A selection of Climbing News, Updates & Info.
I decided to take on the task of producing a new Chief poster with 50 Classic Climbs on it. Back in January(2011) I flew with a photographer who took high resolution images of every section of the walls. Tim (the photographer) compiled all of the images into one giant montage of the chief. It total we used about 300 images; this allowed us to keep the sharpness of images so you can see individual crack systems, flakes and even a few belays. We then overlaid 50 Classic Squamish climbs, with belays, routes numbers, names, grades and pitches. The whole image was cleaned up by removing, roads, power lines etc.We then found a printer that could maintain the resolution and printed it as large as he would allow without losing quality. The end result hopefully will get the approval of the Squamish climbing community. There are two climbers on one of the routes…good luck finding them. http://www.50classicsquamishclimbs.com/
All the major climbing retailers in Squamish, Whistler and Vancouver are now carrying the poster. Please take a look and any feed back is welcome.
Living in Squamish when the rock is dry is a climbers paradise but ask anyone who has visited as weather can really test the patience of an avid rock climber. During the winter months the campsites are empty and the locals only dash out between rain storms to run a few laps on whatever is dry. The full time climbers leave and head south to Bishop, Heuco or if finances allow to a winter in Thailand, China or Europe; but those of us with full time family commitments can’t just up and leave. The question becomes how do we escape the winter blues? The way to really enjoy a west coast winter is to embrace everything it throws at you and remember that springs comes soon enough.
Before becoming obsessed with climbing I was equally obsessed with skiing, with Whistler only 45 minutes away I can head up the hill on powder days. After numerous ski seasons in the Alps and living in Whistler for years I found my passion for laps on the mountain waning. I also find the whole experience skiing on the hill to be totally different from a day in the mountains, or a day on the face of the Chief. It feels like Disney land with expensive egos flying around. Time to eject from the SUV rat race and really enjoy a Canadian winter.
I have been heading out during the cold spells dry tooling or ice climbing and mixing in the odd day of ski touring. I headed out with Jean to Marble Canyon a few weeks back after spending a few days in the bluffs. I tried a route called Frozen Zombie which goes at M8 but is rarely formed as Squamish is so very mild. I was stoked to climb it clean and that gave me confidence in the brand new tools, boots and crampons I tried out for the first time that day. Marble Canyon is about 3.5 hours away but consistently stays cold so the ice forms and stay for most of the winter. We headed out and had the place to our selves. Jean has ton of experience climbing ice and has just taken his guides course, he passed with ease. That meant I was the rookie and essentially clueless. When we arrived I wanted to be an equal partner as I have bigger goals in the mountains and need as much time on the sharp end as much as possible. Jean offered to lead the first pitch and I refused; time to step up. I tied in, took all his screws and proceeded to battle my way to the top, my technique was awful and I wasted a ton of energy with poor foot work, placing too many screws and being far to gentle with the tools. I climbed the pitch clean but came down feeling like I was miles away from the way I move over rock. Jean ran a lap and as he went I watched his technique, we moved the rope over and Jean corrected my foot work and tool use. It was like night and day the second lap was secure, comfortable and completely un-pumpy!
He then preceded to tell me my first ice lead was WI5, which is not normally a complete rookie lead. I looked over at the mulch-pitch Icy BC and decided that it could not be that bad. 1 hour later we had swapped leads up the route and better still I started singing and laughing inside my head as I swung from placement to placement. We finished the day off with a few more WI5 pitches and a mixed route which finished on thin WI6 ice. I was hooked and wanted more. Two weeks later after a few ski touring days, thanks Paul. Jean and I decided ski tour up North Joffre Creek to try an unrepeated line put up next to the mouses tooth. We ski toured in for about 4 hours but the chimney was not formed and had deadly mushrooms hanging in the middle. We ended up trying some of the other ice lines we had skied past in the morning. Sometime you don’t get what you came for but at least we tried. It was an amazing day with a solid partner who is always keen to head off on a random mission. Here are a few shots of ice climbing at Marble, ski touring and an alpine mission to Joffre. How do i keep the winter blues away? Embrace everything winter has in BC has to offer.
