[TR] Squamish BC - Polaris 8/6/2008

[moss killer]

Trip: Squamish BC - Polaris

 

Date: 8/6/2008

 

Trip Report:

Hi everyone, I haven't posted here for a couple of years so I'm pretty rusty at this (bear with me). I wanted to share photos and a topo of a route that my friend Reuben and I had been working on for three years. We actually completed the first ascent last August (2007), but since there isn't an updated Squamish guide coming out for some time we thought this would be a good way to spread the information. Polaris ascends the Zodiac wall of the Chief on the other side of the North Gully from Angel's Crest. Here are some photos from bottom to top on the FA, enjoy!

 

Kris Wild following the first pitch, 5.10c. You can see the recently rock-scoured North Gully below. [/img]

 

Reuben Shelton starting the steep second pitch 5.11c (5.11a, A0) [/img]

 

Here's Reuben beginning the fourth pitch. Don't worry, it's only 5.10c and you don't need anything bigger than a #4 camalot. After that it's bolted.... Sorry to the purists, but there's probably only a handful of people in the country with a rack big enough for this pitch.

 

This is how big the crack starts out as at the belay:

 

And here's how big it is at the top:

 

Reuben chillin' out on turtle ledge before pitch five. So named for his uncanny ability to always have to take a crap when he got here...

 

Reuben staying serious getting in touch with his inner Ninja after the crux of pitch six, 5.10c.

 

Here I am following the same pitch. I think this is some of the steepest perfect 5.9 hands in Squamish. (But I'm probably biased...)

 

The seventh pitch bears a striking resemblance to Astro-logger, but I think it's easier. 5.11b

 

Pitch eight is is a sport route. 45m of bolted face climbing. 5.11b The roof looks a little daunting from this vantage point!

 

Here's the business: If you weren't tired already, pitch nine is the crux. Here I am stepping into the crack that begins the pitch. It quickly shrinks from hands to a knifeblade seam, which leaves you bear-hugging an arete as you battle up to the rest below the final roof. The Acrophobes of Angel's crest are visible in the background. 5.12a (5.11a, A0)

 

The grand finale, although easier, is the roof just before the belay.

 

Here's Reuben following the crux pitch.

 

Reuben following the last (tenth) pitch. 5.10c

 

Exhausted celebration as we put our three year project to rest!

 

We hope you've enjoyed the pics. Here's a copy of the topo for ya' too. Make lots of copies and hand them around!

 

Thanks for lookin' !

 

Kris

 

 

 

 

 

Approach Notes:

POLARIS

5.12a (5.11b, A0) 10p

FA Kris Wild, Reuben Shelton, August 6, 2007

 

Approach: As for Angel’s Crest. 200m up from the entrance to the North Gully. (100m uphill from the “tree start” to Angel’s Crest) It’s on the left and it’s the only corner.

 

Gear: One set nuts, double set cams up to #2 camalot size, one #3 and 3.5

 

P1. Up right facing corner, past ledge (old belay) up the next corner through roof and out right to belay. 5.10b, 50m (This pitch was originally Nostromo, 5.6, A2, John Manuel, Bruce Fairley, 1982.)

P2. Start left of station and climb into the steep open corner, (pulling on the bolt at the top of the corner will drop the grade to 5.11a) then face climbing and cracks to a large ledge. Watch your rope drag! 5.11c, 55m

P3. Out left past flakes and up a widening crack to the base of THE corner. 5.9, 20m

P4. Up! Exit via the chimney and use the right-hand station to belay. 5.10c, 40m

P5. Scramble up the chimney on the right behind the large pillar, then on top of it and across the balanced boulder. Discontinuous cracks and face climbing lead up and left to a belay beside the main corner. 5.10a, 30m

P6. Tune in to your inner ninja for the puzzling crux entering the corner (or pull on the bolt and skip it, you sissy), up the corner to belay at the cedar tree. 5.10c, 30m

P7. Up the corner passing 2 trees. At the roof, head left past 2 bolts to belay on a ledge. 5.11b, 55m

P8. Face climbing up the white wall, out right to belay. (One #3 camalot optional.) 5.11b, 50m

P9. Step right into the crack. Follow it with increasing difficulty until it is possible to clip a bolt and step left to a ledge. (Pulling on a couple of pieces of gear and the bolt make this about 5.11a.) Traverse up right to a perch below the roof, then pull wild moves through the roof and left to the belay. 5.12a, 30m

P10. Up nice cracks to the final belay. 5.10c, 30m

 

Descent: Either rap the route with 2 ropes or walk up and right the same as for Northern Lights.

 

[marc_leclerc]

dang.. that looks like a super tough route! I've got to try that sometime, thanks for the TR and Topo guys.

