Wow. Sportclimbing. It’s a been a while. I can count the days I’ve tied into a rope on one hand. I’ve pretty much been bouldering for the last year, but holy shit does it make you strong. Today I climbed in Chek with a strong crew: JJ Mah, Simon Parton, and Vikki Weldon. Everyone was psyched for different reasons. JJ because he’s been away from Squamish (in Europe) for the last 3 months, Simon because he’s found a new project (Down System), Vikki because she’s close to becoming the first female to climb Division Bell, 5.13d, and me because well… I’m always psyched to climb.

Watching Vikki session The Bell is freaking awesome. She gets through the crux with a crazy drop-knee and lots of body tension. Today we watched her get to the top of the route in only 2 hangs – definitely inspirational. Now I’m not 100% positive that no other female has climbed this route, so if anyone can clarify that one way or the other, that’d be great. I’m not even sure how many other Canadian girls, except for the exceptional Jola Sandford, have climbed 13d.

My big accomplishment for today was sending the first three routes established on the Big Show Wall: Free Will, 13c; Division Bell, 13d; and Pulse, 14a. After warming up, I jumped on Pulse and managed to do it first try. Like I said, bouldering makes you strong and today the crux felt piss easy. However, I was definitely heaving by the time I got to the top. My heart was throwing down a drum and bass track at 180 bpm. After some rest I got on Free Will, desperately made it through the cruxy finger-lock section, almost fell at the upper crux then clipped the chains. Nice. Two down, Division Bell to go. Because I know this climb so well I saved it for last. It was a good strategy because it worked. Even though i was feeling a little powered out, I manged to tick it off.

So not bad for a guy who’s been bouldering all summer. I’m feeling pretty good about it. Also, I guess I probably shouldn’t leave out the fact that I attempted this same feat last weekened when I climbed at Chek for the first time in 5 months – it’s not like this was off the couch or anything. The Pan-American Championships are coming up in December, so I guess this kind of thing is good endurance training.

Even with all this sport climbing funness, I’m psyched to boulder tomorrow. I have a tentative date with strongman, Sonnie Trotter. There’s no doubt it will be a great day! See you all in the forest!

This past weekend the weather in Squamish was shit. The weekend before that Squamish access was blocked by a pile of rocks! What is a working climber to do when he can’t climb at his favourite crag on the weekends!?

I refuse to climb in the gym this summer – it’s too hot inside and the routes are old. Last weekend, while the Sea to Sky was closed, there were a few options:

1. Go west to Vancouver Island and climb at Horne Lake. What a great idea right? Yeah, maybe if we could catch a ferry. All of the reservations were booked (long weekend, remember?), and I wasn’t going to wait in line for 4 hours Monday night only to miss the last ferry. Nope – I wasn’t going to go west.
2. Go south to Leavenworth or Goldbar or even Smith Rocks. This idea was even worse than trying to get to the island. It turns out people were waiting for 3 hours to cross the border! South is where I went not.
3. Go east to Penticton! Skaha! Okanagan Lake! 28 Degrees! …Oh what? Did I just say 28 degrees? As if I’m going to hike those stairs in that kind of heat. Going east can wait another month.
4. Go north to… Squamish? With the highway closed this option required a 6 hour drive through Hope, Lillooet, Pemberton, and Whistler. What a great idea! North is where the heart is.

With the thought of Squamish at the end of that long road, Sarah, her dog Fynn, and myself began our journey Saturday morning. We planned to use the whole day for the long drive. Neither of us had ever driven Hwy 1 to Lillooet before. We heard it was quite scenic; it was indeed. The biggest attraction was an abandonned bridge – The Old Alexandria Bridge – about 50km north of Hope.

Our next stop was Lillooet, BC’s Little Nugget. We stretched our legs out at Seton Lake, played fetch with Fynn, then continued onward to Pemberton.

I almost got a speeding ticket just north of Pemberton. Luckily the officer let me off with a warning. I think maybe it was because I called him Dude. I actually asked him why he wasn’t giving me a ticket – a stupid question in hindsight. His answer was something to do with saving people from themselves. Feeling a little confused, I cautiously drove the rest of the way to Whistler where we stayed the night in Sarah’s cabin.

The next day we finally made it to Squamish! We also found out that the highway had opened Saturday evening, making our detour to Squamish unnecessary. But really, the drive was quite worth it. So many cool things to see.

We spent Sunday and Monday bouldering. Sarah redpointed one of her projects: Gibb’s Cave. I tried George’s new unrepeated problem, North Ridge, which starts on the same holds as Black Magic, but goes out the steep roof to the right. After some work I managed to do all of the moves individually. This problem is hard. It’s also over 20 moves long with a V11ish cruxy finish. I’m guessing it’s a solid V13, but maybe harder. I haven’t actually asked George what he thinks the grade is.

