Val Zephyr Posted June 8, 2011 Posted June 8, 2011 Trip: The Chief - Calculus Crack/Memorial Crack/Squamish Buttress Date: 6/4/2011 Trip Report: Jasmine and I climbed the Chief: taking a line up Calculus Crack, Memorial Crack and Squamish Buttress. This line combined 14 pitches of great climbing to reach the first peak of the Chief. Route shown below in green: We had been planning this trip for over a month. After climbing at Leavenworth with Jasmine we decided that we’d make a good team for a longer outing such as the Chief. We set aside the weekend of the 4th and 5th of June as our climb date, being weather contingent of course. I had little hope of this actually working out, being June in the PNW, but figured we’d give it a shot. As the date approached the weather seemed to be lining up perfectly for the weekend, the only problem was the lingering rain on Thursday. Worried about seeping cracks on the Chief, I became a little obsessed with the web cams in the area. Here’s what the Chief looked like just before we left on Thurs. Eeew. We drove up and hoped for the best. Friday was morning was wet, really wet. We tried the “fast drying crags” only to find them slimy. We hiked up the Chief via the well-maintained tourist trail instead. There is quite a view from the top. It was cool thinking that we might be able to gain this much elevation in one day by just pitching out rock. Trail up the Chief is very well maintained! Top of the Chief Finally the sun was out and Squamish was about to have the warmest weekend of the season. We climbed at the Neat and Cool area of Smoke Bluffs warming up on a few classic 5.7 and 5.8 climbs, then having a go at “Flying Circus”, a 5.10a finger crack. Great climb! Interesting to be cragging almost in someone’s back yard With the warm weather, the crags were drying out fast! We readied ourselves for the Chief the next day, with the plan to bail at Broadway ledge after Calculus Crack if things got too wet. We arrived at the Apron to find several parties planning to climb the Chief, one of which said that it had been climbed on Friday afternoon. It was a go! Calculus Crack has an entertaining start, “yard your way up trees roots and the occasional crack for two pitches”. 5.8. tree climbing! Finally we broke out of the vegetation to a 50m 5.6 twin crack. This long pitch leads to a very small, exposed ledge with a gear anchor in a finger crack. Two nice pitches of finger and hand-sized cracks bring you to the 5.0 granite slabs and the top of Broadway ledge. Tree climbing on P1 and P2 Long 5.6 More good climbing From there, we scrambled up a nasty wet gully and over to the base of Memorial Crack. The base of Memorial Crack is a huge rock ledge with four plaques installed into the wall. I am now curious what they said, but I avoided reading them at the time in case they were similar to the plaque by Air Guitar in Vantage, as that would have been a little unsettling right before my first 5.9 lead on the day. The party ahead shouted down that the crack was wet. Eew. “How wet?” “How comfortable are you leading 5.9 trad?” This was, in fact, a little worrisome. I watched closely as the follower climbed. It looked like it had good gear in all of the wet spots, so we decided to give it a go. Amazingly, Memorial Crack is SO good that it was still a fun lead even when wet! Memorial Crack We had now gained Memorial ledge. A 10 min hike brought us to the base of the 7 pitch Squamish Buttress Route. As is to be expected, the base of the route had a line, nothing too bad really, but about 3 parties ahead and three behind by the time we left. One party included Jenny Abegg. I had run into her when we first arrived at camp on Thurs, Neat and Cool on Fri, and would see her again at Upper Malamutte the next day. I think that the world is trying to tell us to climb together or something… Jasmine strung together P1 and P2 which saved a lot of time and gave us a good lead ahead of the other groups (we’d need this later). Two enjoyable pitches of 5.7 flew by, then the 5.9 (a little wet, but reasonable). We now were staring at the crux 5.10c pitch. Holy shit, it looked hard! The face was steep, smooth and worst of all the shallow groove beneath the fixed piton at the crux was oozing. Interestingly the guide book had claimed, “by pulling on gear on the sixth pitch, the route can be climbed at 5.9”. I didn’t expect this to mean that one had to pull on ALL gear on the sixth pitch… Nobody was behind us for a little while, so we had time to work this out. I had a go at it. I surmounted the first difficulty after a small fall during a bear-hug like move and was pumped from the simultaneous squeezing and stemming, I backed off and gave Jasmine a shot at it. She got up several more feet and had good gear up to the middle of the final cruxy corner. At that point it became very difficult to place gear on lead (no rest and stemming opportunities lost because of the ooze), she made a dash for the fixed piton doing a tiring fingertip layback. With the piton almost in reach, she took a fall of her own. Because of her layback position she ended up upside down. Needless to say, it was frightening. But her gear was good and the fall was clean, so she was fine except for rattled nerves. My turn again. At this point we had another group waiting. They were supportive, but did tease us a little, “Never trust a guidebook!!” I aided the final 15’ of the pitch with generous profanity, “This is not fucking 5.9”, “Yeah, it’s a 5.10c!” they replied. Those who know me realize that swearing by no means indicates