[belayerslayer]

great pics! congrats on the great conclusion of your 3 year sojourn!

[AlpineK]

Radical

 

I'll never climb it unless I make it 10c A1 or so, but it is cool.

 

That tree hold on the final roof won't last forever.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Nice lookin route! I was doing Angels Crest a couple weekends ago and I kept looking across the gully at your route thinking how cool it looked! Maybe someday I'll be able to do it. :-)

[Stefan]

thanks for sharing. and yes I did enjoy looking at the pictures.

[Alex]

"but there's probably only a handful of people in the country with a rack big enough for this pitch. "

 

..or balls... Seriously though, nice looking route and great pic there from the last belay.

[kayfire]

"but there's probably only a handful of people in the country with a rack big enough for this pitch. "

 

 

Yeah, not to dis the overall accomplishment (which is impressive—congratulations), but I think that logic is fucked up and sets kind of a poor precedent.

 

It doesn’t follow logically to me, simply because most people don’t have and/or can’t afford a rack big enough to protect a pitch, that it then becomes ok to bolt a gear protectable crack.

[northvanclimber]

there will always be someone who disagrees with your ethics, but to me it looks like you guys did a great job. afterall, it's just climbing, right?

[hafilax]

Looks good although it's a little out of my league at this point. You could post it at squamishclimbing.com too.

[jmace]

Awesome I saw you guys working it last year, is this the route that starts basically directly across from the rappel exscape from Angels crest ?

 

if it is man thats steep stuff

 

Kayfire, precendent...umm pretty sure there are quite a few bolted offwidths in squamish

[asgard]

Well done! Can't wait to find someone to drag me up it.

 

As to the bolted crack thing, we faced the same decision ten years ago when we were putting up Borderline. There's a short off-width section on the fifth pitch that could be protected with giant cams and we had to decide whether to bolt it or leave it for people willing to drag up a giant rack. We opted to put in a couple (three?) bolts. We figured that a lot of people who climbed Borderline would continue up to the top via the upper pitches of Angels Crest, and who wants to haul three giant cams for that full day?

 

Turns out to have been the right decision. The climb gets plenty of traffic, and while we've had lots of folks tell us they appreciate the route, no one has ever complained about the bolts.

 

D

 

 

[jmace]

I love borderline, climbed it for the second time on Saturday and that offwidth, thanks for the bolts (3)! I jammed it both times now im told if I want it to feel 10a I should lieback it..hahaha.

 

Wish you would have put a bolted station on top though, quite cramped quarters.

 

anyways awesome route!!!

[kayfire]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not necessarily questioning these ascensionists’ ethic (haven’t been on the route, so have nothing on which to base an opinion of their bolting decisions). It’s just the generalized notion that bolting something as a matter of convenience rather than necessity is ok, that kind of rubs me the wrong way. What I can’t quite reconcile is the idea that by bolting an off-width, you can save climbers the hassle of hauling up a big rack. True, but then why not just bolt all naturally protectable climbs so that climbers only need to bring draws? That too saves a lot of hassle. At what point does utility justifiably outweigh necessity? Not sure where the line should be drawn. Don’t have an answer.

 

With regard to Polaris—I’m sure it’s a fine route, and those who put it up fine people. Nice work you two—I apologize if I bumped your thread in the wrong direction. Can’t wait to climb your route (and to clip those bolts )!

 

Edited July 11, 2008 by kayfire

[moss killer]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Even the not-entirely positive ones We knew going into it that bolting that pitch would ruffle some feathers, it was inevitable. I appreciate your thoughts on the matter kayfire. Our reasoning was not, however, to "save climbers the hassle of hauling up a big rack". Believe me, you need a pretty big rack to do this route. The fact is, almost no-one has that much big gear. So not only would you be hauling an extra fifteen pounds of monster gear for only that pitch, but you would have to beg/ borrow/ buy/ or steal an assortment of stuff that would be very hard to scare up. For anyone wanting to do it with trad gear the pitch would take about 1 #5 camalot, 2 #6 friends, 2-3 #4 big bros, and 2 of those new #5 big bros. (depending on your comfort level of course)

 

Kris

[marc_leclerc]

has anybody ever told you that you look like Cedar Wright?

[G-spotter]

LOLZ

[marc_leclerc]

seriously.. in the last pic he looks just like Cedar Wright....

[Choada_Boy]

For anyone wanting to do it with trad gear the pitch would take about 1 #5 camalot, 2 #6 friends, 2-3 #4 big bros, and 2 of those new #5 big bros. (depending on your comfort level of course)

 

Or, you could get dumped by your girlfriend and free solo the pitch, a la Pipeline.

