Monday, August 25, 2008

Strange Weather

Well, it poured rain all day Sunday, but I woke up to sunshine Monday morning, so despite forecasts of rain, Paul and I decided to try to find some dry rocks. We wandered around the Bluffs for a while looking for something dry before deciding to head back to Neat and Cool hoping those routes had dried off. We got in 4 routes in before the rain came back for the afternoon. We debated for a while since 1/2 of the sky was beautiful and blue while the other 1/2 looked dark and stormy. In the end we decided to head out and shortly after getting to the car it started raining pretty hard.

Tuesday was more of the same. We wandered from crag to crag getting on the few cracks that were dry. We managed to get in 6 pitches before it started raining in the evening. And now it looks like we're in for at least 3 days straight of rain. :(

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Flying Circus!

I have been saving Flying Circus for a long time hoping I could get my first 5.10a on-sight.  All of the 10's I've led previously had either been top-roped or I'd hung on gear.  This weekend, I felt ready to take it on.  Kurt and I were very lazy Saturday morning and didn't make it out to the crag until early afternoon.  I got racked up, roped up, and was ready to go.  My goal was not to hang on any gear.  I wanted to either take a lead fall or get the route clean.  

I didn't meet my goal.  I got intimidated and hung in two places -- several times in one place where I kept climbing and then down climbing back to my piece of gear.  But I finally did make the move that was intimidating me and finished the climb.  I didn't meet my goal, but I did finish the route and was able to calm myself down and relax each time I started getting scared.  So even though I didn't take a fall and I didn't get it clean, I am proud of myself.  


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After cleaning Flying Circus, Kurt decided he wanted to put up Neat and Cool (another 10a).  He struggled a little on it, but did end up finishing the route.  Then it was my turn to clean.  After struggling quite a bit on the overhung pumpy hand traverse and making little progress, I wasn't having fun at all.  So I used the slings I had to aid up the bottom section of the route since I had to clean the gear off of it.  The second half of the climb resembled fun, but it's still not a climb I'd want to repeat.  Once we were finished with that, we watched a girl flawlessly lead the tricky section of Neat and Cool and then we headed back toward the parking lot and I put up Cold Comfort (5.9).  Although it wasn't my first time on the route, it did challenge me a bit on lead and I felt good about it.  Kurt cleaned it and then we headed back to town to finish the evening with dinner and a movie.  


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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Weekend with Kurt

Kurt got in late Friday night. We got all racked up and ready to do the Ultimate Everything the next day and then went to bed. The plan was to climb Rock On up to the trial to UE. I led the first pitch of Rock On which I found to be easier than the last time, but that's probably because I just did it last week.

After I brought Kurt up to the top of p1 (pictured), I decided to take on the short second pitch even though the unprotectable chimney at the top freaks me out a little. And I ended up getting shut down. I Climbed above my last piece (a boomer #3 and then back down to it several times before I decided it wasn't worth the risk to me. I built an anchor and brought Kurt up to lead the last 10-15 feet of the climb and then he brought me up to the anchors. Kurt led the 5.9 and 10a pitch with no problems and I followed clean except for a spot where I had to hang to get a nut out. I still don't think I'm ready to lead those yet though ... I'm way more cautions than I used to be about what I'll lead! I did lead the rope up to the top of the easy last pitch of Rock On -- which isn't much to brag about since I've done it so many times before.



Kurt got a picture of me taking the nice rest mid-way through the 10a pitch of Rock On.

















We took some time to sort out the gear, eat some food, and rehidrate a bit at the top of Rock On.

Then we headed off up the trail to The Ultimate Everything. It was a pretty hot day, but we felt okay hiking through the forrest. But once we got to the base of the route, we reliazed the whole route was baking in the sun and would be for the rest of the day. It was over 30 degrees (almost 90 fereinheight), so we contemplated a bit and in the end decided it would be too uncomfortable climbing for that long in the hot sun.  We hiked back down the trail and found another party toppingo out on Rock On and were able to share ropes and rapped back down the route.

We went into town and got some gatorade and snacks and then headed over to Shannon Falls. The only picture from that is the one Kurt took of my leg. I somehow got into a fight with a tree stump at the top of Rock On and came away with a pretty nasty scrap. Usually Kurt is the one to get all bloody, so he had to document my injury.  LOL





The base of the wall was in the shade, but the routes were in the sun. I led Klahanie Crack and Kurt followed in his approch shoes. We were both too hot after that to do any more climbing and all of the routes were baking in the sun. So we called it a day and headed to the brew pub for dinner.













