Soaking up the landscape of North America, we celebrated by searching for that sublime satisfaction of the perfect climb with the perfect partner.
Five year later, we sat at the Canadian Border in a 90 minute line, 2 hours after running out of gas (in the Prius) and five hours after leaving my sister's house in Seattle. What better way to celebrate #5 then road trippin' to Squamish for a weekend of climbing? Right at that moment, I thought anything would be better than sitting in that God damned line with all the other tourists. We got stymied by the masses and it was pissing me off. What should have been a five year mini-reprise of the climbing honeymoon was turning into a five-hour ordeal of traffic, borders and delays.
We had laid a plan to travel to Squish on Friday and climb a few pitches at the Smoke Bluffs. Saturday morning, we would wake up and climb Angel's Crest, IV 5.10b, 13 pitches up the North side of the Chief - Kristin's biggest climb to date.
Sunday and Monday we would kick back, enjoy the buzz of a successful route and climb some more cracks till we had to return back to Portland.
The plan went awry. We finally pulled into Squamish late on Friday afternoon and got in a couple of pitches in the Bluffs up by Penny Lane. We met a couple of people and got to talking about weekend plans, and they had already talked to three other parties headed to Angel's Crest the next day. They also told us how they screwed up the approach to AC, ending up in North North Gully only to find the base of the climb three and a half hours after leaving the car. Hmm ... crowds and getting lost. Sounds great.
Saturday morning we woke up at 5 am and were headed up the trail by 6. We dutifully trudged up the forest, found the entrance to the gully and then started looking for the climb. We roped up and scrambled up some scruffy 4th/5th class towards what we thought was the buttress. After a couple of pitches of this BS, we finally accepted the fact that we had made the exact same mistake as our friends from the day before and ended up on the approach to North North Arete. Arrrgghhh! Just as we turned around, another party showed up looking for the same climb. At least we weren't the only ones - I guess misery loves company. We pointed them in the right direction (downhill) as we rapped off and packed it up. So much for Saturday.
Sunday we finally got our act together and once again found ourselves walking through the old-growth forest at 6 am. This time, we knew where we were going and found the start of the climb after about 20 minutes of walking. And off we went - the Angel's Anniversary.
P1 - Climb the cedar tree. It bypasses two scruffy pitches and deposits you right at the start of the Angel Crack. Its also faster and a good way to pass parties low on the route. Plus the fifth is the "wood" anniversary!
P2 - Sweet! Early morning air, a clean crack and nice views. The .10a crux is at the end, with excellent rests along the traversing pitch. Save a little gas in the tank.
P3 - The supposed crux. Step down to the left, then a couple hand jams into straightforward face climbing past 2 bolts. I thought this was pretty easy for .10b.
P4 - Easy climbing up broken terrain.
P5 and 6 - Another solid .10a pitch Enticing cracks head straight up but climb right on face holds to a right facing corner with a finger crack. Easy for .10a. Instead of belaying, head straight up the face until you get to the forest. About a 185 feet.
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| From Squamish July '09 |
P7 - Move the belay a short ways up through the forest to the ramp system that heads straight up the buttress. The entrance to the second ramp is a bit tricky on thin gear but not at all strenuous. The .10a corner above is super fun!
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| From Squamish July '09 |
Move up through the forest again and pass the cool totem.
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| From Squamish July '09 |
P8 - Head to the right of the offwidth up a finger crack and then right again to a groove. Kind of short and not that great.
Move up through the forest again to the base of the Acrophobe Traverse. From here you can see the rest of the route, and it looks awesome!
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| From Squamish July '09 |
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| From Squamish July '09 |
P9 - So fun! Climb up easy cracks and slabs to the top of the lower tower and then walk across on a narrow fin of solid granite. From the end of the traverse, climb up more low angle cracks straight to the summit of the tower and belay from directly on top off of two bolts. Quite a perch!
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| From Squamish July '09 |
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| From Squamish July '09 |
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| From Squamish July '09 |
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| From Squamish July '09 |
From there, rap the bsckside of the tower and scramble a short ways up to a fixed line. Climb down the fixed line and scramble behind the next tower to the start of the next pitch at the notch.
P10 - Start up fairly easy terrain on cracks to a ledge. Straightforward pitch.
P11 - Climb up a wide crack to the whaleback arete. Traverse the whale back to the next ledge and belay. Fun position and good climbing.
P12 - This is the real crux of the route. From a tree belay on a narrow ledge, step past a manky old pin to the right until you can see two crack system close together. Head up the right hand crack and over a small roof - probably the crux moves - then into a narrow slot/chimney. Plug in some gear in the back and then up again over a small roof to a good stance under the final headwall crack. Climb the awesome hand crack with amazing exposure and stellar rock to the top and a huge ledge. Woohoo!! I thought this was pretty solid for .10a. Save some juice for this pitch.
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| From Squamish July '09 |
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| From Squamish July '09 |
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| From Squamish July '09 |
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| From Squamish July '09 |
P13 - Step right and climb the chimney. Left side in with straightforward chimney moves leads quickly to lower angle cracks and then you're on top. The second should definitely trail the pack off the belay loop for the chimney moves - really only a couple of moves.
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| From Squamish July '09 |
From the top, we had a few minutes to relax and reflect on the weekend. We finally found that elusive state of mind - strung out from adrenaline and physically tired but proud of the work with a safe and easy descent back to the car. Ahhhh.
Perfect climb? Mmmmm ... I would say excellent but far from perect.
Perfect partner? Definitely!
In the end, the 5th Anniversary climb parodied lots of other experience we've had on the rock over the last five years. Plans get screwed up. We get lost. Maybe we don't get in as many pitches as we wanted. But with a little patience, we eventually find ourselves in that moment of focus and relaxation with air beneath us and the Angels above.
Nice TR and congrats on the anniversary!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Keep climbing.
ReplyDelete