the last ascent of blackwater?

Blackwater, at Murrin Park's evocatively-named Petrifying ("Pet") Wall, is another entry in the new Squamish guidebook's Top 100 list. The route is renown for staying wet in all but the driest conditions as it follows a drainage line, but it has been dry recently. Stupidly I have been avoiding it, despite several frequent visits to Pet. This stems from deranged climber-logic: Blackwater's grade (5.12a/ 7a+) is a level that I consider too easy to be worth "projecting", but potentially too hard to "flash".

Jack Ziegler just visible working Blackwater, back in September

On Wednesday I visited Pet, where it struck me that the end of the Blackwater "season" was fast approaching and that if I wanted to do it this year I had better hurry up. The forecast was unequivocal that the winter rains would begin on Friday and an eery chilly mist was already hanging over the cliff.

As it turned out, Blackwater went down without too much of a fight. I failed on a flash attempt, but soothed my hurt ego with a plausible "cold hands" excuse. Then I succeeded on my first redpoint try. I hadn't rehearsed any of the moves in detail, but still managed to flow up it in a loose scrappy style. This felt good - and was a big contrast to my tightly-choreographed ascent of the Heifer a few days before. I wish I could conjure up that style of climbing on demand. For me it seems to only come after a lot of climbing volume - which has been the case recently - plus confidence boosted by a few successes - ditto. It didn't even last one day: on Thursday I got shut down on another (allegedly easier!) Pet Wall classic, Burning down the Couch, through a combination of hesitation at a not-that-hard section and getting scared on a not-that-bad runout.

If anyone is reading this with a specific interest in Blackwater, I recommend it very highly if you can catch it in dry condition. As a single pitch of vertical face climbing, it is as good as any I have done anywhere in the world. Almost every move is interesting. The climbing is sustained for 30m but has enough marginal rests to keep the effort reasonable. The final crux, at about 25m, ends with a big move to a definite jug, then above is a fabulous "glory road" of huge holds to follow before reaching the chains. Aside from a sketchy start - best subdued with a stick-clip - the bolts are all intelligently placed.

Friday has dawned exactly in line with the midweek forecast. This sequence of morning photos taken over the last three days spells it out.

View south from our deck, 7:30am Wednesday

and same view at the same time on Thursday

... and on Friday 

And here's the grim new forecast. With this much rain ahead, it looks very likely that my ascent of Blackwater was the last in 2012!

Anyway, I shouldn't complain. I have been very lucky to have six weeks of continuous good weather since I started this late season sport-climbing campaign. I have also been really lucky with reliable and knowledgeable local partners, almost all found through the Squamish climbing forum. Thanks especially to Todd and Kay, who have been supportive through my projects.

The next task is to figure out some way to stay sane through the winter ...

POSTSCRIPT: whilst writing this post I stumbled over this interesting account of the early days of Pet Wall climbing by Perry Beckham, one of Squamish's strongest climbers in the 1980s. And this article at Rock and Ice by guidebook writer, Marc Bourdon, is pretty interesting on the full history of sport climbing in Squamish.

chasing the heifer

Luke ? demonstrating the crux move of The Fleeing Heifer

My goal before the start of winter here was to climb something that at least theoretically matches my lifetime peak ... with the hope of moving upwards from that next year. Today I achieved that with a redpoint (*) of The Fleeing Heifer, Squamish's rite-of-passage sport route at the 5.12c/ 7b+ grade. I tried it for the first time on Wednesday, getting most of the individual moves straight away was but unsure whether it could be put together in a single push. On Thursday I made three redpoint attempts, failing at the same place, a powerful pull off a layaway with bad feet to a marginal split-fingers hold. After the last burn, I worked this crux move multiple times then did sets of isometric hangs on the layaway for a while to try and strengthen/ recruit/ train the specific muscle combination (no, I don't really understand the science of this, or the terminology!). I then rested for two days. The ascent today went pretty smoothly and I felt materially stronger. Sometimes it is all about the rest-days!

The Heifer is the only sport route of its grade in the new guidebook's Top 100 list. After doing it, I wouldn't contest its quality. It's a nice length, somewhere between 15-20m. It overhangs gently and consistently, maybe 3m overall, with no really good rests, except a technical knee-bar low down, so it is properly strenuous. The crux move, around the fifth bolt, is subtle in terms of foothold choice but also very powerful. Straight after the crux there are two sideways moves on quite unique flat side holds that look hard to hold from below but in fact are relatively easy to pass. Then there is a long cruising section on spaced holds which is fun to yard through, though in the knowledge the clock is ticking. The last section has a second crux with various solutions, mostly very tenuous when pumped. I was fortunate to watch another climber tackle this with an un-obvious high-heel-hook approach, which though weird, proved doable even with flagging strength. Above this is a slightly run-out and reachy sprint for the chain, with potential for a big fall if you are tired - which I was, but I managed to stay on.

Luke ? on the second crux

One reason climbing this grade is interesting to me is that it casts some light on grades of some new/ new'ish routes I have done in the UAE/ Oman over the last few years. If length of time required before redpointing is a good indicator, The Heifer needed about the same amount of work as Duct-tape and Jellyfish (not my name ...) at The Blindspot which I sent earlier this year. It took less work than Echo Beach at Tawiyan, which I sent in 2009. So I would stick by 7b+ for both those. I also made the fourth ascent this spring of a DWS route, Generation X, on the Musandam coast that also gets 7b+, and was graded by a very experienced climber. For me, that route required attempts on four days spread over a year or so, but I think as a pure physical feat is easier than The Heifer. But it is hard to compare sport with DWS. An obvious problem with attempting DWS routes is that you have no bolts to cheat on and use to acquire knowledge of moves above your "real" highpoint - instead you are in the sea!

* apologies to non-climbers for an excessively jargon-rich post.