The Return of the Sun

Over Spring break I didn't get as many days out climbing as I was hoping for, partly due to the weather, but I also just needed a rest. I did get out for two days at Vantage. Tony, Laura and I headed out to Vantage and climbed for a day just the three of us. It was a great day, we managed to get a number of routes in even thought it was just the three of us. Then the next day we were joined by a few others. It was a beautiful couple of days in the sun.

The following Saturday the forecast showed sun again so I picked up Andrew from Seattle and we headed out to the Far Side of Exit 38. I had long wanted to climb the multipitch routes at Neverland, so we went out there and ended up having the crag to ourselves. We did the 3 pitch route The Plank (5.9, 10a, 5.7) which was really good, I led the first two pitches, the first was a little seepy, but the second was sublime. We also did a 3 pitch 5.9,5.9, 10c, and a two pitch 10c, 10c. I was really impressed with this small crag, the rock was generally very good, and it felt great to get up high on some routes. It was also really nice to have the whole place to ourselves.

Leading the awesome 10a pitch of The Plank

Enjoying the view, about halfway up Neverland

 Last Saturday called for another good weather day, so I texted around and found a partner in Jeremy. We decided to head to the Deception area. It had been a while since I climbed at this area, I tend to avoid it because of the crowds and associated sketchiness. But there were a number of routes I hadn't done there yet, and it was Jeremy's first time there so I could bring him wherever. I got on a couple of neglected little gems, like Won't Get Fooled Again, a sweet 10a that starts up on Deception Ledge. I also got a surprise at the chains of The Overture an 11a high on deception wall, when I was stared down by nesting peregrine falcon. I got out of there pretty quick. In all we managed to lead 10 routes (9 of which were new to me). I've decided to keep a running tally of the total number of routes I've climbed on the sidebar here ----> Hopefully that will keep my motivation for getting on new routes up. Not that I need it right now. Tomorrow I'm headed out to Vantage with a big crew, it should be a fun weekend, but I don't think I'm going to manage the huge haul of 19 routes in a day I did this time last year.

Quick Trip, Quick Send, The Quickening!

What was supposed to be a week-long spring break trip to Smith turned into just a 3 day trip, but despite the occasional hail storm I still managed to get a good amount of climbing in. I got down there Thursday morning and joined Nick, Andrew and Scott. It was pretty chilly so I warmed up on a route with lots of ledges to defrost numb hands, Middle Aged Vandals (11c). It’s a fun route that I’ve overlooked in the past, but its definitely worth jumping on. I then did a couple of nice easy routes with Scott to keep warm. Then within about an hour, we went from shivering in our down jackets to sweating in t-shirts when the sun came out while we were on Morning Glory wall. I wanted to try some harder routes out, so hoped on Churning and Taco Chips, both 13a, but I got shut down hard on them. Nick made really good links on Churning, and it was obvious that it would just come down to whether he would have enough time this trip to link it all.


Warming up on a fun 10b. There's still plenty of these left in the park for me to do.



Scott giving me a solid spot on the start of Taco Chips (Thanks Nick for the photos)

The hard route I really wanted to get on was The Quickening in Agro Gully. I got on it the next day, it is a really fun sport climb with two distinct cruxes. The first is pulling over a roof making dynamic moves off of 2 two-finger pockets. I love two-finger pockets so had no problem with this crux once I figured out the beta. The next crux comes midway up the head wall where you have to bust out left to a very small, but very good crimp, get your right foot up high in a pocket then lock-off and make a huge reach with your right hand to a slopey pocket. I couldn’t make the span, but I was able to reach a tiny triangle pinch just below it to lock of on and reach through to the pocket with. It was an unlikely looking move, but it worked for me. After that the route eases up and finishes on some fun 5.10 climbing on good holds. I had pretty much sussed out the all the beta, so got Nick to go for the flash attempt, unfortunately after a hard day of projecting he got spat off at the first crux, but dogged his way to the chains, and confirmed the quality of the route. I was psyched to give it a good 2nd go attempt, but a snow storm swept in so we made a hasty retreat to the campsite.

The start of the first crux of the Quickening

Setting up for the throw.

Latched it!

Ahh Jugs! (Photo sequence courtesy of Andrew)

Saturday was a beautiful sunny morning and I was psyched to get back on The Quickening, but had to warm up and wait for Andrew to get done stalking Paige Claassen (a hot 5.14 female climber) to get a belay. I felt really confident going for it, which is a nice feeling to have before a hard climb. I sailed through the first crux, got a bit of a shake, then nailed the second crux sticking to my beta. I was climbing great, then the flash pump hit me, my forearms were bulging, I couldn’t close my hands to chalk up, but I knew I couldn’t live with myself if I fell off the 5.10 jugs. I barely managed to clip one of the anchor draws before my hands opened up. Phew, I did it, just! I was stoked to have sent this Smith classic so quick, it gave me renewed confidence in my ability after a spell of not climbing outdoors. In my guide The Quickening gets 12d, but in the new one its 12c. And if I am being honest with myself there is no way I am in the kind of shape to be sending 12d so quick, so I’ll take the 12c grade. For the rest of the day I was content giving Andrew belays on his 12a project which he sent! I drove back up to Olympia that night with a huge grin on my face. You know it’s a great trip when you’re already planning out your next one.

