Saturday, August 25, 2007

Reasons to go back to Squamish

I was in Vancouver for a conference in July, and so I went up to Squamish a few days beforehand to climb. It rained the whole time, unfortuantely, so I didn't get any actual climbing done. I did walk around the base of the Chief to check out some interesting routes for next time. They start at the campground wall, and can all be reached by just following the trail along the base of the Chief, working north towards the Apron. It's probably 20 minutes of walking to cover the whole distance, though I took about an hour and a half with stops to admire the fine lines, check the guidebook, etc. I didn't take any pictures, but I found some shots online that I've linked below. Slot Machine (5.9) I didn't actually scramble up to look at this, but it looks really good from the picture. Maybe a good warm up for some of the others. A Pitch In Time 5.10b Looks good, short, good pro, steep for the grade. Rainy Day Dream Away 5.10c Don't remember this too clearly, but I think it looked pretty do-able with good pro. Slightly less than vertical. Arrowroot (10b) Looks really great, excellent pro. Rutabaga (11a/10b) Right next to arrowroot. The first pitch has chains and is 10b. Looks excellent. The broken crack at the bottom means pro a little more limited than arrowroot. Apron Strings 5.10b Sustained 10b liebacking. Exasperator 5.10c Good pics: Exasperator Two (short) pitches, .10a then .10c. Probably the right thing to do is link them with a 60m rope. Looks really, really good. Great pro. Seasoned in the Sun 5.10b Good Pic: Seasoned in the Sun Just another mega-classic, great pro perfect splitter face crack.

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