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hamish f
Social climber
squamish
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Feb 19, 2012 - 05:57pm PT
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Oh ya., now I'm getting the hang of this paragraph stuff.
Are you tired of me yet?
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bmacd
Boulder climber
100% Canadian
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Feb 19, 2012 - 06:12pm PT
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hamish f
Social climber
squamish
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Feb 19, 2012 - 06:21pm PT
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Hey, there's me. I sure would like to trade back to that colour hair and a pair of those non-swollen hands.
Good thing climbers like Bruce actually owned cameras.
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hamish f
Social climber
squamish
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Feb 19, 2012 - 06:34pm PT
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Oh I'm actually doing very well, thanks Tami. As long as I get lots of sleep, keep moving, and ride the sh*t out of my mountain bike, the inflammation seems to keep at bay. Sorry to hear about your back. Lifting Dean and Els's girl while drinking red wine won't be doing those bulging discs any good. :)
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hamish f
Social climber
squamish
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Feb 19, 2012 - 08:57pm PT
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O.K., cold stella in my hand; ready for pitch 2 memories.
There isn't too much to write about pitch 2 of genus-loci. It's a pretty short pitch; a little up, a little down, and some traversing thrown in. It only needed 3 bolts and I think the first one went in nicely off a good ledge.
Peder and I had our other partner in crime along, Mark Gandy. Three of us, lots of down jackets and touqes, and lots of laughs. I'm thinking Peder drilled that first bolt and then it was Mark's turn. Mark was a really good climber; a little more so when following. On the lead, he would get a little frightened sometimes.
So, off goes Mark, clips that first bolt, does a bunch of downclimbing and a little traversing and gets himself crouched on a ledge. He's looking very awkward and starts asking for the drill.
We ask if he plans on drilling a bolt there and he barks out YES! We suggested standing up (to maximize the bolt placement) and he'll have none of that. Looking increasingly tangled over there, Mark continues on to haul the drill over and somehow gets the bolt in.
Wow, he pulled it off. The Bear and I were pretty excited; looked hard over there. Mark lowered off and now it was my turn.
I climb over there and stand up on the little ledge. The bolt is somewhere at my knee or waist and I look over at Mark for an explanation. Poor guy, just too gripped. It actually worked out allright, the climber sure wasn't going to be getting any help from the rope being above them for a move or two.
I made my way up and drilled one more bolt off another one of those "hooks pulling sideways with my foot in a sling" stances. Then there were a few funky moves up to the station, but nothing like that first pitch.
We were pretty proud of ourselves; the whole mini-pitch went in one effort.
That wasn't the case with the third pitch; beautiful face climbing up to a tough finger crack. Free climbing right out there to the left of the left side of the pillar. Canucks game starts pretty soon so I'll bore you guys with pitch 3 details later.
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thekidcormier
Trad climber
squamish, b.c.
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Feb 19, 2012 - 09:29pm PT
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Another awesome addition to a great tread thanks Hamish. You're stories of ground up hand drilling freaking rule..
Any chance the well used Fish hand I recently purchase for $18 IIRC at Outwest belonged to any one on here before it made its way to me.
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sac
Trad climber
Sun Coast B.C.
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Feb 19, 2012 - 09:49pm PT
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Sez here in my guide... that Genius Loci P1,2 are "un-repeated and rather bold"
Wonder if this is still the case?
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Timmc
climber
BC
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Feb 19, 2012 - 10:04pm PT
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Thanks Hamish- I'm loving your play by plays.
Oh ya - go Canucks!
Edit: sorry about Eddie. Cool dog.
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MH2
climber
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Feb 19, 2012 - 10:07pm PT
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I asked around after Catalan and I gave it our go and was told, "Most people just go for p3 without doing 1 or 2." Catalan was good for 5.13 and p2 gave him trouble. It gave me quite a shock seconding. It was our education in Hamish F.
Hamish himself is, of course, unable to give an objective opinion of the climb. Speaking as an objective type, I like Hamish's ratings acumen. It is unexpectedly old school for such a youngster.
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Feb 19, 2012 - 10:29pm PT
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These stories keep pulling me out of my hockey trance. I hope you are having as much fun writing them as we are reading them Hamish.
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hamish f
Social climber
squamish
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Feb 19, 2012 - 11:47pm PT
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Actually I am having fun writing these stories.
That third pitch was the big one and I got so pumped drilling most of those bolts that we came down after each one. Only once did I manage to drill 2 bolts on one push. Other than that, it was a bolt per day and, like the first pitch, some days we couldn't get past the previous day's bolt. Then we hit the finger crack and it got tougher. I'll try and squeeze that little story off tomorrow sometime.
