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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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We were climbing the Flake and Cleaning the Brain/Simian Response that afternoon. We had finished up and left the area at the time of the accident. What an ugly tragedy.
On a different note, what are some of your favorite obscure climbs in Squamish that deserve way more traffic. Got any mossed over gems that you think should be brought back to usage?
My vote is the above mentioned Cleaning the Brain(Jim Brennan FA in the 80's) and it's continuation second pitch, the Simian Response. In 2003, my friend Andreas and I scrubbed the crap out of the Brain to make it climbable. It was an awesome 10c splitter thin-hand crack that hardly anyone ever climbed. We put up a second pitch that went up the not very aesthetic looking but fun to climb corner system to the right, Andreas named it the Simian Response. It was a steep layback 10+ enduro pitch that featured a bomb-bay chimney which only long legged peeps like me could de-pump on. Both pitches were really good quality, but might very well be mossed over again.
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MH2
climber
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Thanks for the suggestion of Cleaning the Brain/ Simian Response.
I've done Raindance a couple times and continued up the mossy corner to the cedar. That's 2 obscure pitches.
I am surprised by the relative popularity of Calculus Crack compared to its neighbor South Arete.
Once I was told that a few Squamish regulars have a list of obscure climbs on the fridge. I've never seen such a list.
I don't know how much traffic The Reacharound sees but it stays clean and it is pretty good. Judging by the vegetation on it, Mr. Picklebits is obscure. There are many climbs that don't get talked about much but are well worth doing.
A route I have tried to find out about lies directly under where Julia took her spectacular fall.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1003155&tn=0
edit:
Just a couple weeks ago we saw signs of cleaning just right of the mystery crack.
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bmacd
Mountain climber
100% Canadian
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Squamish could use a new guidebook, that for once, includes all climbs
not select, not excluding, just all of them, in one goddam book, preferably not written by a sport climber or an exclusionist or a revisionist
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Matt M
Trad climber
Alamo City
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The fellow that lowered off to his death on Exasperator
Small world on ST. I was there when David Gunstone (beta) fell on Exasperator. It was my first time in Squamish and I was just finishing up the last part of Cruel Shoes. I had just reached the far right side of the ledge near the Split Pillar base. I heard scraping, a scream and looked down to see a man bouncing and tumbling to the ground. Saw the whole thing. Still can a bit... I brought my partner up and decided to bail having watched the activity on the ground the whole time my motivation for the rest of the Grand was quashed for the day. We rapped down right next to the ER team working on him. Not much to do at that point. I was new to the PNW and only learned later how much DG had done for Index, WA among other places.
After making sure we couldn't be of any help we retreated to the Pub for many beers...
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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"The Gong and Short of It" ( I think that's the name?) is pretty much right on the highway roadcut ( a non-blasted section) in an otherwise climbless section of highway south of the orange bridge on the Cheakamus South section of the 99. Great obscure 10b fingercrack.
Maybe it's just the Gong Show. I dunno. I think it's listed in McLane's Whistler guide, somewhere.
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MH2
climber
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Obscure?
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Is Quagmire Crack obscure again? It's one of my favorites and although it was very briefly not obscure, I bet it's back to being off most people's radar.
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MH2
climber
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The entire Lower Malemute is obscure again. Well, large parts of it, anyway.
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE SQUAMISH?
Caps off
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sac
Trad climber
Sun Coast B.C.
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Some friends and I had some great climbing adventures up @ the "Fluffy Kitten Wall... years ago... grand location... shady faces you can see from hwy... below Mt.Habrich.
I would imagine that it qualifies as "obscure" these days, as road is closed.
Great climbing in Aug... in the shade... sorry, no pics.
Anyone ever climb there?
... think I met Bruce K.(maybe) once...talked about some ICE routes on it?...
Cheers
A.Durie
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MH2
climber
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Yes, I've been to Fluffy Kitten and climbed Tiggers. Great feel to the place. Not sure why the rope bridge because we go in August to out-wait snow melting above and making the rock wet, and the water high.
A sequence from Quagmire Crack
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thekidcormier
Trad climber
squamish, b.c.
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Most of the lower malamute is relatively cleean and climbable although illegal, except the few that bruce mentioned along with the two access pitchs to quagmire; canadian compromise a 'wild' looking flaring flake, and a balancy looking barley route that had a fix line hanging near the start.
sick photos mh, you musta fixed your belay anchor super long.
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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I have some pics of my friends and I climbing Fluffy Kitten wall somewhere in the stash. We didn't know what we were climbing at the time, just started going up some multi-pitch route with shiny anchors. The climbing was great quality, nice and clean. We got to the last shiny anchor in the middle of the wall, looked up and said, "why not keep going?". So I started up some easy crack line, it was filthy dirty. I kept going till I set up a gear belay at a stance. I didn't clean any of it and neither did my friends. We kept forging up the wall, trying to find a path to reach the summit but we got to a bush ledge and decided to call it quits. Trying to clean out unclimbed dirt cracks, on lead with only a nut-tool was not as much fun as we hoped. We rappelled off a laughable bush "anchor". It looked like good bush, well good enough not to die on.
