A genuinely quick post

I spent the long weekend with good friends at Squamish… it was another lovely weekend of rock climbing. I took some pictures, so I’ll probably put up a little photo album if any turned out later on… no lengthy trip report this time. Friday was an unusually short trip up given the holiday weekend, picking up friends along the way. Saturday was Smoke Bluffs where I got to climb some new and some old favorites. Sunday took us to Murrin for a relatively short day of climbing followed by one of the best camp nights ever… two girls, four beers and a bar of chocolate. Camp nights are typically co-ed if not male dominated… so a little girl time was an unusual treat. Monday saw my first jaunt on the Apron… it was a low stress, high fun trip up and down, and the views were absolutely stunning. I am getting used to being up high, and really learning to love it.

Happy Monday — I mean, Tuesday — all… this week is a grand adventure in my work-related world, so stay tuned for another update when I have more than a moment between coffee and mascara to write.

Filed under: Squamish

Dreaming of Dierdre and Monkeys

Shawn “Beautiful Girls” Campbell emailed earlier this week with a very simple message… the Smith Rock weather report. Chris and I are both exhausted… we’ve been burning the candle at both ends with work and other commitments, and have not made it into the climbing gym regularly, so usually we’d sigh longingly and pass so that we could stay home and get caught up on some need-to-do’s over the long weekend. Not this time. Something about the timing of this unusually sunny weekend at Smith in February told Chris and I both that we needed to reclaim a little part of our lives and blow off our commitments and play outside this weekend. It will be a quick trip… just two days of climbing and a whole lot of driving… but we’ve got good friends to share both with, and it will be nice to go somewhere familiar and happy and just have some fun, even if it’s chilly.

In the very limited time we have had to pack and plan for the trip, it got me thinking about my goals for the year. My primary goal is to not get too caught up with the day job, and make time to keep climbing and playing outside. But aside from that, I do have some more specific goals. In thinking about this Smith trip, a goal for this year dawned on me… I’d like to do one of the moderates on Monkey Face. The routes are physically achievable, and it’s just the mental challenge of the exposure and the unknown. It won’t be this trip… that’s more of a later in the season goal, but that’s one of the things I’d like to do this year.

Another general goal is to spend more time at Squamish… for a variety of reasons we didn’t make it up at all last year, and this year we’re going to reverse that trend. Chris’s goal is to do Dierdre, a 6-pitch 5.8 on the South Apron at the Chief. That too is achievable, I think, this year.

I’m comfortable leading in that range on sport routes, but am still working on confidence on gear, so those are two good goals for this year. I don’t know that we’ll make progress on them this weekend since I think our plan is to go fast and light and leave the rack at home this trip, but we’ll see. I may sneak the rack bag into the car just in case we get an opportunity to do some trad leading.

Now, time for the day job. Have a fun, safe weekend, all!

rock climbing, smith rock

Filed under: Smith Rock, Squamish

Dreaming of Dierdre and Monkeys

Shawn “Beautiful Girls” Campbell emailed earlier this week with a very simple message… the Smith Rock weather report. Chris and I are both exhausted… we’ve been burning the candle at both ends with work and other commitments, and have not made it into the climbing gym regularly, so usually we’d sigh longingly and pass so that we could stay home and get caught up on some need-to-do’s over the long weekend. Not this time. Something about the timing of this unusually sunny weekend at Smith in February told Chris and I both that we needed to reclaim a little part of our lives and blow off our commitments and play outside this weekend. It will be a quick trip… just two days of climbing and a whole lot of driving… but we’ve got good friends to share both with, and it will be nice to go somewhere familiar and happy and just have some fun, even if it’s chilly.

In the very limited time we have had to pack and plan for the trip, it got me thinking about my goals for the year. My primary goal is to not get too caught up with the day job, and make time to keep climbing and playing outside. But aside from that, I do have some more specific goals. In thinking about this Smith trip, a goal for this year dawned on me… I’d like to do one of the moderates on Monkey Face. The routes are physically achievable, and it’s just the mental challenge of the exposure and the unknown. It won’t be this trip… that’s more of a later in the season goal, but that’s one of the things I’d like to do this year.

