Although not as terrribly exciting as the Grand Wall these last few days were awesome, and I really feel like I did some of the best quality routes here.
Wanted to sneak in a couple of the nice cracks at the base of the Grand Wall before the rain and managed to get on two spectacular ones.
Jo lead the first pitch of Rutabaga 11a (though the first pitch is 10b) though it looked like a crack down low, it was mostly balancy stemming between seams, but you do get the 30 feet of perfect cruiser hands up top.
Not a great picture, but a picture nonetheless, of Rutabaga
I did Arrowroot 10b, located just to the left. Tons and tons off large rattly fingers and tight hands through a small roof halfway. would have been way harder if there werent so many places in the crack for your feet.
Ended up being a great day to watch people on other routes as well. Saw people on the Grand Wall, and even a party on the Black Dike at 13c!
SunBlessed
I had wanted to get to the Solarium on the backside of the Chief since I got here. No crowds long walk from the crowds and beautiful view, plus supposedly some great stone and a hugely long handcrack to boot.
Sunblessed 10b is 4 pitches (we did it in 3) and its 3 pitches of 5.10 were hugely varied and matched the strengths of Jo, Andrew, and I perfectly.
The hike up is long! almost to the summit of the 3rd and highest peak, and with the temperatures near 34 C there were some definite grumblings on the way up. We made it to the base however, and the route was living up to its namesake, sitting there baking in the sun.
Jo took the first pitch a 10a dike with some balancy moves but with good holds, glad she did it as the first bolt was 35 feet up with some non-trivial climbing down low!
Andrew looking for practice on handcracks took the second pitch, 120 feet of glorious hand-jamming, or it would have been if the crack wasnt so dang small! Basically .75 and 1 the whole way up, Andrew climbed himself into a predicament when he ran out of his needed gear only a third of the way up! Amazingly he managed to put in a few pieces, downclimb, clean the needed gear, re-climb, and continue on all to preserve his onsight! Well done Andrew. He linked this with the 3rd easier pitch bringing us to the base of the final corner.
Andrew starting up P2
The guidebook describes this as a "somewhat nasty and hard to protect start, but required for a true ascent of Sunblessed" sounds prefect for me. Actually not nasty at all, being perfectly clean rock, but it was bizarre. The crack was more like a groove flaring in every direction in a tight corner. I managed to get a bad #4 Camalot in before the bolt, and a succession of tenuous fist jams got me into the upper section. Andrew required a different technique entirely doing wild stemming to get through.
Me in the groove on the last pitch of Sunblessed
Andrew improvising past the corner
Jo Enjoying the summit
Ended up being a perfect climb for the three of us, and was a superlative memorable experience.
Ultimate Linkup Take 2
This time as a group of 4!
Jo and I would be a team, and Dora and Andrew would be the other team. Even planning on skipping the Bottom Line, the route is still 20 pitches.
Leaving bright and early
Jo and I did Diedre 5.8 on the Apron while Dora and Andrew did Banana Peel. Despite being longer they still got up first (simul climbing to make it 4 rather than 8 pitches. As it was Jo and I still made good time and were at the base of Boomstick in an hour and a half. Not bad for a 6 pitch climb that neither of us had done before!
Looking down at the last belay on Diedre.
Boomstick is an amazingly thin flake, and here I am looking psyched. I am actually leading right behind Dora here who is following, not normally a good idea, but the climbing here is casual.
Attacked by the belay tree on top of Boomstick
After boomstick you walk for awhile to get to the base of Ultimate Everything. 10 pitches already down! And a friend on the trail.
Dora coming up the the belay on P2 of Ultimate Everything
Andrew on the handcrack of P5
Did I have this smile on my face all day long???
Making 5.5 appear much harder than it actually is!
I actually managed to wipe that smile off my face for a bit.
A man sized sandwich on pitch 18
The last pitch is rated 9+ A0/ or 11c. So basically there is one or two hard moves than you can pull through the gear and keep the grade slightly easier. Though I would have like to have tried the moves, its sort of strange when you are 1800 feet off the ground.
Me on the 9+ mantle right before the crux
The last moves to the summit
On the walk down i reflect that I am sort of glad that it is the last walk down (6 times!) off the Chief because as good as the Waldies are at being approach shoes doing the 2000 foot walkoff 6 times over rough blocks ladders roots and my feet are really really sore. Of course so are everyone elses.
Seasoned in the Sun
A semi forgotten brilliant off fingers crack near the base of the Flake Escape ledges. I seem to have 10b pretty wired and 10c gives me fits, at least in Squamish. I think this suited my hand size pretty well, getting alot of big fingers albeit it with poor feet. This was not to bode well for later in the day.
Me leading up Seasoned in the Sun 10b
Jo leading up the start of the same.
Magazine shot of Jo halfway up
Took a while off to get packed (it was 34 out!) but me and Jo ran back right before dark to do one more climb.
Exasperator 10c is probably the second most popular climb after Grand Wall. Just 2 pitches long it climbs a 10a thin crack to a diagonally 10c crack only climbable one one and two finger pockets.
Decided to try and do it was one long! pitch. Took two falls at the crux thin finger locks which were just too small for my fingers. I knew that you sometimes have to skip ones that arent the right size so i had the good locks with trailing hand (left) and kept bumping up the right looking for something that fit. After skipping 4! pods that i couldnt get my fingers in i fell going for the jug at the top of the sequence.
Got back on and finished though just as twilight started to set in. Despite falling off I was glad in the way i tried it and it was a most brilliant finish to my climbing in Squamish, its been amazing.
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