We later found out it was called Pussy Galore. Does that ring a bell Sac?
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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I've got a picture somewhere of Dick and Corina two or three pitches up on the first ascent of the first route on the Fluffy Kitten Wall. It wasn't called Fluffy Kitten then, and we only got about three pitches done, and never went back. I don't know why we didn't go back -- plenty of other climbs calling to us I guess.
If I can find the picture, I'll scan it and post it. Won't happen for a few weeks though, cuz everything we own is buried in the basement while we are ripping apart the upstairs and putting it back together.
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sac
Trad climber
Sun Coast B.C.
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My pal Brian came up w/ the name "Fluffy Kitten".
He was looking to downplay the big bold majestic name... or something.
Relic, good on ya! I recall that route being 1/2 pitches? I'd heard of someone continuing...anyway, prob. the one... as obvious dry crack to jump on...
Ghost, Wow, too cool... mystery solved? There is a route in the older KM guide, listed "unknown" that is... until now? I remember seeing the tat.
Good to hear of folks climbing up there... "Backcountry rockclimbing in SW B.C."
There is another, larger wall up, and right of the Kitten (seen from hwy!)
It got climbed once, as far as I know... very good quality climbing onsite, and we continued to summit Habrich. Some plumbs on that one fershur! I was always amazed that w' all the climbers around, very, few would seek adventures in this zone, amazing rock, way up there, viewed from hwy. 99, minimal approach "old growth" forests... aaaaaanyway... Obscure fer shur, eh. Now w/ road closed.
Mh2... what's the best way up that road these days... pieds?
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Ya Sac, we added those two scruffy pitches I described above to the existing route. KMcL guidebook has some made up drawing of the path we took, which is totally wrong. Actually, the line went just left of some huge overhangs then directly up the wall. The description and dotted line drawing of the last pitch of Kitty Porn looks and sounds like where we finished up. I suspect we might have climbed the same finger crack but approached it from below.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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I remember seeing the tat.
Now that's an interesting subject all on its own. Most of us who have done "first ascents" at Squamish (and I imagine at most other places), have either discovered evidence that someone was there before us, or found out that someone was there even if they didn't leave any evidence.
Some of it can be mysterious indeed. As as been mentioned already on ST, a climb that Loomer and I did the first ascent of, and which later was extended and named Rock On, turns out to have been climbed may years earlier by Hamish. He even named it. Called it Bastille. But no one ever really knew where this mystery route was, and there was nothing to indicate that anyone had been on it before us when Loomer and I climbed it.
But here's another, even more mysterious sighting: Whereas I can see how Hamish and partner got on their climb -- just thrashed up the gully and started climbing -- I found a gear station on what is now the fourth pitch of Borderline when I was cleaning it, but haven't got a clue how it could have got there. The cleaning involved to get to that point was absolutely brutal, and I just don't believe anybody had gone up that way before us. And yet there was what appeared to be an old rap anchor about half way up the fourth pitch. And not from the dark ages, either, because there was a hex involved. So presumably from the 1970s.
I assume that at some point, someone had rapped down the face from above, maybe scoping it out, maybe having some kind of epic retreat from the Angels Crest, but I really don't know. What I do know is that the cracks and corners on Bordeline were among the dirtiest I've cleaned, and I really doubt that anyone could have gone up there without leaving any trace.
Anybody out there have any knowledge or ideas?
Edit: Posted from as far away from climbing as you can get in North America. The airport in the hellhole known as Miami.
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MH2
climber
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According to Bruce Kay above, the road to Fluffy Kitten is again open. Good for 2WD but may have a few uneven spots that it might be wise not to go too fast over. You don't want to come back down this way:
A friend worked on a trail to get to Habrich from Fluffy Kitten. I heard it may be hard to follow, though.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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I'm about to turn off this laptop and get on a plane, so don't have time to post the incredible adventure Pete Shack had on the Habrich road. Anyone else know that one? If not, I'll post it tomorrow.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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When I was cleaning the Beefwhale in Cheakamus Canyon there was a webbing station on top. I figured somebody had rapped down to take a look and decided it was too dirty to bother with. But I later found out that John Chilton had climbed it ground-up a few years earlier.
I put about 50 hours into scrubbing that pitch. 15 years later, except for my rap chains on top, you ca nnot tell it was ever climbed. From experience, some things in wetter areas (like, say, the Bulletheads, or the mossy hole in the forest by Digital Dexterity) take about 4 years to go from fully clean to mossed over so badly you cannot see that they were ever cleaned.
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