Another general goal is to spend more time at Squamish… for a variety of reasons we didn’t make it up at all last year, and this year we’re going to reverse that trend. Chris’s goal is to do Dierdre, a 6-pitch 5.8 on the South Apron at the Chief. That too is achievable, I think, this year.

I’m comfortable leading in that range on sport routes, but am still working on confidence on gear, so those are two good goals for this year. I don’t know that we’ll make progress on them this weekend since I think our plan is to go fast and light and leave the rack at home this trip, but we’ll see. I may sneak the rack bag into the car just in case we get an opportunity to do some trad leading.

Now, time for the day job. Have a fun, safe weekend, all!

rock climbing, smith rock

Filed under: Smith Rock, Squamish

Squamish redux

We rolled into Squamish about 11:45 on Friday night, too late to get a campsite so we tested out the sleeping-on-the-seats option in Chris’s Honda Element. The verdict? Seat sleeping is ok for a ferry ride, not okay for overnight. Luckily the seats in the back fold up, so second night we were much happier on our boulder pad. No pictures of the world’s second smallest RV but we’ll try to take some the next time around. We’re hoping for a national parks camping tour at the end of September, so stay tuned.

The climbing this weekend was stellar, as always in Squamish. We spent Saturday morning on things we could safely and happily lead at Cheakamus Canyon. We started at Conroy’s Castle on Emil the Detective, a classic 5.8 slab route with one move that felt 5.9 on lead, but it was close to a bolt so super safe. It was one of the most fun leads I’ve done — nice and long but achievable and not scary — and a nice place to practice basic multipitch techniques. This beautiful view above is from the belay ledge at the top of the first pitch of Emil. Chris went up it and anchored in and belayed me from above, so we got to enjoy a few minutes on the belay ledge at the top of the first pitch together. This pic is of Chris looking studly at the top of Emil. Observe his lovely rope management.

We then went on to another nice easy/moderate route a little further down the road on the Crest crag. Our guidebook said it was a 5.7 first pitch, 5.9 second pitch, and Chris lead the first pitch without even a pause. He belayed me from above and then we thought about going up the second pitch but the start to the first bolt looked a bit trickier than I wanted to take on given the fall geometry, and Chris wasn’t feeling like leading it so we talked out our options and decided to play it safe, call it another good multipitch-skills practice, and rap off. Here’s Chris on the super happy belay ledge. Observe the “climber hunch” he has worked so hard to perfect.

And, this pic is of my rap setup (in progress; this is before my backup prussik went on). In retrospect we’re glad we went for safe, since it sounds like ratings on the second pitch are in a bit of disagreement — some say the route is 5.8/5.10a for the first and second pitches; leading eleven bolts of 10a in full sun when we were already tired may have turned what what a lovely, safe, confidence-building day into an epic. The next pic is me on rappel. Chris told me to smile. It’s an attractive look, I know.

We caught up with friends after that and got to toprope a 5.10b on Forgotten Wall that we wouldn’t otherwise have gotten to try… it was excellent to get a chance to really jug haul and climb something harder but fun and safe, outside. By that point in the day, though, we were exhausted, so we hit the pub for yammer jammers (the best yam french fries on the face of the planet) and dinner and then retreated back to the Element for “a nap” in the Chief parking lot around 8:30pm. After a nice little nine-hour “nap” we hit the Chief boulders for a serious spanking. I am astonished at how hard outside bouldering is for me. I’m a fairly competent beginniner-to-moderate climber, and I can’t even get on most of the V0s up there. Chris got right on and threw down a V0 and V1 at Titanic North and then Squamish Days (V0) — he’s a more gutsy boulderer than I am, for sure. I have to admit — I got frustrated. But, ultimately I was able to project and finish the V0 at Titanic North, which felt good. I’d do that one, then go to another project and fail miserably, then go back to the V0 to feel better about myself. Despite the frustration, it was fun to pull hard for a bit, and we had a lovely morning in the happy forest.