NC3 WWU

Yesterday I competed in the first Northwest College Climbing Competition (NC3) of the year up at Western Washington University up in Bellingham. I’m not climbing really strong right now because of my lingering finger injury, but a group of guys from Olympia were headed up so I tagged along. Chas, Morgan, Micah and I represented Evergreen. Jimmy and Kevin climbed for SPSCC, and Andrew came up with us climbing for UW. The gym up at Western is not the biggest, so it was pretty crowded with a couple hundred students from the major colleges around Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The comp reminded me a lot of the university climbing competitions I went to in the UK, there was the same excitement, team outfits and fancy dress. But in the UK there was a lot more money in it, back then our university sports association would pay for our flight and accommodation and we weren’t even that good. I think if the NC3 comps stay this well attended, they should move them to bigger gyms.

Micah deafens onlookers with his power scream



Chas almost sticks the second dyno

Morgan respresenting Evergreen in Men's Open Finals

I climbed alright, I had good strategy and got in 5 kinda hard problems. I liked the fact that they had a 30 point bonus for flashing problems, I think 4 of my top 5 were flashes. But a major criticism a lot of people had with the comp was that they didn’t allow any smearing at all! This made the problems really awkward and contrived, and the rule was really hard to enforce. I ended up taking 7th in advanced, if I were in better shape, I think I could have challenged to get top three, the standard wasn’t all that high. Chas and Andrew climbed well in advanced category as well. Micah climbed strongly but struggled to finish off the hard problems and ended up ripping up his scorecard and just climbed for fun. Jimmy, Morgan and Kevin climbed awesome in open. Jimmy and Morgan got 2 of the 3 spots in the open finals, a guy from the UW took the third spot. While they were in isolation there was a dyno comp, I entered and made it past the first round, but the next dyno’s were huge, it was really fun to watch though. Then open finals came, they were closely matched until the steep and slopey final problem, which I knew would suit Jimmy’s style. And sure enough he flashed it to win! Here’s a really badly shot video I got of it.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday, and I think I’m going to compete in some other ones throughout the NW in the next couple of months. I missed the pre-registration for the one in Spokane next weekend, but I heard from a guy from Central that Vantage is dry, so I think I know where I’m going to be next weekend if the weather holds.


Team Oly (minus Chas) at Boomers in Bellingham afterwards

Back on the rock

Its been a while since I last wrote a blog simply because I haven't been out much lately. In fact I think I had four weeks without any climbing outside, which is unheard of for me this time of year. There's a few reasons, the main one being the weather has been pretty atrocious here for the start of summer, we don't have a car so have to rely on others for rides, I was really busy with school at the start of June and since then the world cup has taken priority over some climbing days. Enough excuses, I hope to be getting out a lot more this summer.

I went climbing at the quarry for only the second time this year on wednesday, it wasn't completely dry, but it was getting there. It was good to get the feel for the routes there again, Laura redpointed The Manly Wham for the first time, I wonder what else she can send down there this summer. Then on friday I climbed up at Little Si with Jimmy, Lisa, Laura ,Andrew and Micah. It was a good day out, mostly dry. I realized I need to improve a lot on my stamina, I couldn't even repeat Technorigine, but I did manage to figure out how to do the crux on Chronic, I'm still a long way off that though. Andrew has been climbing really well recently and sent Aborigine on his second go, Laura should have sent too, but she took on the last moves, the redpoint crux.

Then on Sunday I got out to Exit 38 with Laura, Sierra, Melody, Justin, Sara, Sarah and Erica. It was a really good day out. We hung out at Interstate Park which everyone seemed to like, I finished up a few routes I hadn't done there before, including a couple of new ones that aren't in the guide. I did a really steep burly climb that was a lot of fun, I reckon it was 11+ish, but its hard to say. Laura did well, cleaning up a 10c that she had tried previously, and climbing her first onsight of an 11a! Justin and Sierra also got flashes of the 11a, so it was a good day all around. We finished off the day stopping off at the Harmon Brewery in Tacoma for some delicious microbrews and all you can eat fish and chips mmm.

I plan on getting a car soon which will make trips a lot easier and now that it seems like the summer has finally arrived it should mean a lot more climbing, especially as the world cup winds down. So, hopefully it wont be as long a wait til my next blog entry.