We woke up to clouds and some rain on Sunday morning. It cleared up by mid-morning, but we decided to give the routes some time to dry. So we went Valhala Pure to check out the sale and so Kurt could exchange the 5 tennies he got from the silent aution back at the Mountain Festival.

We headed over to the upper Malumute to do High Mountain Woody (5.9). But the heat quickly took the energy out of us and it wasn't windy up there like it usually is to keep things cool. So we laid around and hung out together in the shade for a while until a breeze came up and got us motivated again. I put together a very excessive rack and we rapped down. I was really nervous to lead the route, but I got on the pointy end of the rope anyway. I have seconded it twice -- clean both times. And the last time felt really easy. So I knew it was possible for me to lead it if I could just stay relaxed and focused. But that proved to be challenging for me through the short crux of the climb which is right at the beginning. I was kind of freaking out and ended up putting in a couple pieces and getting lowered to re-collect myself.

After a short break and some Om's (thanks Kurt!), I managed to pull myself together and got back on it. I was still scared, but I was able to stay calm enough and focus on the climbing. Once I got through the tricky section, the rest was very fun!











Although I have led harder routes, I have never been that scared and then gotten over it an been able to complete the climb. I think this may have been in important step in getting my lead head back since I broke my ankle last year.












We had planned on doing more climbing up there, but it was getting late and Kurt wasn't feeling well. So we called it a day and went home.

Since the forecast was calling for rain all week, I decided to take a break from Squamish and headed back to Seattle with Kurt. Hopefully next week will be nice --  
I would really like to get up The Ultimate Everything, Angel's Crest, and maybe the actual Birds of Prey route (instead of whatever variation we ended up doing last time) before the summer is over!

Friday, August 15, 2008

A couple days of cragging

I got back to Squamish on Tuesday night and ended up getting together with Trang (a friend from Girl's Rock) and her boyfriend for some cragging at the bluffs. We went up to Pixi Corner and rapped down onto Jaberwocky. I thought about leading it, but the start was just too intimidating. But I brought my rack up with me and placed gear and if I could get past the start (which I did manage to do clean, but it would have been freaky on lead!), I know I could easily lead that route. Maybe next time. Then Dave put up Pixi Corner, Trang pink pointed it, and I cleaned it. The Bluffs were actually pretty crowded, so we headed back toward the parking lot to Boulder Gully in the Car Park Crags area. I got the onsight of Picket Line (5.9) and was very happy to feel calm and relaxed on lead even through the tricky section. Dave put up Cold Comfort (5.9) which was a really fun finger crack with loads of ledges for feet. After that, we called it a day and I went for a swim in the lake.

Thursday, Raphael and I had plans to go up the Grand Wall and I was really looking forward to it! But it was *really* crowded and so we opted to do some cragging around the base instead. We started with The Exasperater. Leading the first pitch of that was probably my proudest moment last year. But I let Raphael take the lead this time. I wish I could say it was out of generosity, but it was just out of fear and nervousness. He linked the two pitches and I was surprised at how easy it felt to me on TR. I followed the second pitch (10c) last year and really struggled on it and hung on the rope several times. This time, I just walked up it pretty easily and didn't even have a problem standing and cleaning gear. Which is both good and bad -- it means I'm becoming a better climber, but I'm leading a grade or two below my real lead ability. My head is still pretty messed up from the fall last year. But I've led a few 10's (The Zip, Nubile Woman) since getting up here and I felt nice and comfy on the 5.9 the day before. I know it'll come back with time. We also did Apron Strings (p1, 10b; p2, 5.9) and then The Flake (10b). After that we called it a day.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Squamish Buttress (via Rock On)

Toby and I decided to do The Squamish Buttress via Rock on last Thursday. We got a bit of a late start (around 11am), but figured we'd have enough daylight to do the climb and find the tourist trail and didn't think we'd have any trouble with the tourist trail in the dark.

I took the first lead of Rock On. I've done it before, but it was actually a bit trickier than I remembered. Nothing too hard, but I had to think a bit to find places for gear and to figure out some moves. I think I've just gotten so used to climbing splitters that this somewhat discontinuous corner made me think a bit. I followed the second pitch as well, which was mostly more of the same with a kind of freaky but not too hard chimney-ish finish to a ledge.

