In 2012 the climbing season came to an abrupt end in the second week in October. I expected the same this year and briefly in September thought that we would have to settle for less. As it turned out, high pressure settled over the west coast in early October and stayed all month. During the first two weeks I was pre-occupied with my new route at Pet Wall, but after that it seemed indecent to dive back into another lengthy project - instead I tried to just enjoy these bonus days whilst they lasted. Stupidly I left my camera at home most of the time so was pleased to stumble over this aerial footage, shot during that period, which gives a great flavour.
Trad climbing has taken a backseat for me this year, but I have had a few aspirations tucked away, waiting for the right moment. At the top of the list was Crime of the Century, a classic .11c finger crack at Penny Lane cliff in the Smoke Bluffs. Because it is very easily accessed from above, it has been loved to death by top-ropers and has lost a lot of texture on key holds. In summer heat it is a very poor choice, but even in the crisp fall conditions, on the day of my attempt, it felt quite slick. I had hoped to flash the route and did just manage to achieve that, despite a foot slipping near the top. Very satisfying. That day was my 100th climbing outside in 2013, which seemed quite apt (100 ... Century ... geddit?).
Otherwise I have mostly left route choices to my climbing partners. Andy Robinson came to Squamish several times during the month. For some reason we repeatedly ended up at the Malamute cliff by the oceanfront, perhaps because it gets plenty of sun. Over three sessions we climbed all the various link-up pitches on the excellent Grub Street cliff, including the Grub Street route itself: Andy's first .11a lead at Squamish. In the same area, we took a "look" at Agonal, a three pitch face climb which may be one of Squamish's most aesthetic lines. The two main pitches follow a diagonal basalt dyke across an otherwise blank granite face with a giant overlap underneath, giving a spacey isolated feel. I found the climbing very precarious and technical, and used several bolts for progress to lead the crux .11c pitch. I need to return to try the route clean next year. Below is Andy following in rather better style.
Trad climbing has taken a backseat for me this year, but I have had a few aspirations tucked away, waiting for the right moment. At the top of the list was Crime of the Century, a classic .11c finger crack at Penny Lane cliff in the Smoke Bluffs. Because it is very easily accessed from above, it has been loved to death by top-ropers and has lost a lot of texture on key holds. In summer heat it is a very poor choice, but even in the crisp fall conditions, on the day of my attempt, it felt quite slick. I had hoped to flash the route and did just manage to achieve that, despite a foot slipping near the top. Very satisfying. That day was my 100th climbing outside in 2013, which seemed quite apt (100 ... Century ... geddit?).
Otherwise I have mostly left route choices to my climbing partners. Andy Robinson came to Squamish several times during the month. For some reason we repeatedly ended up at the Malamute cliff by the oceanfront, perhaps because it gets plenty of sun. Over three sessions we climbed all the various link-up pitches on the excellent Grub Street cliff, including the Grub Street route itself: Andy's first .11a lead at Squamish. In the same area, we took a "look" at Agonal, a three pitch face climb which may be one of Squamish's most aesthetic lines. The two main pitches follow a diagonal basalt dyke across an otherwise blank granite face with a giant overlap underneath, giving a spacey isolated feel. I found the climbing very precarious and technical, and used several bolts for progress to lead the crux .11c pitch. I need to return to try the route clean next year. Below is Andy following in rather better style.
"Feared and revered, a tick of this friction climb up the imposing black slab is a feather in any slab climber's cap" says the Squamish Select guide about Magic Carpet Ride at Shannon Falls. I have read that several times whilst glancing through the book, mentally filing the route under "never". Slab routes are scary, especially sparsely-bolted ones from the era when classics like MCR were first established. However I owed some belay sessions to my french-canadian friend, Marie-Michelle, who had helped me with the Pet Wall route, and bizarrely she thought trying the route was a good idea. Having extracted a promise that I would not have to lead in any circumstance, I agreed to hold her rope.
Magic Carpet Ride is an inspiring line, ascending a distinctive black tongue of granite for four pitches. From below there appear to be no holds at all in its ~120m length. There are also no bolts for the first 15m, which was somewhat damp, so Marie opted to start via the evocatively-named Not Your Normal Nightmare to the right, which is harder but better protected. We later both top-roped the original start.
In theory the meat of the route is the middle two pitches at .11a and .11c. Both have long mandatory run-outs of up to about 8m, so ~16m falls in a worse case scenario. Neither of us could distinguish the difficulty between the two pitches; both felt very thin. A typical move would be rocking up high on a single millimetre edge or barely-visible smear, whilst pawing at anything at all with the hands to maintain momentum. However the top pitch, in theory just .10c, proved the true crux, as we discovered it had not dried out since the late-September rains. Marie's lead of this pitch was the most impressive thing I have witnessed in a long while. In the middle of the pitch is a very long runout on pure friction which was damp. Marie took several falls there - long enough for me to reel in significant amounts of rope whilst she was still sliding - but she somehow maintained enough psyche to keep going. And past the last three bolts, also very spaced, the slab was simply covered in grease. Marie's technique for climbing this section was to randomly tag patches of slime with chalk and pretend they were holds. You have to wonder how European history might have evolved differently had these brick-hard Québécois stayed in France instead of sailing west in the 16th century. Maybe we englishmen would all be speaking french?
Marie contemplating the crux pitch of MCR (feather photoshopped retrospectively)
Anyway, all this late-season adventuring is now just memories as the weather has decisively turned to merde ... winter has arrived. I am not too unhappy. A vague training plan is taking shape, there are a couple of business ideas I want to explore and I have a splitboard ready to collect from Prior.