Hi Tim :)
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Scrubber
climber
Straight outta Squampton
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Feb 20, 2012 - 01:15am PT
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Any chance the well used Fish hand I recently purchase for $18 IIRC at Outwest belonged to any one on here before it made its way to me.
That was mine. Enjoy!
KW
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 20, 2012 - 02:21pm PT
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Wow. Loving the FA stories! This is why I started this thread...
I hope I did not offend you Hamish F by posting a punctuated version of your Genius Loci story, but I had to do it for myself simply so that I could read it anyways, (as I sometimes lose my place in such a large text) and thought that others might appreciate it as well.
Peter Croft- Welcome sir.
It would be very cool to hear the tale of U Wall from both your perspectives!
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hamish f
Social climber
squamish
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Feb 21, 2012 - 12:57am PT
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Because we were so concerned with ethics in those days, and I still have concerns in this area, we wanted our adventure to be as pure as possible.
My first attempt on that big pitch, #3, was with Bruce MacDonald. Bruce spent a lot of time in front of a computer so was easily talked into this outing. I was so full of myself and so impressed by the Californian climbers who established hard routes on the lead, I figured we’d just get up there and start freeing this great looking pitch.
I’d never actually done 10 years after but I knew there was an old bolt ladder leading up to a face crack. Anyone could see that. I remember Bruce asking me what the plan was and me answering how I’d scrub a bit, clip those bolts, scrub some more, and soon I’d be at that killer face crack.
We got ourselves positioned on the slab, right underneath that beautiful, steep wall and I racked up. I reached up from the gentle slab angle and found some old piton scar to lay away on. I pulled up and wow, this was steep stuff. I clipped a crummy fixed pin and posed there, in the layback position, looking up at this daunting pitch. Boy, this wasn’t soloing around the desert all day and then spending hours at the desert hot springs. This looked horrendous. All those bolts looked old and terrible, quarter-inchers with more rust than my worst vehicle. Furthermore it was dirty, really dirty, and that face crack was now looking a long ways up there. I think I stood in a sling, or etrier, for a while and realized I didn’t have a hope in hell of doing this. Unfortunately this wasn’t Tuolomne, or Yosemite, it was the northern rainforest and the moss and lichen was velcroed to the granite. That was it for the first attempt, totally humbled and rapping to the ground. Sorry Bruce.
A month later I teamed up with Peder and we were getting pretty psyched. The Bear was living in Whistler and was ski-patrolling there. It was nearing the end of the season so he was keen to skip a little work and hitch down to Squamish for new-routing. One day he got picked up by his boss, Brian. I’m not sure if they talked much but Peder had a rope over his shoulder. I’m pretty sure that was the year Peder received “employee of the year” award from Whistler Mountain. Classic.
We wanted to climb this thing so badly we were willing to compromise our ethics a little. We’d have to rap in, scrub it clean, and yank all those useless bolts. Then we’d go to the bottom, armed with drill and hooks, and see how it went.
We’d always known exactly where the belay at the top of the hard pitch would be. You could see it perfectly whenever it snowed. There was a choice ledge, partway out that dyke which connects ten years after with the left side of the pillar. It had to be eight inches thick and five feet long. Total no-hands-ledge, that spot had belay written all over it. We needed to put a station in there so we could rap down and scrub the hell out of that hundred feet of rock.
We had a definite ethical problem with this approach as we were about to spoil the whole “on-sight, solve-as-you-go” experience. We didn’t think we had much choice, no one else was going to scrub it for us. We thought about leaving it for the future generation but that, too, seemed a little dubious. Is some future hot shot really going to show up here and lead right up, while scrubbing and drilling? Very hard to imagine. Not unless they were going to assault the rock with a bolt ladder. We justified our strange tactics and managed to rap over from the top of the left side to that belay ledge. We got a directional off a tipped-off knifeblade along that dyke and it was pretty sporty, trying to rap sideways. That ledge was bigger than we thought. What a spot! Right up there on the aid wall.
Peder rapped down first and started to scrub. When he was at the crack, he started to bang out a fixed pin. I yelled down to him to leave it, just belt it in harder. And the Bear could sink a pin below the surface, if need be. So there was a bomber pin in that pitch, hopefully still is… I remember John Rosholt tying a little plastic sign to it years later. His little sign asked climbers to leave the pin and not nail out the crack.
