Brewer's Buttress,Castle Mountain Limestone Most of the climbing in the Rockies is on limestone. Limestone varies from astoundingly good to astoundingly bad. The slabs at the Guide's Rock, just north of Banff, for example, are as clean and solid as the best granite. On the other hand, many alpine routes, especially those which see little traffic, can be frighteningly loose. Limestone frequently appears in alternating bands of hard and soft rock, which explains the classic nature of cliff alternating with rubble ledges as seen on Rundle, Castle, Alberta, Temple, etc.
Quartzite tends to be steep, blocky, and split by clean horizontal and vertical cracks.
Climbing is typically on clean, in-cut holds or good jam cracks, and protection is easy to come by. Quartzite on alpine routes, however, can be loose, and there have been several near-misses at Lake Louise. Don't attempt to climb quartzite when it's wet - it can be surprisingly slippery. Shale Y ou may also encounter shale in places. Not much you can do about this stuff except avoid it or try and drive long thin knife blades into it.