Toby then took the lead for the tricky but short 5.9 pitch. We waited on the ledge for a bit for another party to move on and then Toby led the 5.10 as well (all in a single pitch). I found the 5.10 to be much easier than I remember it being last year, which I'll go ahead and chalk up to me being a more experienced climber. It took me a while to figure out the crux at the top, but I managed to get it clean.

We hiked through the trail and found the start of The Squamish Buttress. I gave the lead to Toby again. It was only a 5.8, but it was a run-out slab 5.8 and after my fall last year, I just don't want to lead slab anymore!! We got to the top of that with no trouble and I "led" a short easy low 3rd class traverse to a tree belay. After I brought Toby over, I led a long easy 5.8 pitch (but it only has a few 5.8 moves, most of it is low 5th class). Toby then took the lead for a 5.9, which also only had a few 5.9 moves and lots of ledges to stand on for gear. We walked over and had a snack under the pitch of 10c. Toby then took the lead again and was a bit nervous, but got the 10c with no problems. I was a bit bummed that I had to hang on the rope a few times to clean some nuts that were in there pretty good as well as a cam that had walked in and gotten really stuck (one of the lobes had opened and the corner was *really* stuck on a crystal). The pitch felt pretty sustained to me, but there were all kinds of hidden holds for hands and lots of places you could stem your feet out to get a nice stance/rest. I then took the lead for a pretty easy but significantly run-out pitch of 5.6.

We topped out around 9 and found the tourist trail with little trouble. By the time we made it to the ladder, it was pretty dark. So we pulled out the only light we had (Toby's camera), and the battery promptly died!! From now on, I will always insist on 2 headlamps for descents like this (and maybe keep a spare headlamp in my chalk bag a well!!). We had a hell of a time finding our way out of there. We pretty much blindly groped and stumbled our way down. It was so dark in the trees that I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. The trail is really easy in the daytime and would be no problem with a head lamp, but we couldn't see a thing and I think we lost the trail a few times. Walking in complete darkness down a trail with lots of steps and uneven ground (not to mention trees -- Toby ran straight into one at one point!) was very slow going. We didn't make it back to the car until 2am!! We were safe the whole time, but Toby's wife was understandably worried as was Kurt. I was very happy to see my bed that night.

some cragging

Almost all of my partners were trapped south of the rock slide for the weekend. But I managed to get out to the bluffs a couple of climbs Saturday and Sunday evening with Toby. On Saturday, Toby put up Up Up and Away (5.9), and then it started raining. I cleaned the route in the rain and then we packed up and left. Sunday, I led Magical Child (5.8) and Roni and Toby both seconded it. Then Toby put up Ridge Runner. Once Roni and I had both seconded that, we decided to call it a day.

Vince came up for the afternoon on Wednesday. We met at noon and headed over to the Upper Malamute. We started with High Mountain Woody -- super fun climb!! I should have led it, but I was feeling squeamish. Next time, I'll do it on lead for sure! After that, Vince put up the 10a to climber's left of HMW and the 10b to climber's right of HMW. Both were really fun routes, but the 10b had a pretty tricky finish! The crack sort of peters out and you have to traverse a bit to the right to finish the last couple feet of the climb on an aerate. We then headed over to Shannon Falls and I put up Klahanie Crack (super easy fun 5.7 splitter crack on a slab), and Cardhu Crack -- a kind of dirty, but fun 5.8 crack. Once we got down from that, the sun was pretty much down, so we hurried down the trail in the dusk, sorted some gear in the parking lot and parted ways. Fun day!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Birds of Prey (or something to the top of the Squaw!)

Shane and I headed out to The Squaw to climb Birds of Prey -- a route we'd both been meaning to get on for some time. We had no idea the adventure we had waiting for us! I got started on the first pitch which is a 5.8 finger crack. It was a great pitch and I was feeling good and relaxed on lead. The guidebook breaks this beautiful 70 meter crack into two pitches, but there really isn't a good place to stop. So my plan was to just do it all on one pitch. But when I was about 3/4 of the way up (1/2 way up the second pitch) I had exactly 3 pieces left that I knew would fit and 2 of them were nuts! So I decided to stop and build an anchor. I had a hard time getting those 3 pieces to fit near each other so my anchor was a bit spread out, and it was a hanging belay with a tiny ledge to stand on. But it was a good anchor and Shane grabbed the gear off of me and gunned it for the anchors.