Squamish Heat

On Monday morning, Laura and I set off up the road for the first Squamish trip of the summer, Nick and Andrew, a new friend from the gym joined us. We made good time arriving up at Squamish in the early afternoon, and were surprised to find plenty of empty campsites, we later found out this was due to the new camping fee policy there, the site which cost us $9 a night last summer now costs $20 a night for the 4 of us, no wonder there are less dirtbag climbers spending their whole summer there now. We headed straight out to the boulders where we got on some easy classics, it was Andrews first time in Squamish and first time bouldering outside so we showed him some good ones to get started on, he managed to redpoint a V2, which is no easy feat in Squamish. I got on Airtight Garage a V7 that I have been trying for the last 3 summers, I really hate this problem but for some reason I feel the need to keep throwing myself at it because I always feel soo close on it. This time I got even closer than ever, pulling up on the good crimp going for the top, but true to form it kept spitting me off. After about an hour trying this problem I decided to cut my losses and move on. I think its time to forget about this problem, I always loose so much skin trying it, and its just not a fun boulder problem so I’ve decided never to try it again, if anyone ever sees me trying it they have my permission to pull me off it. We wrapped up our little bouldering session soon afterwards and decided to head out to the Smoke Bluffs for some trad action. This was much more fun and relaxed, I led five fun trad routes from 5.7 to 10b, my favorite by far was a route called Neat and Cool, a 10a trad route that starts out steep with some awesome face holds and great gear, and doesn’t really have any hard moves, but will get you pumped if you’re the type of climber that gets pumped, but as I explained to Andrew, I’m not that type of climber. It is probably one of my all time favorite routes. If you can lead 10a trad then you have got to get on this route. We wrapped up the climbing soon after that, as it was starting to get dark so we returned to the campsite, with a good feeling of accomplishment for the first day.

Andrew trying to stick the crux throw of Option B (V2)

Nick cruising a 5.8 at the Smoke Bluffs

Andrew approaching the crux of Pixie Corner his first 5.8 trad lead

The next day we woke up, had some breakfast then headed up the road to Cheakamus Canyon, to do some sport climbing. When we got out of the car we were blown away by the heat, the radio said it was going to reach 30 degrees Celsius, I forgot what that translated to exactly (just checked its 86 degrees F) but I knew it was pretty warm. We struggled in the heat but we managed to get up a few routes by sticking to the shade. The Well of Souls was cooler so we did a few routes there, Nick and I tried a really cool looking 12c called Timber Queen, it climbed really well til one stopper move near the top but we weren’t able to link this move. I really wanted to go for the onsight of a couple of 12a’s there. Of the 6 12a’s I’ve tried this year I’ve onsighted or flashed them all so thought I had a pretty good chance, but a combination of hot temperatures and cryptic sequences shut me down, so I had to settle for second go send of the two that I tried. I gave Nick running beta on one of them and he managed the flash, the 12a’s there are no walk in the park. Andrew and Laura managed a couple of impressive sends as well despite the heat, Andrew managed to flash a tough 10d at the Well of Souls and Laura managed an onsight of a 10d at foundation wall, nice job! On our way back from Cheakamus we stopped off at Wigan Pier a British style fish and chips restaurant, it was soo good, its run by a British expat so it tastes just like fish and chips from back home, I got cod and chips, a steak and kidney pie and an irn-bru, it was well worth it. After dinner we weren't feeling to motivated to climb but we had an hour or so of daylight so bouldered a bit in the forest before calling it a day.

Me on the amazing route Neat & Cool, 5.10 trad at the Smoke Bluffs

Me climbing in the sun

On Wednesday Andrew and Nick had planned to get up at 6am to beat the crowds to Diedre a super popular 5.8 multipitch up the Apron. Laura and I had already done that climb so planned on going up Banana Peel an 8-pitch 5.7 next to it which isn't quite as popular so we figured we'd get up at a much more reasonable 7.30. We got up had a bite to eat and headed up towards the climb. On our approach we saw them only a pitch up the wrong climb! We shouted up at them that they were on the wrong climb. They rapped down and waited in line for Diedre, but by this point there were a few parties ahead of them so they had to wait for quite a while. Our climb was a lot of fun, it only had a couple of sections of 5.7 climbing, the rest was running it out on easy slabs. Laura and I climbed really efficiently together, and Laura even led the last pitch to the top. We got back to the campsite around 11 had lunch, packed up the campsite, listened to the radio took a nap and waited for Nick and Andrew to get back. We waited and waited and eventually at 2.30 they made it back to the campsite, they were ok, it just took them a long time being stuck behind a few groups. By the time they had lunch and packed it was getting close to our leaving time, and it was way too hot to get on anything, so we drove down to Murin Park to go for a swim in the lake. It was a great way to finish off the trip. There was a lot of stuff I wanted to do that I just didn't have time for, but I will be back soon!

Laura takes a seat to place gear on the last pitch of Banana Peel on the Apron

Me and Nick cool off in Murrin Lake before we head home