Yuko and I decided to challenge ourselves a bit by climbing Freeway. We weren't sure if we were ready for the route, since neither of us has led a single pitch at Squamish harder than 5.11a...whereas the majority of the pitches on Freeway are harder than that (although we have led mid 5.11 gear routes at other areas so the route wasn't completely unreasonable as an objective). In any case, waiting around and talking about the route was getting old so we decided to just go for it!

Freeway is amazingly sustained: out of 9 pitches total, 7 are rated 5.11 and 2 are 5.10. We led in blocks, which made the climbing much more manageable. The route was a blast, and was a great challenge! We both took a few falls, but we both free-climbed the entire route (lowering to stances after falls) and onsighted ~95% of the climbing. I would like to come back some time for a fully clean ascent, although that would be difficult to pull off with the multiple cruxes.

On Saturday we climbed Milk Run as a warm-up (4p 5.10d A0). (The beautiful corner pitches are the real reason to do the route, so we aided through the two 5.11d moves encountered on the traversing approach pitch.)

Milk Run Pitch 3 (10b):

Milk Run Pitch 4, amazingly sustained fingerlocks, liebacking and stemming. (Rated 10d but felt like 11a):

On Sunday we went for Freeway:

Following the Daylight Crack (10a hands/fists/offwidth):

"The Fifth Wheel" (11b lieback). A party is visible above in the main dihedral, with the roofs at upper left.

Fortunately the roof pitch was super well protected, because it's really strenuous! I took several falls before figuring out a good sequence for the V4 boulder-problem at the first roof, and also fell at the second roof, which was also bouldery and cruxy.

Yuko following the roof pitch (5.11c/d):

The next pitch (11a) was the best on the entire route: a ridiculously exposed traverse over the lip of the roof, with 500 feet of air below!

Here's a short video of Yuko leading this pitch (40 MB avi file)

After turning the corner, the traverse eased into spectacular face climbing on heavily featured granite.

From here, two long pitches up the Express Lane finish led to the summit. The original finish, which includes an unprotected 5.10a squeeze chimney, is partially visible to the right.

Psyched after an awesome day of climbing, we walked down the easy and scenic descent, already starting to think about the future possibilities. It definitely pays to push your comfort zone sometimes!