We were looking up at the crux of the 10b pitch, which looked pretty hard. And it was harder than it looked. Compared to the soft ratings on The Grand Wall, The Squaw is quite sandbagged in my opinion! Shane got up most of it fine, but then fell near the top of the crux when his hand jam slipped. It was a nice clean fall (which was a relief for me -- I was eyeing a ledge not too far below him when he started struggling). He made the move somewhat desperately on the second attempt and was up and out of sight. When it was my turn, I actually had a much harder time with the lower section. There's a small corner chimney-like feature that I had a hell of a time getting through. Once I could get hand jams in the crack, I managed to get the rest of it with little problem. But I blew out my mythos on this pitch. I'm not sure if I should get them re-soled again or just thank them for 2 1/2 seasons and get a new pair. Once I was at the top of the crux was when the real trouble started for me. The next part of the pitch is a 5.9 airy and unprotectable traverse that starts with a step from one ledge to another with no hands at all. It wasn't too hard of a move, but I was afraid of the swing I would take if I didn't make it so I wouldn't commit to the move and I ended up taking the swing over and down which put me quite a ways off route in this impossible corner. Luckily, I had 2 small aliens and 2 long slings with me. So I managed to aid up the non-climb and get myself back on route. Te rest of the pitch was no problem.

Once we were at that point, we looked around for a bit for the next pitch. We knew it was a 5.10, and we found a corner off to the left that looked like a 10, with bolts below it, so Shane started up that on lead. But a little while he called down to me that the crack ended and there was a bolt ladder of sorts on what looked like 5.12 slab. We figured he must be off route because there shouldn't be any aid moves on Birds of Prey. So he left a biner in one of the bolts and I lowered him down. We went back to another set of bolts directly above the 10b pitch (one of 3 sets of bolts right next to each other) and headed up a cornerish thing. We figured we must be off route at this point because we were supposed to be on a 5.10 crack, but we were doing a traverse with the occasional place to put in gear and a bolt to protect a step-across where there was no place to put in pro -- definitely not something I would call a crack.

And the next pitch conformed our beliefs. It would have been a 5.8 if we were on route, but it was more like an 11 finger crack in a corner. It started out feeling like an 8, but then the ledges for feet disapeared and it was more like a 10. And it got steadily harder as the crack got thinner. By the top of the pitch, the crack was a seem I couldn't even get my finger tips into. Luckily there were some pockets Shane managed to get some nuts in to protect the climb. I actually had to french free a couple of moves and I never do that! So I'm thinking it must have been a hard 11. There were bolts at the top of it though -- which means we were on some route, but we never did figure out which one. We topped out with a really dirty 5.8 pitch and laughed at the adventure the day had become.

And then we headed to the brew pub for some well deserved beer. Now I feel like I need to do the climb again after looking in the book and figuring out where we were supposed to go! It's funny, we had both looked at the actual route at the top of the 10b and both determined that it didn't look like a climb. Opps!! I guess I'll be making the airy 5.9 step across that I took the swing on again. Next time, I'll be sure to have some small aliens with me just in case I slip there again!

Friday, August 1, 2008

Week 3

I did some multi-pitch climbing in the Grand Wall on Monday -- went up to the top of The Split Pillar with Brendan. It was an awesome climb and I actually thought it felt *much* easier than 10b. I didn't lead any of it, but I think I could. The Pillar itself was a bit strenuous at the top, but the rest of the pitches were easier than I expected. To get up there, we did Apron Strings (10b and then 5.9), Merci-Me -- 2 pitches of bolted 5.8 up a dike which Brendan linked together. A bit run-out on the bolts, but very easy and very enjoyable. Then a scary traverse and a bit of aid climbing up a bolt ladder to the base of the Split Pillar. Hopefully I'll get up there again soon and maybe even get to the top by the end of the summer! :)

Brendan got a bunch of pictures of me, but since he led the whole thing, I wasn't able to get any shots of him while I was belaying.

On Belay at the top of the first pitch of Apron Strings
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Tricky traverse pitch
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The Split Pillar (super freekin awesome!)
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Toping out
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The rest of the week was not so great. It's rained pretty much the whole time. I did manage to get in 5 single pitch climbs at the bluffs Thursday morning before the rain started. Other than that, I've just been hanging out trying to keep myself entertained.