The Bear proceeded to yank out all those manky bolts. We scrubbed and scrubbed. Not the best job but not bad. We tried really hard not to try any moves or piece anything together; we wanted to save that for the sharp end. Strangely enough, when we finally did this pitch, we ended up going a totally different way than we had scrubbed at one point.
Eventually we get that face pretty clean and we’re back at the bottom of this stellar looking pitch. We’ve brought Mark along, so it’s the three stooges, hard at it. It’s nice having two belayers when drilling on lead; one to belay the leader and one to belay the drill. That was a great trick, leave the drill and hammer at the last bolt, on belay. Then the leader only has to haul the drill from that last bolt, not the belay. This usually worked well but you had to watch out for tangles.
It was freezing cold, so we were in full down jackets , touqes, and runners for the belays. The cold weather was ideal for the tough face climbing, way better stick with the shoes. I’m a little rusty on how we got that first bolt in, it may have been a combo of one good lieback hold and aiding off some useless cam. It was glaringly obvious where that first bolt needed to go. These few moves to get going weren’t too bad and then you had to move out right, where it looked kind of blank. I’m pretty sure I drilled that bolt and then gave those tough moves a go. I couldn’t come close. You had to gaston off to the right, leaning off a crummy pin scar with your left. It felt like my shoulder was going to dislocate. I was a little discouraged, here I was at our dream pitch and I couldn’t even get going. Oh man, what have we done?
We all gave that thing a whirl and no one was able to do it. I remember driving back to Vancouver in the pouring rain, with my left arm lying limp on my lap, just thrashed from that move that I couldn’t do.
The next time up it’s the three of us stooges again and Peder gets up there for some Bear-battling. Holy mac if the guy doesn’t actually pull it off. He got it! He was climbing so well and came up with a slightly different method. He jumped off and came down but we were so excited. I went up and tried his method and got it too. A few tough pulls up some little edges and things are really perking up. Sh#t, this is so scary, I’ve got to drill a bolt right away! I got a good hook to stick on a little ledge and haul up the drill and hammer. Great, bolt number two is in and I’m lowering off. I could see up ahead there was a faint little corner with a couple of pretty fair looking lay back holds. After that it seemed to blank out so that spot was looking perfect for the next bolt.
Mark and Peder each climbed up to that top bolt but not much higher. I was ready for another try so I led up and launched into that shallow corner. Oh yah, this is really frightening. I perched myself up in that shallow corner, left hand in the lay back position, chalking up my right hand. Ya, I’m pretty secure here… I’m quite sure I could hold this stance long enough to drill a bolt. These are always tough decisions, it’s all great to be posed up there, a little run out, chalking up. But to commit to the task and start hauling that hammer and drill and actually drill that hole, oh boy, you’re about to get pumped. I hauled up the crap and drilled as fast as I could but I was just melting in my little corner of hell. Pulled it off though, thank god. Pumped beyond belief. I had to lower off and that was definitely it for the day but man, were we ever psyched. We were actually making progress.
On our next mission up there things really started to click. The Bear drilled the next bolt off a hook and it went really well. Like I said before, the guy was so strong he didn’t have any problem operating that thing above his head. Not like me at 150 lbs. soaking wet. For me, drilling above my head was a full body workout.
Now it’s my turn and I get up to Peder’s high point. I’m looking up and left, where the route looks like it should go, where we’ve scrubbed, and boy, it’s looking tough. I opted for off to the right and up, totally the wrong direction. I can see good looking holds under the moss and it all links together to bring me back to where I wanted to be. I was into some nice sized holds now, with my feet on a good dyke. The next two bolts I placed one after the other, without lowering off to the belay. This was a first as all the other bolt placements were so exhausting I couldn’t even think of continuing on without a major break. I suppose this also means these moves weren’t too bad.
Now I’m finally approaching the finger crack. So exciting! I get over to the crack and start placing some r.p.s. They look terrible. I try to make a move past them, up towards that coveted fixed pin, and one of the nuts falls out. The other one tips up like it’s on the verge of popping. Oh man, this isn’t looking very good at all. Where’s my beautiful crack anyway? I flicked the other nut out and started climbing back to my last bolt. As I’m doing this I see a line of holds leading out right to a good handhold. It’s totally off route but I’m thinking I could make my way over there quite easily and drill a bolt while hanging off that sweet looking left bucket. Definitely off to the right but we could sling it. We’d been using slings on lots of the bolts on this pitch, because it was all over the place, trying to plow our way up to that amazing looking face crack. I lowered off my last bolt and we bailed.
