Yuko and I had some time off, so we headed north of the border for some splitter granite cragging.

Saturday (July 22): we arrived in the late afternoon and headed to the base of the chief where we climbed the Peasant Route (5p 5.10c). This route features 5 pitches of awesome dihedral climbing, and is a bit easy for the grade.




Yuko then led the first pitch of Java Jive, an amazing and slightly heady 5.10d slab, and we went to the brewpub for some dinner!

Sunday:
After a trip to the bakery, we cruised over to the Smoke Bluffs. I tried to climb Fingerlicking Good (11a), but got shut down on the 10c approach pitch, taking two falls before giving up and downclimbing (the crux of this pitch involves some difficult-to-protect liebacking along a seam). So we climbed Easy Does It (2p 10c) which was right next door. This route had decent climbing but was a bit dirty.

Then Yuko led Flying Circus (10a),


and I led Climb and Punishment (10d). This pitch was so good that I cleaned the gear so Yuko could lead it too!


After that I led Partners in Crime (11a fingercrack), which was also awesome so once again I cleaned the gear afterwards for Yuko to lead it.


Those were both challenging but manageable so we went down the cliff to try another 11a called "Short People". I passed what seemed like the crux before hitting a really blank, slabby traverse. I couldn't climb it, and after tensioning off a piece I couldn't climb the next moves either. So I pulled the rope and Yuko tried leading it--she was shut down at the same place. So we bailed off a bolt on an adjacent route, then climbed an adjacent face/slab route "Health Hazard" (10a), which is super fun, to retrieve our bail biner.

Monday:
We felt like climbing a longer route, and decided on Unfinished Symphony, an 8-pitch 11b on the apron which climbs a huge corner system. We simuled the first two pitches of Snake to reach the corner and the start of the business. Several amazingly good, mostly gear-protected 10d thin corner pitches led to a crux 5.11 exit out of the corner. We both took 2 or 3 short falls on this section (falls on closely-bolted slab being subtle, since leaning a tiny bit on the rope can make the climbing much easier). Despite this I felt that we climbed the route in good style, onsighting the rest. This climb is awesome, and surprisingly well protected--probably the third best Squamish route I have climbed after the Grand Wall and Cruel Shoes. Definitely worth checking out!!

pitch 3:


pitch 6:


pitch 7 (crux):


The bolts were shiny and new, with just a few exceptions on easier sections.


Tuesday:
We were psyched for more multipitch, so we racked up and headed toward the base of the Chief to climb Millenium Falcon, a fun-sounding 14p 5.11b. However on passing the climber's bulletin board, I saw that this route was closed until Aug 1 due to raptor nesting!! Not wanting to be known as the idiots who ruined access for everyone else by ignoring a route closure, we headed back to the car and tried to think of something else to do...

...We decided to climb Movin' to Montana (5p 5.11a)...I led the first pitch but unfortunately the route was extremely dirty (on p1's 10d crux I took a 10' fall onto a #0 TCU while deadpointing for a tree growing out of the crack; my footholds consisted of smearing on a tuft of grass and a bunch of pine needles and I had to dig dirt of the crack with my nut-tool to place the TCU). The next pitch looked even dirtier, so from the top of p1 we traversed over to a convenient tree and did a 2-rope rappel to the ground.

So now what...?? We decided to climb something guaranteed to be good, even if it wasn't new to us. So I led Exasperator (2p 10c) as a single 150' pitch, cleaned all the gear and pulled the rope. Then Yuko also led it as a single pitch. Next we climbed Rutabaga (2p 11a). Last year I led the crux pitch, so this time I led the 5.10 opening handcrack and Yuko led the 11a pitch.

Yuko on Rutabaga p2. The route climbs the slanting face crack to the long, thin corner visible at the top of the photo.


Wed:
"Rest day", did some laundry and hung out in town.

Thurs:
In the morning we climbed Centrefold (3p 10b), a fun climb on The Papoose near Shannon Falls with some cracks and some slabby face moves.


In the afternoon Yuko did some errands while my friend Jesse H, who was working in Vancouver for the month, drove up for some cragging. We went to Midnight Rock, where he "warmed up" by leading Sentry Box (5.12a finger crack). I followed and at first I tried his sequence of delicate liebacking and smearing to get past the crux but fell. After he lowered me to a stance I was able to climb through the crux by jamming it directly.

Then I led Perspective (11a), an awesome, pumpy, overhanging hand and finger crack, and Jesse led Claim Jumper (11d). I was able to follow this pitch with one fall (again lowering to a stance) but it felt MUCH harder than Sentry Box. Jesse thought it felt much easier...which reflects the fact that he mostly does face climbing, while I mostly crack climb.

We rounded out the day by toproping Hypertension (11a offwidth). Jesse styled the pitch in about 5 minutes and declared it really soft, feeling more like 10a OW. Then I thrashed more than I ever have attempting to TR the pitch, hanging on the rope almost 10 times. I didn't even climb it since I didn't lower to stances after each fall. It felt impossible to me, so I will need to start focusing more on offwidths!!

Fri:
Yuko and I just weren't feeling psyched on climbing any of the 10d or 11a routes that we had not done yet, we had spent enough time at Squamish that doing these seemed like "more of the same". So we tried hiking in for a 3-star, single pitch 11b. Maybe some harder climbing was what we needed? We tried to get to "Smell of Fat Chick" but the approach in 95 degree heat, in shorts and sandals, through a steep and densely overgrown forest wasn't much fun.

We bailed on this plan, and headed to Nightmare Rock so I could show her the routes Jesse and I had climbed the previous day. The wall had just gone into the shade so it was barely cool enough to climb. We did Sentry Box Lite (10a), I climbed Perspective (11a) again because it's so good, and then we did Red King (10d), a fun face and crack pitch.

It was really hot out, and we just weren't feeling psyched for some reason, so we drove home that evening. We had a few more days off, so we considered doing some local cragging or just going back to work early...

...Fortunately we were able to find a suitable alternative:





Click here for Bugaboos trip report