And to make matters worse, most of my climbing partners are stuck south of Squamish because of a massive rock slide on the 99 just north of Vancouver. Which means I don't get to see Kurt this weekend. :(

Week 2

Kurt left Saturday morning and I spent the first half of the day cleaning up, doing laundry, etc. I met up with Adrianne, her friend Tristan, Sara, and Rebecca for a bit of climbing in the afternoon. And then Adrianne, Tristan, and I did some climbing on Sunday. We ended up getting together with some friends of theirs from The Mountaineers for the afternoon for some slab climbing -- though I sat that out. Just say no to slab!!

Monday, I took a rest day and tried to get linked in to the climbing community here. I found a lot of potential partners, and then Kurt informed me that he and Ted would be coming back up earlier than they planned -- that evening in fact!

Tuesday, I went climbing with Axel and didn't do a single climb that I'd done before!! We started with Hairpin and then did a couple single pitch climbs on the Papoose while we were there. All really fun stuff!! Then we finished they day at the Upper Malamute with High Mountain Woody and a 5.10a just to the left of it. I've been wanting to do HMW since las year and it was an awesome climb!

Wednesday, Kurt, Ted, and I had planned to do Rock On. But Ted was less than psyched to get on more crack and Petrina turned up and we all decided to head up to Chuck Chuck/The Lounge for some sport climbing. It was a nice area, but I wasn't much of a fan of the climbs. I would recommend the area to others, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Thursday, I had planned to do Rock On with some climbers in the area, but I was feeling tired and Kurt and Ted talked me into changing those plans to accompany them down to Washington Pass to climb Liberty Bell. I was less than enthusiastic to do the route -- lots of not fun hiking for 3 low 5th class semi-boring short pitches. But it was kinda fun to be out there and I was happy to spend more time with Kurt at the end of his two week vacation. Kurt put me on a Greyhound bus back to Squamish and here I am. Kurt has some pictures up, but I wasn't on the trip up Forbidden, only Liberty Bell.

I have plans for this week, but the forecast is kinda crappy, so we'll see what happens.

Pictures of Liberty Bell:

First pitch of 5th class
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On Belay
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Queen of the Mountain
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Week 1

I arrived in Squamish late on Tuesday night and met up with Liz from the UK for some cragging on Thursday and Friday. I hadn't done much climbing in the previous couple of weeks, so I was feeling a bit rusty. But after a few warm up climbs, I was back to my old self and we had a great time climbing together in the bluffs. I took Friday to unpack, get groceries, and settle in and Kurt arrived late Friday night. We did some cragging over the weekend and then hit up the chief for some multi-pitch on Monday. While he was here, we climbed Calculus Crack, Vector, and Jungle Warfare, and planned on doing Rock On, but the weather was less than inspiring that day. We also did quite a bit of cragging, did a couple laps across the lake and Murin Park.

The Squamish Mountain Festival started on Wednesday night and I was super excited to see Sonnie Trotter give a talk. His presentation was planned for the Oh Canada night where Matt Maddaloni also gave a presentation about his crazy solo link up climbs of the chief and the many spires in the Buggaboos. Pretty crazy and pretty amazing, but Sony's talk was still the highlight of the evening for me and I let myself be the dork that asked Sonnie to pose with me in a picture.

The next night, we made it to the Howe Sound Brewery for an early dinner and then a really cool climbing photo competition. The slideshows were really great to see, but it was almost equally exciting to be sitting in the next table over from Sonnie Trotter and then look at the next table and see Ed Cooper hanging out with Fred Becky. It was just pretty amazing to be hanging out at the Brew Pub with some of the world's greatest climbers!

Friday night was Big Wall night were we saw a few movies and Ed Cooper give a talk that basically showcased some of his photography as well as his climbing accomplishments (including, but not limited to his first ascent of the Grand Wall) and lifestyle followed by Cedar Wright's talk highlighting his recent climbing travels to Alaska and Pakistan. Hearing Ed Cooper and Cedar Write talk back to back, I lost track of the number of first ascents!! LOL. Another highlight of the night -- both Kurt and I won prizes in the auction -- a cool Black Diamond summit pack and a climbing t-shirt. And shortly after Kurt and I took our seats, Ed Cooper and his wife meandered in and sat next to me. One of the movies was about base jumping and Ed's wife leaned in and whispered to him, "Don't tell me you're going to take up base jumping!?" LOL. He said he wasn't interested. Of course, that's what Steph Davis said when I saw her talk about a year ago. And now she's all over the news base jumping off of all kinds of things! Crazyness. I think I'll stick to climbing with a rope and rappelling or walking off of routes!

Sonnie Trotter at the festival
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Jungle Warfare
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