Squamish Pt. 1 - Falling in Love and Bumming Belays

Every time I return to Squamish it's as though I am seeing the place with entirely new eyes. This time it hit pretty hard. As soon as I drove past Murrin Park on the sea to sky, and the highway began to drop into the Squamish valley, revealing the Chief front and center, with Mt. Garibaldi poking its stunning triangular peak behind it, my jaw dropped. I must have seen this granite dome a hundred times before, but with a new perspective its grandeur was no longer deniable. It stunned me truly. I needed to touch granite immediately. I drove straight to the smoke bluffs parking lot. My first task was to get more comfortable with my newly reslung trad rack (inherited from Richard, see earlier post). Wandering around the smoke bluffs I practiced placing my gear in low cracks, and then loaded it with some aid equipment and did some testing of each piece to make sure these relics were still bomber. They were (apart from one old friend that had a bit of a kinked cable which I opted to retire). Bored and satisfied with my gear, I began exploring the climbing areas, navigating with Kevin Mclane's 1992 Squamish guide book. I had inherited it from Richard, and liked the idea of learning what has changed in the area. I got lost quite a bit, and many obviously developed areas were put up after the book. I wanted to try to find zombie roof, a wild looking 5.13a roof finger crack that Will Stanhope had soloed in an inspiring youtube video. It was much more epic than I imagined.

Zombie roof behind me

Eager to do some actual climbing, I headed to the burgers and fries crag, and asked a group of two highschoolers if they could give me a quick couple belays on top rope on some of the slab routes that they were working on. The friction slab was a rude intro to squamish granite. Relying on nothing but little crystals for feet on a 5.7 gave me a quick kick in the butt. 

Feeling burdensome, I thanked the two for the belays and wandered off. Below the neat and cool wall, I found a super cool and short 5m finger crack that looked very inviting to solo/boulder. When does bouldering -> soloing? If you are bouldering without crashpads are you soloing? I don't want to anger the rock police, so I'm gonna call it bouldering. 

the crack in mind

Bro has to piss 😂

Being my first finger crack on granite (I've trained finger crack technique at Cafe Bloc), and it being high enough that I would probably twist an ankle or something if I fell near the top, I brought a couple nuts and an etrier, that I could plug in the crag and rest on if I was close to falling. The crux was moving from the left undercling crack into the splitter finger crack, it was a pretty sweet climb. 

With dark approaching I got in my truck and drove to Chateau Walmart for a goodnight's rest. I really did miss my home on wheels, it's got a lot of charm.

Next morning was a beauty day. Bluebird sun and warm temps had me super stoked to do a longer day of climbing. Again, short on partners, as the guy I had plans on climbing with that very morning bailed on me last minute, I decided to drive over to the parking lot and see if I can hop in with a group. Waiting, and reading my book, I eventually saw a friendly group of three making their way towards the trailhead. Quickly I pounced. "Hey, uhhh, would you guys fancy a fourth person to climb with today?" "Hell ya man" "yahoo!"

I speedily threw my rack and various pieces of gear into my pack and a piece of banana bread and announced myself ready to go. They were a great group of folk, Will, Meg, and Maddy, all squamish locals, and super stoked. Meg and Maddy had just returned from a climbing trip to El Potrero Chico which sounded pretty rad; and Will was an adventure filmmaker and rock guide. We began at the Neat and Cool crag, and I quickly hopped on my first real finger crack in Squamish on top rope, Flying Circus, which felt friggen awesome. Afterwards I followed Will over to Kangaroo Corner, where he lead a brave 11a finger crack on gear. It looked difficult, but I was proud to have seconded it on top rope after some great beta. I mentioned to him that I was super bummed that my trad leading course had been cancelled because of the rain, and funnily enough he mentioned that if it had gone through, he very well could've been the one instructing that course. Kindly, he then offered to do a quick couple supervised leads with me, and show me a thing or two on placing gear and building trad anchors. We went over to a couple short 5.7 and 5.9 cracks, and he supervised me as I lead them both. It was super helpful having his guidance one on one, probably better than the actual course, where I would have to share the lessons with other climbers, how lucky was I! 

Hot and sweaty, I drove down the Squamish estuary to find somewhere to relax and be by the water. I stopped and walked down through beautiful grassy marsh onto the estuary riverside. With incredible views of the chief and Mt. Garibaldi, I did some doodling and writing, feeling deeply peaceful. 