[Cairns]

What I can’t quite reconcile is the idea that by bolting an off-width, you can save climbers the hassle of hauling up a big rack. True, but then why not just bolt all naturally protectable climbs so that climbers only need to bring draws? That too saves a lot of hassle. At what point does utility justifiably outweigh necessity?

 

By my calculations, at the #5 Camalot, approximately.

 

I used 2 of those on the so-called Yosemite Crack of Squamish a couple weeks ago, plus several only slightly smaller pieces, and once we work out the system of putting all that stuff in a padded sack at the top of the pitch and tossing it down, it will almost make sense to haul the weight, but only that far. I "know" I did that pitch twice before with nothing larger than a #4 Friend but if 3 bolts appeared on it, it would not be such a tragedy, in my opinion.

 

Thanks for showing us Polaris. It looks like a good hot weather route.

 

I don't know about Cedar Wright, but I think Kris looks like Jim:

 

 

 

 

[akhalteke]

 

Looks like....

[RuMR]

What I can’t quite reconcile is the idea that by bolting an off-width, you can save climbers the hassle of hauling up a big rack. True, but then why not just bolt all naturally protectable climbs so that climbers only need to bring draws? That too saves a lot of hassle. At what point does utility justifiably outweigh necessity?

 

By my calculations, at the #5 Camalot, approximately.

 

I used 2 of those on the so-called Yosemite Crack of Squamish a couple weeks ago, plus several only slightly smaller pieces, and once we work out the system of putting all that stuff in a padded sack at the top of the pitch and tossing it down, it will almost make sense to haul the weight, but only that far. I "know" I did that pitch twice before with nothing larger than a #4 Friend but if 3 bolts appeared on it, it would not be such a tragedy, in my opinion.

 

Thanks for showing us Polaris. It looks like a good hot weather route.

 

I don't know about Cedar Wright, but I think Kris looks like Jim:

 

 

Hey Cairns... I took the wussy method and only used a single big cam (new #5 camalot, i think??) on the yosemite crack to do cerebus...just shoved the thing up in front of me...tr all the way...didn't seem to be too big of a deal to carry it up for that...

 

same with pipeline...two big cams only...a #6 friend, pushed until tipped, then #9 VG and a qd for the bolt...

 

Edited July 14, 2008 by RuMR

[Cairns]

What I can’t quite reconcile is the idea that by bolting an off-width, you can save climbers the hassle of hauling up a big rack. True, but then why not just bolt all naturally protectable climbs so that climbers only need to bring draws? That too saves a lot of hassle. At what point does utility justifiably outweigh necessity?

 

By my calculations, at the #5 Camalot, approximately.

 

I used 2 of those on the so-called Yosemite Crack of Squamish a couple weeks ago, plus several only slightly smaller pieces, and once we work out the system of putting all that stuff in a padded sack at the top of the pitch and tossing it down, it will almost make sense to haul the weight, but only that far. I "know" I did that pitch twice before with nothing larger than a #4 Friend but if 3 bolts appeared on it, it would not be such a tragedy, in my opinion.

 

Thanks for showing us Polaris. It looks like a good hot weather route.

 

I don't know about Cedar Wright, but I think Kris looks like Jim:

 

 

Hey Cairns... I took the wussy method and only used a single big cam (new #5 camalot, i think??) on the yosemite crack to do cerebus...just shoved the thing up in front of me...tr all the way...didn't seem to be too big of a deal to carry it up for that...

 

same with pipeline...two big cams only...a #6 friend, pushed until tipped, then #9 VG and a qd for the bolt...

 

You have better mind/body coordination than I do, perhaps related to having better mind and body.

 

I don't know if I could have survived the extra work of pushing a cam up that thing. However, when I tried to climb past my placements I tended to invert them with my knees. After thinking about it, I would use longer slings and if I were leaving a cam I would put it way back in the crack because there is no reason not to.

 

We did Yosemite Crack to approach Cerberus and then Milk Run to approach Cerberus and then finally walked through the Bulletheads to the top and rapped to it: definitely the way to go!

 

Me on Cerberus was like a retired ball player trying to come back but only hitting .057

 

Next target is Tantalus Wall.

 

And, of course, Polaris.

 

 

[RuMR]

yeah...that polaris looks good...

 

have you done northern lights? I still have to do the top half; but alaskan was awesome!

[Cairns]

yeah...that polaris looks good...

 

have you done northern lights? I still have to do the top half; but alaskan was awesome!

 

There was a short wide crack section (with some bolts) after the enduro pitch, and the last couple pitches were less awesome, and you would again be a better man than I if you climb through the very short bolted 12 face, although I think an alpinist would do as I did and not waste time, there.