Squamish Photos and Stories

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hamie

Social climber

Thekoots

Mar 23, 2012 - 11:49am PT

Hamish F, that's probably a good excuse--8.30 is a bit early to grab a Stella!

On the subject of early, I noticed that yesterday Bruce posted at 4.15am. Were you peeing or checking the ski report?

Anders don't worry about the 'stolen' gear. If someone has a bunch of fancy gear they are expected to climb something worthy with it, so I always give it back. All I need these days is a dozen draws. And a bunch of meds.

hamish f

Social climber

squamish

Mar 23, 2012 - 12:46pm PT

Bruce is 50 so that was probably the second or third pee of the night.

Scrubber

climber

Straight outta Squampton

Mar 23, 2012 - 12:47pm PT

Okay here's my little story about doing The Groove. Back in the summer of 99 my good friend Roger and I were looking for a challenge at our level. We read in awe of feats like Sig climbing his big trifectum of The Grand, Freeway, and Northern Lights in one day, or Hamish and Peder doing the Grand five times in a day. This was clearly beyond our capabilities so we looked for alternatives. The "average guy's big day."

Roger had had his sights set on doing The Grand, The Squamish Buttress, and Angel's Crest in a day. I knew that the crux of that is by far the punishment your knees take hammering down the backside trail between routes. I came up with a decent-free objective. My idea entailed climbing every route on the Apron that was under 5.10. This meant Upper and Lower Apron too.

This would have meant about 6500 feet of decending via the normal trail if traditional decent tactics were employed. This did not seem to be an option... So I went up two days before our scheduled assault with a haul bag full of old ropes and fixed rap lines down near St Vitus' Dance, Grandville St. and the lower 2/3 of Banana Peel. (We ran down the Slab Alley decent to access those.)

There were a few obscure old routes we'd never done on the list, so that made for some interesting onsight simul-climbing on the dirtiest routes. These included: The Groove, Jake the Snake, and the two original last pitches of Sickle.

The morning started at 4am, bashing around in the forest looking for the start of The Groove by headlamp. A reconnaissance of this by daylight may have been a smart idea. Eventually we found what we figured must be it, and as dawn broke we tunneled through the bushes and found decrepit old pins under a carpet of moss and mud.

As we worked our way across the Apron to the North, we would simul each route, then re-rack and scamper back to our fixed lines and zip back to the base of the next one. At about 5:45 a young couple determined to beat the crowds showed up at the base of Diedre. They were certainly surprised to see us, even more so when they discovered we'd climbed the apron two and a half times by then. We chatted a bit, and they warned us that they were going to be quite slow. We decided that it would be best to tick off Diedre before they were on it, then carry on with the rest of our list. In the ensuing couple of hours, we chatted with them across the slabs as we lapped them five times. They seemed to think it was hilarious.

Once the South and Upper Apron were done, we ticked Snake along with it's old rarely-done alternate finish Jake the Snake, then over to Memorial Crack. From there it was easy to access our lines on the North Apron, and begin all of the cracks that make up that area. There were lots of people by that time, so we just worked around everyone else. At about 9pm we staggered back to the car to grab a bit of water, drop the rack, and head over for the final route, The Bottom Line. 20 min later we were back to the car, high fived, and headed home for a beer.

I came back the next day to strip the fixed lines. We felt quite proud about having achieved out goal. It was kind of like a poor mans big day of alpine scrambling and it was put to good use later that summer on Mt Sir Donald and in the Bugaboos.

According to the guidebook of the day, we climbed a total of around 78 pitches. In reality we did it in more like 25 pitches of simul-climbing. We had a really fun time, and I cherish the memory fondly. It looks like we may have to have another go at it one day since the addition of Over the Rainbow, Calculus Direct, and Jeremy's new Lower Apron route Rambles.

Anyone feel like doing a calf workout from hell?

Kris

thekidcormier

Gym climber

squamish, b.c.

Mar 23, 2012 - 12:53pm PT

Awesome Story!

I'd bee down for a mission like that, sounds like a blast

hamish f

Social climber

squamish

Mar 23, 2012 - 01:06pm PT

Holy Hannah; that is a tonne of climbing. Awesome effort.

