Sandy:

Background

After getting my green card, Squamish became our go-to July 4th vacation spot with its amazing single pitches, multipitches, ice creams, chilly fish (Indian Masala Grill), and the swimming/hot tub/steam room at Brennan Park.

The first six months of 2024 were packed with high-priority work tasks and school for both of us. I officially finished Stage 1 of my PhD on April 5th. After four years with my advisor, I realized our working styles just didn’t match. I had to choose between sticking it out or finding a new advisor in the ECE department. It was a risky move, but I decided to switch in May. Life has been much more positive and less stressful for both Rick and me (he no longer has to hear my repeated emotional rants).

For this trip, we trained at Trout Creek and Lower Gorge (Smith Rock) during April, May, and June. I led several 5.10- trad routes at both places, and Rick is breaking into 5.11 trad. After all the prep, climbing felt so enjoyable and devoid of fear. Our itinerary for the trip is as follows:

July 4 : Drive from Portland and arrive at Squamish by 3pm. Climbed Pixie Corner (5.8), Joe’s Crack (5.9), Davy Jones’ Locker (5.7), Jabberwocky (5.10b), Gobbledgook (5.8) at Smoke Bluffs.

July 5 : Wicker Cranium (5.9), A Little Testis (5.10b), The Reacharound (5.9), Groovy Guru (5.10c) at Murrin Park

July 6 : Born Again (7 pitches, 5.10b on Apron)

July 7 : St. Vitus’s Dance with Vector Variation (5 pitches, 5.10a on Apron)

July 8 : Forced rest day because we got to the base of Rock On around 7:30am and we were behind three parties.

July 9 : Rock On (We got to the base at 6am, 6 pitches, 5.10a on Apron. It’s hard to link the two 5.10a pitches with last 5.7 pitch due to rope drag)

July 10 : Read Between the Lines (5 pitches, 5.10- on Apron)

July 11 : Angel’s Crest (13 pitches, 5.10b, tagging the second summit of Stawamus Chief)

July 12 : Diedre (6 pitches, 5.8 on Apron)

July 13 : 5 mile walk on the trails around Alice Lake and climbed Cold Comfort (5.9), Lust (5.10+), The Zip (5.10a) in Smoke Bluffs.

A total of 54 pitches over 9 days of climbing with 33% of them at 5.10 grade which is a twice the amount of 5.10 pitches we did in Squamish in July 2023.

Born Again climb description in image captions

Pitch 1 (5.8, 35m): I placed only a .3 in the crack clipped the bolts. Fairly easy slab.

Pitch 2 (5.9, 30m): The party following us is at top of pitch 1. Rick has only placed a .2, .3 and .5 at the flake in addition to clipping bolts.

Pitch 2 finish

Pitch 3 (5.9, 45m): Its finicky to protect, totems are mandatory (at least for my peace of mind) crack is wavy as usual, but it was also quite slimy/wet due to morning dew. Also, the crack is steeper than it looks in the above picture. For the lower section I placed a totem .2, offset .1, and for the upper section (picture below) I placed #1, .3 and .75 before clipping the bolt. There are two bolts, and a bit of thoughtful slab moves before a ledge.

Pitch 3

Pitch 4 (5.10b, 25m) : Steep and spicy slab traverse that protects very well. Falls are super mellow.

Looking down from the top of pitch 4

Pitch 5 (5.10a, 30m): This pitch felt fairly straight forward until the pulling over to the slab again which is protected by a bolt and some unprotected slab moves to the crack right above Rick. It all sticks very well when it’s cold during the early morning. Rick placed a .4, #1, .2, .4, some hand size gear on the right side and some more finger size pieces on the crack above him.

Looking down from the top of pitch 5. The party behind us is clipping the second bolt on the slab.

Pitch 6 (5.9, 35m): This crack was dry and matches the description of hands to finger corner from mountain project. Did not place anything bigger than a #1 or smaller than .3. It did feel a bit vertical at places but it’s not a sustained 5.9.

Pitch 7 (5.9, 50m) is also steep and quite thoughtful at places but has equidistant bolts. Traverse right to a tree at the end and descend from there. Our picture is super exposed due to sun rays.

We had lunch at Indian Masala Grill followed by a much-needed swim and spa session.