Sunday was also a great day. Great because I redpointed one of my long standing projects – The Vince Pinch, V12. I wasn’t even going to try it that day, but Rich decided to get on it while his girlfriend Angela was giving burns on Sloppy Poppy. I sauntered over with low expectations. My first try was as usual – Pinch, pull, ass on ground. On previous attempts I had tried bumping my left hand off the starting hold to a flat edge next to the pinch. I decided to try it this way on my second try. It worked! I stuck the sloper over the lip, then made my way up to jugs. With some uncertainty on which way to top out, I decided to avoid the moss and dirt and traversed left to top out above the slab. That redpoint was so unexpected. I still don’t really know how I did it. After doing this problem it made me think how impossible it is to grade boulder problems. Black Magic is a 20 move V12 whereas The Vince Pinch is a one move wonder! They’re both hard in their own way. It’s good to discuss the grades of problems, though – it’s the only way to come up with some sort of concensus.

What a great weekend. How could time in Squamish not be great? With rainier months to come, this weekend warrior is going to have to come up with more creative ways to get his climbing fix. And with that thought, I leave you with a photo of my favourite Cockapoo: Fynn.

I know, it’s been forever since I’ve written. I’ve just been too busy climbing in Squamish! It’s been so good despite the hot weather. I’ve managed to tick two of my projects already: Something Wicked This Way Comes and Black Magic. Both problems share the same start, but the former finishes on a scary high ball and the latter finishes on the popular Black Hole. Originally these problems were graded V12 and V13, respectively, but I’m proposing they get downgraded to hard V11 or easy V12 (V11/V12) and V12. I’d like to think I’m super sick strong, but I’m not, hence my opinion on the grade change. More of you guys need to send these problems. They’re so rad. Both are over 20 moves.

Edit: I finally got a hold of some pics:

Anyways, the title of this post… Holy Shit! Have you seen the pics of this rockslide on the Sea to Sky? Check this out:

The full story and more pics: canada.com

Did we not see this coming? Those Kiewit guys have been blasting the shit out that highway for 2 years now. There’s got to be some instability somewhere. The thing is that it looks like this happened just north of Porteau Cove, which hasn’t had much construction – there’s no room to build an extra lane. I just hope they get the highway open in time for this weekend’s climbing session!

I made plans to climb in Squamish on Saturday. I woke up to clouds and light showers. It wasn’t much of a surprise, the last 2 weekends before this one was the same story. I hadn’t been on the Big Show since the the beginning of June and I was itching to get back on Captain America. I called my buddy Conny and he said that it was clear north of Squamish, so Chek should be okay. Good enough for me. I was there by noon.

The parking lot was packed. The Circus was full of people. I snaggled a warm up on the Heiffer and Heiffer Down. An hour later, it was my turn for a burn. I was feeling pretty good. There was a bit of a chill outside; it felt like Fall conditions just a few days after Summer Solstice. I didn’t know what to expect after not being on the route for 3 weeks. Right away I screwed up my feet somehow. It broke my focus and I fell at the Pulse crux, which for me is the cross-over off the two finger pocket to the crimp. I took a breather, wondered wtf happened with my feet on the third move, then got back on. I reversed the Division Bell crux and got into the slots of Free Will. I pulled the big move up to the left hand two finger pocket, matched, reset my left hand better and got up to the jugs. I rested, then finished off.

So now I’m thinking, “holy shit, that wasn’t that bad…I can do this today!” So I did. I waited about an hour then jumped back on. By then it had gotten pretty chilly so I climbed up and down the first 5 or 6 moves to warm up a bit. I told myself that all I had to do was get through the Pulse crux and I’d be set. For me, the redpoint crux was getting through the slots. There is one big move off a right hand finger lock to a two-finger slot. My closest attempt before this weekend was me monoing the two-finger and trying to match. This time I got in there good. I rested for about 3 minutes on the jugs and then carefully climbed to the top. Shit man, I just redpointed my project.

This is my first 14b. It’s also the longest time I’ve ever worked a route. When I was younger I did Division Bell in about 6 tries and Pulse on my 4th. There was no cheering, no huge feeling of accomplishment, it was kind of weird. I guess I felt that it was just a matter of time until I sent and when I finally did it wasn’t really a surprise. Don’t get me wrong, it put a big smile on my face for sure!

So what now? I haven’t bouldered all summer. I’d like to get to Horne Lake and try some of those routes there. I need something new to focus on. This route motivated me to improve. If I don’t have that I tend to plateau because I get bored of getting on the same old shit. So does anyone have any suggestions?

It looks like Manboy got his mini-video of me working Captain America up on YouTube.

Clip 1
Clip 2

I remember this attempt. I felt so sketchy. The vid is pretty cool though. I don’t have many vids of me climbing outside. The position it was shot at worked out pretty good. I’ll have to get Steve to film again, and replace these embarassing vids. hehe.