[TR] Squamish - Various 8/9/2012

[mountainsloth]

Trip: Squamish - Various

 

Date: 8/9/2012

 

Trip Report:

After 3 Summers of trips to Squamish leading trips with kids it was time to enjoy BC's Yosemite for personal reasons.

It was great to quickly fall into the glorious routine of:

COFFEE - CLIMB - BEER - BED: REPEAT

 

8/9 Thurs: Apron, Calculus Crack

A nice warm-up for my partner who had not climbed rock outside in nearly a year.

8/10 Fri: Shanon Falls, Klahanie Crack; Papoose, Hairpin & Centerfold

Warmed up on Klahanie Crack and was turned back by crowds on Skywalker (yes it is new but insanely popular already)

 

Klahanie

 

Went to the Papoose and had the place virtually to ourselves.

 

Hairpin is classic especially the 2nd pitch which barely felt 5.10a, more like 5.9. Positive holds the whole way.

 

Pitch 1

Pitch 2

Start of pitch 3

Following the 10a slab of pitch 4

 

Centerfold was great up until the last pitch which had some significant runouts on some spicy slab. A later party finished on Pinup, the left facing corner to the right and said it was great but could use some more traffic. It seems like the better way to finish.

Crux of pitch 1

crux of pitch 2

Howe Sound from an improvised belay on pitch 4 forced by an unsavory runout.

Interesting rap chains

 

8/11 Sat: Attempt Rock On to Squamish Buttress (slow moving crowds = bail!)

Trying to climb this combo on a Saturday was dumb and we knew it. We got up there around 830 to find a party of 2 on pitch 3 and a party of 3 on pitch 1. As we sat for nearly an hour we watched 2 other parties come up behind us. In the mean time, the party of 3 ahead of us continued to take their time. When we started watching the leader lead pitch 3 before bringing up their 3rd who was still waiting to climb pitch 1 we knew it was time to give up and find an alternative.

 

So we headed to a place I thought would be deserted, The Bulletheads.

From the Campground Wall we climbed: Feelin' Groovy - Slot Machine - Golden Labs

Interesting underclings of "Feelin' Groovy" pitch 1

 

The ever classic Slot Machine

 

Golden Labs, a 3 star route near the top of Slot Machine ended up being the highlight of the day. A small corner roof with perfect hand jams leads to smearing and laybacking this ever shrinking diagnonal crack. Just when you start to get pumped, an escape move gets you to the chains. This should be top 100 for sure!

Too bad I didn't take a photo

 

8/12 Sun: Alpine, Mt Joffre (Good enough for its own TR)

Sunday we headed to the alpine to find some personal space and we found it on Mt Joffre. Thank sweet Jesus! (Check out my next TR coming soon!)

 

8/13 Mon: Apron, Rock On

Weekend crowds gone (so we thought), we attempted Rock On with a lovely lady friend we met at the brewery a couple nights prior. This route deserves all its glory as it was the best route of the trip.

Zhana (aka Zed) the great leading pitch 3

Zed with another great lead on pitch 4

Having 2 50M ropes we had to break up the last pitch. Here we are crammed in a tight spot

The last pitch is amazing with the crux being a slight puzzle with perfect jams. Perfect!

 

8/14 Tues: Apron, Snake - Buttface (Buttlite)

Feeling exhausted from 5 straight days of climbing we tackled our longest route (aside from Joffre) of the week. Neither of us had ever been atop the Chef (yes, Chef, Chiefs do not wear aprons, chefs do) and it was about time. We considered finishing via the 10c buttress proper, but the week of climbing and all day work caught up to us and we were glad to finish via the Buttface which we both found to be really fun.

Pitch 4 of snake

The classic crux traverse of pitch 5

Pitch 6

Looking down Karen's Math (Super cool!)

Memorial Crack

The short 5.8 chimney on Buttface. Easier than it looked.

 

The top of the Chef. Our reward, aside from the summit, was the young and talented team Lulu Lemon fresh from a hike up the backside, but this was just another highlight without a photo.

 

 

Obligatory summit photo

Feeling satiated with six days of climbing we went home.

 

It felt good to climb so much without having to climb a single pitch at the Smoke Bluffs or haul kids up another round of Diedre.

Happy days with a good friend and great weather.

 

Gear Notes:

Passports, beer (its expensive up dere eh?), and coffee.

[akhalteke]

Awesome, thanks for the trip down memory lane! Cool Pics!

[Pete_H]

Look like an awesome productive trip! Centerfold is definitly one of my favorites. Looking forward to the Joffre TR.

[genepires]

nice trip! makes me long ta taste the sweetness that is squish granite.

[matt_warfield]

What, no Cruel Shoes or Grand Wall or Exasporator (full)? You have to keep experiencing the joys of Squamish. Keep working.

Edited August 29, 2012 by matt_warfield

[mountainsloth]

yea, still working into the 11's and this was my friends first significant time rock climbing in a year. Grand Wall is on the list for sure next year.

[jmace]

Howe Sound from an improvised belay on pitch 4 forced by an unsavory runout.

 

Ya its a perplexing spot, turns out if you do actually follow the guide book line by going left to those cracks then stand up and walk back over its super super chill. However its scary as all hell to commit to that not knowing whats going to happen.

 

Looks like you hit up all the intro to Squamish classics, nice!

[keenwesh]

squamish rocks, I'm ashamed to admit I took a ground fall off the first couple moves of slot machine. I thought, "how hard can 5.8 be?" and just went for it without a semblance of technique. next thing I knew I was jumping along down the rock to land at Mark's feet with the realization that I just took a grounder. jumped back up and thought about the single move before my second try. Fantastic route. Glad you guys enjoyed the wonderful climbs squamish has to offer. next time fill yer car up with booze before crossing the border.

[sandalsclub]

Hey, it was great meeting you guys. Hope to see you out there again! Bobby and Angela (behind you on Rock On and Papoose)