that I am not having fun! It was great fun! (type 1.5?). We finally finished the pitch, asses fully kicked. And we were not the only ones, as Jasmine set off for the final 5.6 ledges, I heard heavy grunting from below, then a yell and a “Fuck” that echoed down the South Gully, followed by more aiding. Be ready for this pitch, have lots of small gear (TCUs are perfect!!), and leave some time. We topped out at around 7:30 and were back to the camp at about 8:30 for a full 12 hour day. We met up with Jon, Lisa, Frank, Wendy and Nathan at camp, had some food and promptly fell asleep. Slab pitches 1 and 2 of Squamish Buttress P5 (5.9) on Squamish Buttress Crux pitch Sunday was a lazy day, and lucky too that we were not set on climbing too much because the lines for climbs were horrendous. We did High Mountain Woody at Upper Malamutte, a 45m pitch of 5.9, super classic. Then went over to Up among the Firs at Murrin Park were the joke was “take a number and get in line”. After 2 hours (no kidding!) Jasmine put up a nice 5.10b slab climb in great style. We took a lap on that, got some dinner at Howe Sound Brewery (don’t miss this place if you come through Squamish!) and headed home. High Mountain Woody Thanks Jasmine for being a solid partner, and a very strong climber! Quote
Lisa_D Posted June 8, 2011 Posted June 8, 2011 That climb is definitely still on my list. But first I need to not be burned out from grad school and Jon needs to ice his shoulder and do PT exercises. Hearing about the lines on Sunday, I feel a little better about going home early to fix the car and work on our sleeping quilt. Quote
Dave Jones Posted June 8, 2011 Posted June 8, 2011 Nicely done Val and Jasmine, Sounds like you did the old tree, bush and shrub start to Calculus Crack. There is a new two pitch 5.9 and 5.8 start to this climb which by all accounts is much better. Check out this thread on New start to Calculus crack Here is part of that thread: 20m to the left of the traditional start to St Vitus etc, Two pitches of corners and cracks lead directly up to the bolt anchor at the regular beginning of Calculus Crack. P1. Face climb past a bolt to gain the long left facing corner. At your first opportunity, step right, out of the corner into a crack ending at a large ledge. Gear belay here. 5.9 (If you continue up the corner all the way to the roof at it's top you have done the second pitch of Start from Scratch. With a 70 m rope you can do a single huge pitch straight up to the bolt anchor above 5.10c) P2. Straight up through, or right of, the bulge all the way to the bolted anchor of Calculus Crack. 5.8 (Stepping left to the hand and fist crack on the arete will up the ante to strenuous 5.10c) Here is a picture of pitch 1. "To keep the grade at 5.9, step right into the secondary crack, then right again. Bring plenty of small gear (doubles in the tiny cams and up)." And there is a new 5.9 finish to the Buttress put up last summer by Sonnie Trotter et al called Butt Face that goes at 5.9. It could be a good alternative to the classic 10c if it's wet or there are lineups. Too bad about the crowds in Murrin at Up Among the Firs. For a great alternative at similar grade try the climbs at Wire Tap. The namesake route is a five pitch 10a. There are six routes at the base starting at 5.8 and up Quote
jon_masaya Posted June 8, 2011 Posted June 8, 2011 Nice work! I did this exact climb last summer (tree climb and all), but we got hit by a rainstorm at the base of the final 10c buttress pitch and had to aid through a waterfall! The 5.9 Butt Face finish is easier, but its still pretty dirty and just zig-zags up some ramps. It's definitely not as fun as the 10c finish. It's worth the wait. (especially after grinding through all the slabby 5.6 pitches to get there) Quote
Val Zephyr Posted June 8, 2011 Author Posted June 8, 2011 Dave- Thanks for the alternate start suggestion. I didn't know that there was also a 5.9 option here. We saw a group go up the 5.10c start. It looked sweet! Jon- Wow, a waterfall! I guess we had it easy! Quote
The Ospray Posted June 8, 2011 Posted June 8, 2011 Nice, supposed to head up there next week assuming the weather pans out. Thanks for the stoke! Quote
Val Zephyr Posted June 9, 2011 Author Posted June 9, 2011 Overall, I didn’t think that pitch was as special as I’d heard folks claim it to be—it’s okay (and is probably the best pitch on the climb), but not “classic” as I define the term. What’s your take? Nice onsight! I think that I would actually have to climb the whole pitch in order to judge how classic it is. The clean corner was aesthetic and the gear was good, which are things that I look for in a "classic" pitch. Leading 5.10c trad is a bit of a stretch for me though (I'm more of a 5.9/10a leader now), so my favorite pitch of the day was Memorial Crack. Quote
fern Posted June 10, 2011 Posted June 10, 2011 you guys nailed it, well done. The Buttress is a notorious gongshow and that .10c the scene of many a late evening domestic dispute and intro to improvised aid-climbing. At least the big ledge provides comfortable viewing, though it gets shady late in the day so those who are near the back of the conga line are advised to bring a sweater (and maybe a pillow and a sudoku). WRT the 5.9 finish variation: http://sonnietrotter.com/2010/07/28/a-long-story-for-the-readers/ Quote
marc_leclerc Posted June 11, 2011 Posted June 11, 2011 Well done guys! That 10c pitch can be a bit tricky, specially if your looking for a 5.9! Way to finish it up! Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.