Sandy:

This was our fourth consecutive day of climbing but after finishing The Spirit of Squamish on Day 3, we spent two hours at Brenan Park and Recreation Center in the pool, hot tub and steam room, which was very relaxing and enabled an 8 hour recoup in our new adventure car. The sleep scores in our Garmin watches provided data to back up how we felt in the morning. We woke up at 4:50am and were at the base of Long Time No See by 6:15am. We saw a stronger and faster couple who arrived at about the same time as us, so we let them go first.

Long Time No See (5.9)

The fixed line start to the base of pitch 1 discussed on mountain project can be avoided by going left on a walk-up path. One thing I loved about Squamish is that safety is the top priority. They have generously bolted crux sections on all the climbs we did, which was quite a contrast against what we have observed in Joshua Tree, Yosemite and Tuolumne. The crack type and gear description on mountain project is accurate. The rest of the trip report is expressed as figure captions.

Start of pitch 1. The first move on pitch 1 is a boulder move and a guaranteed deck for the leader and the follower if not executed flawlessly. Pitches are short on this climb, so we linked pitch 1 and 2.

Top of pitch 2. I thought pitch 1 and 2 has a bit of strenuous climbing, after that its casual fun climbing until pitch 7.

Looking down from the top of pitch 2.

Motivation boost somewhere on pitch 3. We linked pitch 3 and 4.

Pitch 5: Where is the rope? We linked pitch 5 and 6. The pitches are quite easy and I hardly placed gear on pitch 5. Pitch 6 looks scary because of the large exposure but there are good jams on the traverse and its well protected.

Pitch 6: Traversing under the roofs

Pitch 7: This has a bouldery hard start, but the bolts protect is very well. The crux for me was to get into the above shown position. Then it’s a delicate and exhilarating layback with some protected slab climbing above this diagonal crack. We linked pitch 7 and 8.

Start of pitch 9. Unlike the mountain project comment, I thought the finger crack was less strenuous than the first two pitches.

The Squamish Butt Face (5.9)

The walk up from the top of Long Time No See to the start of Squamish Butt Face was not trivial in my opinion but there is well trodden path and a short slippery slab section.

Pitch 1 has an easy start and a bolt for the slab traverse. This pitch reminded me of Catapult (5.8) on Castle Rock, Leavenworth, WA, USA. We linked pitch 1 and 2 and also pitch 3 and 4. On this climb I think only pitch 5 and 6 were tricky and heady. Surprisingly, we found fewer people in line on single pitches at Smoke Bluffs compared to the multipitches on Chief and Shannon Falls, therefore route finding was not a problem.

Pitch 5: Layback finger crack with good features for feet. The follower of the above party is clearing way for us. For the traverse to the left, there are couple of bolts for protection. I thought that the finger crack section was easier than the traverse which is delicate with tons of exposure beneath.

Start of pitch 6 which looks deceptively close to the ground, but it isn’t.

Pitch 6: The chimney takes a totem #.4 and a #.75. The #.4 kept getting deeper into the crack and I had to let it go after fighting for about 20 minutes. Left shoulder in, works better and there are good feet on the right wall.

View from the summit.

Mt. Garibaldi in the view.

Allow me to sing praises about how well maintained the descent routes are in Canada. In the USA we have climbed alpine routes in Washington, California and Wyoming but in terms of climbing safety, maintenance of trails and descend routes, Squamish, BC is undoubtedly the winner. The trails are very well marked with signs and colors on the trees, have staircases made up of rocks, metal for steeper sections as shown in the picture above and of wood. Apart from a short bushy wacky descent of hairpin, I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of care and consideration shown by the Canadian Government towards climbers and hikers. I am very thankful for this effort. Also, the climbing community is humble and positive unlike the comments on mountain project from Californian climbers for routes/descends in Joshua Tree, Yosemite and Tuolumne.

We were on the summit by 2:45pm and back to the car by 3:30pm. Now it was time to celebrate with ice-cream at Alice + Brohm which are way less sugary than ice-creams in USA. To me it felt like they use only fruits and possibly very little added sugar. We also rejoiced the burger, sweet potato fries and beer at A-FRAME brewery. We had beer every evening at A-FRAME which has great outdoor seating and ambiance.