Matthew Carroll

Nobody was paid to go cleaning, nor was gas, the van Jeff bought to work on the project, or anybody's personal gear (or snacks) covered. The air compressor was $400 second hand, used to blow dirt out of cracks and off the climb in huge quantities (saving hundreds of hours of scrubbing), and is being donated to the access society. What cost lots of money was the heavy lifting hardware, four rap racks which all had the sets of bars replaced numerous times due to abrasion wear, and rope, of which the project went through far more than was expected due to damage in the process of cleaning. There is also a series of 7 rap stations from the top of pitch 4 to the ground (away from the route), so that the first 4 pitches can still be climbed all season, during the falcon closures. As for the funding, it's worth noting first that Jeff is entitled to spend his own money as he sees fit - which is what he did, and where the vast majority of the money came from. Some people spend $100,000 on a car, which is of no benefit to anybody. Others, for whatever reason, spend money on something which will be of a lot of benefit to beginner climbers. The rest of the donations were given by people or organisations specifically to the Europa project, because they supported the idea. Hamish Mutch, one of the first ascensionists, who was a VOC member in the '60s, has now given his blessing to the renaming of the modern line. My understanding is that the new Climbers Guide to Squamish will still credit the first ascent to Hamish and Dick Culbert for the original "Crap crags" line, but also include a mention of how the modern line came to be developed. Personally, I think that's exactly how it should be. As for the injured climber, that was me. I put in a significant number of cleaning trips over the last year. Probably 200+ hours work, although still far, far less than Jeff. We finished removing the last of the hardware, fixed lines, and the compressor from the lower pitches last Sunday night, and were rather too keen to climb it in its finished state on Monday. We were both tired from the heavy work the night before, and I slipped on an easy move on pitch 2, after already having lead the crux, and fell onto a ramping ledge system. I was beat up, but otherwise fairly lucky, with just a badly sprained wrist, sore ass, and cuts and bruises. We self-rescued by escaping off climber's right to the rap station at the top of Rutabaga and down from there. Personally I think Europa is a fantastic project. I have yet to climb it bottom-to-top but I've been on the route dozens of times, and climbed parts of it. Some of the climbing that was hiding beneath the vegetation and debris is great for the grade, in a wonderful location. Don't take my word for it though, please, climb it and decide for yourselves. A topo and full route description are now available on the updated page on the VOC wiki: http://www.ubc-voc.com/wiki/Europa Matthew