All in all, it was a weekend very well spent. This was our second trip up, and I was again suprised at how much fun we have climbing in Squamish.

Now, back to the day job…

Categories: Rock Climbing

Filed under: Squamish

Squamish redux

We rolled into Squamish about 11:45 on Friday night, too late to get a campsite so we tested out the sleeping-on-the-seats option in Chris’s Honda Element. The verdict? Seat sleeping is ok for a ferry ride, not okay for overnight. Luckily the seats in the back fold up, so second night we were much happier on our boulder pad. No pictures of the world’s second smallest RV but we’ll try to take some the next time around. We’re hoping for a national parks camping tour at the end of September, so stay tuned.

The climbing this weekend was stellar, as always in Squamish. We spent Saturday morning on things we could safely and happily lead at Cheakamus Canyon. We started at Conroy’s Castle on Emil the Detective, a classic 5.8 slab route with one move that felt 5.9 on lead, but it was close to a bolt so super safe. It was one of the most fun leads I’ve done — nice and long but achievable and not scary — and a nice place to practice basic multipitch techniques. This beautiful view above is from the belay ledge at the top of the first pitch of Emil. Chris went up it and anchored in and belayed me from above, so we got to enjoy a few minutes on the belay ledge at the top of the first pitch together. This pic is of Chris looking studly at the top of Emil. Observe his lovely rope management.

We then went on to another nice easy/moderate route a little further down the road on the Crest crag. Our guidebook said it was a 5.7 first pitch, 5.9 second pitch, and Chris lead the first pitch without even a pause. He belayed me from above and then we thought about going up the second pitch but the start to the first bolt looked a bit trickier than I wanted to take on given the fall geometry, and Chris wasn’t feeling like leading it so we talked out our options and decided to play it safe, call it another good multipitch-skills practice, and rap off. Here’s Chris on the super happy belay ledge. Observe the “climber hunch” he has worked so hard to perfect.

And, this pic is of my rap setup (in progress; this is before my backup prussik went on). In retrospect we’re glad we went for safe, since it sounds like ratings on the second pitch are in a bit of disagreement — some say the route is 5.8/5.10a for the first and second pitches; leading eleven bolts of 10a in full sun when we were already tired may have turned what what a lovely, safe, confidence-building day into an epic. The next pic is me on rappel. Chris told me to smile. It’s an attractive look, I know.

We caught up with friends after that and got to toprope a 5.10b on Forgotten Wall that we wouldn’t otherwise have gotten to try… it was excellent to get a chance to really jug haul and climb something harder but fun and safe, outside. By that point in the day, though, we were exhausted, so we hit the pub for yammer jammers (the best yam french fries on the face of the planet) and dinner and then retreated back to the Element for “a nap” in the Chief parking lot around 8:30pm. After a nice little nine-hour “nap” we hit the Chief boulders for a serious spanking. I am astonished at how hard outside bouldering is for me. I’m a fairly competent beginniner-to-moderate climber, and I can’t even get on most of the V0s up there. Chris got right on and threw down a V0 and V1 at Titanic North and then Squamish Days (V0) — he’s a more gutsy boulderer than I am, for sure. I have to admit — I got frustrated. But, ultimately I was able to project and finish the V0 at Titanic North, which felt good. I’d do that one, then go to another project and fail miserably, then go back to the V0 to feel better about myself. Despite the frustration, it was fun to pull hard for a bit, and we had a lovely morning in the happy forest.

All in all, it was a weekend very well spent. This was our second trip up, and I was again suprised at how much fun we have climbing in Squamish.

Now, back to the day job…

Categories: Rock Climbing

Filed under: Climbing Photos, Squamish, Trip Reports