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.