The chief in background

Mt. Garibaldi

Cool log that a beaver chewed through

Stoked for more climbing, the next morning I met a guy named Lucas off facebook at Murrin Park. We didn't get too much climbing in, as a lot of the spots we hiked to turned out to be a little wet, but I lead Zoe (10a) which was an incredible climb, and got another trad lead in the books on a 5.8! 

On top of "Zoe"

After that, in the early afternoon, I met Mica at the adventure center, who had just arrived in Squamish from Montreal! It was super exciting catching up on our respectively busy last weeks, and we headed over to the estuary for a swim to cool off from the heat. It was much more cold than I anticipated, and I cautiously waded in as she dove right on into the water. Still not very brave, and pretty cold, I shakily dipped down. The water was an instant rush, and it just felt so good being out in this beautiful place, with so many things to look at, in the sun. We spent the rest of the time drying off on a log, and studying the chief, pointing out the apron, its buttress, the grand wall, etc. It felt great to be out there. Needing to get to her work at a camp half an hour down the squamish valley road for orientation day, we loaded back into my truck. Squamish valley road is likely my favourite drive in BC. It meanders through overhanging green canopy, and then opens up with views of massive alpine and glaciated peaks, like that of Alpha and Omega mountains. It really is special.

Ossa Mountain

 Saying goodbye I dropped her off and headed back in to town, where I was going meeting my good friend Rebecca to climb (again) in the smoke bluffs! Stoked in the parking lot, we caught up on each others happenings, and I showed off my new climbing gear. We head into the bluffs after a little while, and went straight for the slab in burgers and fries! Rebecca, being a slab master, ran up a blank 5.10a on top rope faster than I could pull through slack on my ATC. I followed, and while I struggled on a particularly friction-y section, I began to hear a voice to my left, "Find a good crystal to your right, step on it. Than keeping bumping up your left leg all the way to the top. You got it kid." I flick my head over, and see right next to me, an older guy in jean shorts, joint in mouth, soloing up the slab.

He keeps talking, and mentions that he's drunk 5 tall boys, and in combination with a joint, was feeling a little "loose." Wondering what it would be like if he were to fall right then, with his last words being "I'm pretty fucked up," I let him focus, and continued on climbing. Once he topped out, which was much faster than I, I asked if he now fancied a 6th beer. He told me not yet, but at the bottom, and then proceeded to downclimb the friction slab. This was something else. Dropping his weight onto these tiny crystals made me cringe, but it was clear this wasn't his first rodeo. 

*take note of joint in mouth

After cleaning the route at the top, and doing the walk around, I met Rebecca at the bottom who was being told more stories by the animated soloist. One story she later repeated to me was about the time he fell off of the popular climb, Penny Lane, while simul-soloing up with a friend. Decking on the ground, he broke 11 bones. He went on, saying that after just 11 days in the hospital, he left, and went back to Penny Lane to solo it clean. Why? Because he was "afraid of being afraid." So when people tell him, "Man you are fearless," he replies, "How can I be? I am afraid of being afraid," before wandering off. And that was my first encounter with the famous "Beercan Al" as I later found out his name to be. 

Satisfied with our painful toes from the precise footwork, and ready to contemplate this encounter, we moved on to the Neat and Cool wall. We hiked around, and Rebecca set up a top rope anchor for me to rap down off to try the cool overhanging route. I placed a cheeky directional piece on my way down and we were in business! I headed up first, and thoroughly enjoyed the initial pumpy overhang, into the teccy slab. Rebecca finished it off!

Rebecca making a stem move on the overhang

Heading back to the cars we talked about the soloist we saw earlier. As badass as it seemed, I was questioning the reasoning. It was clear he was putting on a show, and his unprovoked mention of being pretty fucked up made it obvious to me that he wasn't soloing for himself. I wondered if he just hung out at the crag all the time, waiting for green-looking climbers like myself to wow with his exploits and intoxication. I think of soloing as such a pure and intimate experience to be had in nature, doing something you love, in the presence of the ultimate consequence. His soloing seemed somewhat facetious. But then again, he's probably been doing this for 40 years, while the only "soloing" I've done is above crash pads, and a romp up burgers and fries is probably little more than a rung ladder for him. Oh, the people to meet in Squamish! So many stories to be told