I remember being back at home in Van and thinking no one was going to be thrilled about those crummy r.p.s and that the bolt way out to the right was the answer. Next time up, I went straight out to that good hold and drilled the bolt. It was looking great.
Finally I got to that crack again. I made it to the fixed pin and then it started to get really difficult really fast. Tough jams and hardly anything for the feet. I tried a couple of times but couldn’t make much progress. Mark and Peder both spent lots of time up there but weren’t having much luck either.
Another outing passed and we were back up there again, ready for battle. I gave that thing everything I had, got above the pin, and then got so pumped trying to place a yellow cam, that was it for the day. I down aided to the pin, cleaned my gear, and lowered off. I could see a big bucket at the end of the crack and it looked so good. Just this damn crack was brutal. The jams were shitty and there wasn’t much at all for the feet, so you really had to lean out on your jams to get any purchase with your feet. Brutal.
We talked at length about the whole thing and decided the next time up there, I’d have a yellow cam on both sides of me, so no matter what, I could fire that thing in quickly.
Sorry this is turning into such a saga, it’s almost over.
The NEXT time we were on our mission, it was Mark and I. Unfortunately when we got up to Squamish it started raining so we got diverted to the greasy burgers, fries, and coffee for quite a while. I think we were contemplating cutting firewood when suddenly the weather started to perk up. I remember we weren’t feeling all that great hiking up there and had our doubts.
Blasting up Merci-Me I started feeling a lot better and the butterflies were starting in my stomach. I knew I had a great chance on this pitch. I’d only fallen four or five times on that crack and I could see that bucket at the end of it. So close. I felt great about having a yellow cam on each hip; surely this was the ticket.
I cruised through the lower face climbing and arrived at the base of the finger crack without the hint of a pump. Oh yah, feeling really good now. I attacked that gnarly little crack full-on and soon I was well above that pin. I fired one of those yellow cams in and the rope drag was so heavy, I almost fell pulling up enough to clip. Instantly I was pumped beyond words. Oh no, no, no… I held it together and somehow kept jamming until I could grab for that bucket. Oh my god, I was so relieved, and so wasted. I still had a little ways to go and a few nuts to place. This was a relatively easy stretch but I was barely in there. My rods and cones were all messed up. I got some good r.p.s in and made my way carefully up to that glorious ledge. I vividly remember tying in, shouting down to Mark, and then, whoooosh, massive nose bleed, all over the place. This went on for a bit, then stopped. First time ever for that reaction from my body, but it was the lead of a lifetime. Blood everywhere, all over my shirt, all over the gear, classic.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Feb 21, 2012 - 01:03am PT
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Thanks, Hamish - awesome!
Did you go back and do the whole route in one go? With the Bear, possibly?
And don't be sorry about the length - you should see me when I get going. In fact, you probably have.
You guys got any pictures of the climb?
The description from the current guidebook says the route is 5.12b, done in 1991.
Believed to have not been freed on a single ascent.
A magnificent excursion up the open walls left of the Pillar, bolted on lead. Start 15 m left of Mercy Me. Difficult face climbing leads to a station above a small overlap (11d). Up rightwards across Mercy Me to belay on the slab below the end of the big roof (11c). These first two pitches are unrepeated and rather bold. Climb up to the bottom of the thin face crack and go out right to a slim dyke. Follow it back to the crack and up it to join a wide dyke, good holds and a belay (12b). Follow the dyke in a sensational position to the top of The Left Side. [Of the Split Pillar.] Continue up Grinning Weasel until a pull out right into a sloping shelf is possible. Face climb to a hard mantel onto the small ledge halfway up the Sword.
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hamish f
Social climber
squamish
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Feb 21, 2012 - 01:03am PT
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O man, sorry to put you folks through that. I wrote as fast as I could but somehow it ended up going on, and on, and on.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 21, 2012 - 01:36am PT
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I wrote as fast as I could
That's OK, we're slow readers - on purpose when it's this good.
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Feb 21, 2012 - 01:50am PT
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I feel sad for the poor supertopoians who skip by this thread and don't get to read this story, classic stuff man. Thanks for the effort and vigorous typing, it's all worth it for us.
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apogee
climber
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Feb 21, 2012 - 02:14am PT
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"My rods and cones were all messed up."
That's feckin' priceless.
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Scrubber
climber
Straight outta Squampton
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Feb 21, 2012 - 02:15am PT
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Awesome story Hamish! Don't worry about the length, it sounds great. That route has been on my wish list since I moved here. I wonder if I'll ever be up to the task?....
Please do tell about the background of the name.
Kris
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