear. Maybe I am just extremely disgruntled but I think it's, in a way, negligent to live near/guide frequently in these areas and then knowingly not tell clients about extra parks passes they may need in certain areas and then take absolutely zero accountability for not informing said clients and instead blaming it on the lack of education provided by a provincial/regional parks entity. Maybe AAA is fine for the or other guided outings, but this feels like a big F you to someone who signed up for a one day course just looking for a simple, full day outing. I really didn't even enjoy the day out either. Braeden, our guide, didn't bother learning my name and kept calling me "he" - when I am, fortunately or unfortunately a female, despite my deep voice! - all day which was just more annoying than anything but is something that would have taken minimal effort to have. Additionally, Braeden provided little to zero education on gear and its uses or techniques to help actually climb vertically on the ice. Fortunately I'd already had a few days of ice climbing in Colorado in December and received great teaching so I wasn't going into the experience blind, but we had two guys in the group with absolutely zero climbing experience and they had zero clue what to do and Braeden didn't really provide any pointers to them during the few times he was watching. Granted, there were 7 of us and 1 of him and I think having another guide would've made the experience more enjoyable and educational if he didn't have to worry about the safety of 7 people, but I still felt like the day was lacking in terms of these things. Braeden was very nice and I don't think purposely was mean or didn't provide pointers, etc., but when working for a guiding company, I would expect that to be more of a standard rather than an extra thing that clients would hope for. Again, maybe I'm just extra miffed about now being out an extra $180, but I would not recommend booking through this company unless they can learn to be more transparent and accountable or you have time to do enough research about all possible destinations and passes required for those possible destinations, in addition to coming with prior knowledge of how to use gear/get vertical on ice.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Erikk790
Feb 10, 2025
Left with nasty fine - Went for a day of ice climbing, the location we were taken to required a permit which our guide didn't inform of us. We were left with a $256 fine. Contacted apline air who said they would do nothing about this
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Edward_k
Dec 31, 2024
Bad customer service. - They don’t answer their phone or provide any customer service whatsoever. Better options available, or just go on your own.
Review provided by Viator
Shomaha
Mar 28, 2024
Worst experience ever. - If anyone is planning on signing up for this tour, definitely don't.Their refund policy is the worst I have ever experienced.I could not take this tour because I did not have my ski jacket with me.They may say you agreed to their refund policy when you book, but first of all it doesn't say that ski jackets are required.Plus, they said they have all the climbing equipment they need.All.Thus, the refund should have gone through under normal circumstances, but it did not, because the problem was on their end rather than my error.They are no different than a scam group.
Review provided by Tripadvisor