Squamish (June 24-25, 2006)

The week after I got back to Seattle from Fras’ wedding I was really busy at school finishing off a chip for a tapeout deadline. By the end of the week I was sick of stinkin’ transistors and I decided to reward myself with some world class granite. Ryan, Jeremy and I loaded up Ryan’s VW bus ‘Maggie’ and made a beeline north to the vaunted recreation capital of Canada. Upon arriving in Squamish, Jeremy and I headed into the Grand Wall forest to do some bouldering, and Ryan met up with Jesse to do some long and hard multipitch route on the Chief. Jeremy and I started out on some warmup stuff near Easy in an Easy chair since Jeremy wanted to get on that. He met with limited success, so we moved on to Superfly which he also wanted to try. There we met some guy who was drinking and smoking in between his bouts of failure on the problem, and he loved talking and was pretty annoying, so I was pretty happy once Jeremy conceded defeat on another of his targets and we moved on. We then headed over to a problem that I wanted to get on called Stinger (V6). I had been on it a few weeks earlier and it had been super fun, so I wanted to try it again. After refiguring out the beta with some insights from Jeremy, I regained my high point from the last session, but was still unable to pull the crux move. It was fun though, and I swore to come back and get on it again [Editors note: I was on it again the next weekend and did way better, twice climbing through all the crux moves only to fall unexpectantly when I slipped on the stinkin’ easy topout. What a nightmare. Oh well, I’ll send it next time].

From there we moved on to the Heartbreak Hotel area, where Jeremy had a few goes on the namesake V2 but decided it was a bit too committing for his liking, in view of the less than ideal landing and the way I kept yelling “Spot’s Off!” whenever he got to the crux (har har har, just kidding on the last reason). So we went over and tried TradKiller, a really good V4 in the area. Jeremy came super close to sending it, and I for some reason could not resend it, but we had a lot of fun. Here is a photo of Jeremy on the opening moves:

We then moved on, and I have been on a quest to find undiscovered (to me) classics, so we tried a V4 called Little Buckaroo. It’s too bad Ryan was there to see me send a problem that was named after him, but his disdain for “pebble wrestling” doesn’t allow him to enter the Grand Wall forest unless it is to march straight past the phenomenal bouldering and climb something on the big stone. Anyways, I ended up sending Little Buckaroo which the guide described as a short and strenuous sandbag, and it was actually pretty fun. Here is a photo of me emerging over the lip:

We then headed over to the Ride the Lightning area and checked out some stuff, and ended up going and trying a V4 called Participaction. It was super fun, it had almost no chalk on it so we had to figure out all the moves. It ended up having an awesome lockoff on a really sharp crimp, and I sent it after a number of tries, giving everything, maybe even a little bit more to pull the crux. Here is a photo of me in the middle of the crux lockoff on the crimp:

Man, that was so awesome! We then moved on and went by Mantle Madness and some other stuff but didn’t climb it, and then, funnily enough, who walked up but Martin! He had just arrived in Vancouver a day or two ago, driving from Ontario, he didn’t even have a place to live and hadn’t eaten all day, but he came up to meet up for some bouldering! It was super lucky that he found us. We did Bo Jo Jones (V3), and then we headed to the Mantis (V4) which has maybe the most fun single move in all of Squamish bouldering. Martin and I dispatched this (Martin with much more ease than me), here is a photo of him slamming the crux:

We then moved to the other side of the boulder and tried the Titanic (V3). This is a rad problem, but pretty hard for me, and no send even though this picture makes it look like I am on my way to sending:

After this we went and tried another fun V4 called Frequency Modulation that I came really close to sending, but was a little too worked. Jeremy did a pseudo send, topping out early for a grovel up a slab instead of the crux reach across of the proper topout. I think he really wanted to meet his goal of climbing his first V4, but I called him on it, “NO SEND!!!”. Some people have no scruples. So if he tells you he has sent a V4, ask him if it was in Squamish. If he says yes, then yell “NO SEND!!!” and run away. By this point we were pretty tired, so we went and sat in the parking lot and played war (the highly engaging card game) while waiting for Ryan and Jesse to get back so we could go eat yam fries at the Brew Pub.

The next day Jeremy went out with Josh and Iea (spelt totally wrong) to do some trad in the Smokies, and Ryan, Jesse and myself headed to Murrin for some sport at the Petrifying Wall. We started on Zoe, a 5.10a that was on Jesse’s tick list. It was fun, then we did a good 5.11b called Food Frenzy. Next we did a 5.11a that was super steep on huge jugs, called the Right Stuff. Here is a photo of me launching out on the roof section:

I got pumped and had to hang, so no send, I’ll have to come back to it. Jesse and I finished on the classic 5.11a Pleasant Pheasant, and Ryan finished by sending his Project du Jour, a 5.12c called Animal. Here is a photo of Ryan on this climb:

We then went for a swim in the lake before driving back to Seattle. It was a great weekend, and I would be back for more the following weekend (but I didn’t take enough photos for it to merit a trip report).