Quinn and I had just over a week to climb at Squamish – here is a second post to cover the second half of our climbing time. Here is Quinn at the ready for today’s excursion – a fairly long link up of several routes to get us to the top of the Chief.
Looking down the 3rd pitch of a 5.10c route on the Bulletheads formation.
It’s common to end up on a nice large forested ledge at Squamish in between long sections of sheer cliff – really unlike any other big climbing area I’ve been to.
Another view of the spacious belay “ledge” about 400’ off the deck.
Another view of the spacious belay “ledge” about 400’ off the deck.
The cracks run out and the 5th pitch presents some pretty hard and exposed thin face climbing up a blunt arête – pretty cool!
Quinn coming up the last easy section of the 5th pitch arête. You can see the coastal highway, gondola and our campground in the background far below.
The view from the broad summit of the 5th pitch.
Quinn sleeping on the job…
After hiking up through forests and ledges for a bit, there is this connector pitch that takes you to the next cliff band. “Rockaneering” so to speak.
A challenging face climbing pitch above the Bellygood Ledge system – some good exposure here!
A second 5.10c pitch above Bellygood ledge leads to another forest/ledge system where we descended to the south to pick up the main descent route.
Part of the descent off the Chief – pretty casual and fairly quick for such a large formation. Nice.
A cold beer back at the campsite :)
Quinn chillin at camp, Howe Sound in the background.
Next climbing target was a 400’ high formation called the Papoose. Several excellent 3-4 pitch routes are found here after a “grueling” 10 minute walk from camp…
Looking up the first pitch of “Centrefold”, an excellent 3 pitch 5.10c.
Me leading the 2nd pitch – cool and tricky crack climbing followed by some steep face.
Quinn heading out on the somewhat spicy 3rd pitch – classic Squamish slab climbing with some run outs to keep you honest.
On top of the Papoose, Squamish behind.
Looking over at a party on “Hairpin”, the next route on the list.
Quinn leading the very cool 1st pitch of Hairpin. This route zigs and zags across the face, so the name is quite appropriate!
The crux second pitch of Hairpin, a bit of tricky thin crack climbing followed by some corners.
Quinn coming up the final section of pitch 2. Cool climbing.
The easy but truly hairpin 3rd pitch. Great views, but you can’t hear the road noise in the picture eh?
Quinn leading the 4th pitch face climbing on his way to summit glory!
Summit team photo. This would be Quinn’s last full day before flying home from Vancouver.
We did a couple of short routes at the Smoke Bluffs before Quinn caught a bus to the Vancouver airport. This was a really fun 5.10a thin crack called “The Zip”. After Quinn left for home, I took a much needed rest day – my finger joints were quite sore from all the fun! :)
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