Tricouni

Mountain climber

Vancouver

Mar 23, 2012 - 01:22pm PT

Amazing day, for sure! Congrats.

hamish f

Social climber

squamish

Mar 23, 2012 - 01:37pm PT

I"m attempting to tell a story about trying to keep up with Peter (Croft) in the bugs. Unfortunately it's too far back to figure out which year that was.
Maybe Tami could help me out with the year, as she had her little mtn. book full of rats climbing rocks on the go in those days. ?

hamish f

Social climber

squamish

Mar 23, 2012 - 02:12pm PT

Nice one Jim, that's why you make the big bucks.
Seems around that 3o year mark where the dates are a little fuzzy.

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Mar 23, 2012 - 05:30pm PT

Luke: Correct me if Im wrong but I believe boldering is a phenomenon occurring amongst men ages 15-30, particularly in the climbing subculture,trying to out-do one another in terms of boldness.

"I solod Corn flakes while drinking a beer and only slipped twice"

"I zippered out 16 RURPS and factor twod on the belay, and walked to wendys with a broken leg"

"Yea well I Simul climber b-peel with no protection between me and my partner while playing online poker on my cell phone"

I suppose that next you'll be telling us that climbers behave like a bunch of adolescent males, and shouldn't drink beer. But as my friends know, I inhabit a cell-phone free zone. Hee hee.

Kris: Good story about your multi-climb on the Apron. I remember seeing you the night before, as you got set up. What was the hardest pitch you climbed that day? (So as not to disappoint Luke, I've never done more than five (?) routes on the Apron in a day, although solo, and hiking down. Taking my medicine like a man. Nothing very difficult, of course.)

thekidcormier

Gym climber

squamish, b.c.

Mar 23, 2012 - 05:50pm PT

so thats what a boldering contest is eh...

hamish f

Social climber

squamish

Mar 23, 2012 - 06:47pm PT

I'm quite sure we were ahead of them, Tami. We never saw them so we must've been ahead.

Scrubber

climber

Straight outta Squampton

Mar 23, 2012 - 07:44pm PT

I forget the name of the shift foreman but he too was enshrined in a route name.

I believe that would be Mr Crabbe

hamish f

Social climber

squamish

Mar 23, 2012 - 08:05pm PT

Summer of '83; I finished grade 12 and instead of attending any "grad" ceremonies, I kept on with my continuing-education...Rock 101.
B.C. was in the midst of a high pressure weather pattern so a Bugaboo trip was at the top of the list. Peter had just returned from a climbing trip to England and was on a roll. He suggested we hike over to the Howsers and try to solo the Becky-Chounard. It seemed a little out there to me, as neither of us had ever been over there and the route had a reputation for being pretty long. I mean, it even had an overnight ledge on it. We looked at the topo and it all seemed quite reasonable. Loads of cracks, lots of corners; all fairly moderate. We hadn't heard of anyone soloing it and there was a face climbing traverse which sounded a bit tricky.
Oh well, how could I pass up this opportunity? Peter was 7 years older and about that many grades better climber than I. I felt extremely fortunate to have this chance and I really doubt I would've been hiking over there by myself.
Climbing well meant not working much, which translated into very limited resources. As a result I was still climbing in Peter's old, blown out e.b.s. Sometimes, for the tougher climbs, I'd wear them on the opposite feet, so my inside edge was Peter's old outside edge. Less holes on that side. This felt a bit strange, with the curve and all, so often, if the climbing was moderate, I'd just wear them normally. We were going mountain-rambling so I would wear them normal-style. Big mistake.
We left the cabin quite early, just to give us lots of time. It was probably around 4 o'clock. Bruce and Dave were planning on the same route that day but for some reason we left ahead of them. I think Bruce's breakfast wasn't sitting very well at that wee hour of the day.
I'd also borrowed Peter's sister's mountain boots and boy, were they ever big, serious boots. Great for kicking steps up the col but terrible for clipping on the chalkbag sling.We packed our runners for the final drop down to the base of the route.
We stopped at the Pigeon Howser col and stashed everything we could. There were a few double rope rapells off the summit so we each had a 9 mil rope coiled on our backs, mountaineer-style. I'm pretty sure we did the classic rapell technique as we didn't have any harnesses or gear.
We skiid down a pretty long slope in our nikes and then scrambled up some talus to the start of the route. Wow, I looked up and that route looked long; and it got a bit steeper at about half height. Unreal, granite heaven.
The first couple hundred feet were pretty easy and we were cruising along quite nicely. Either my speed was starting to wain, or Superman, ahead of me, was just getting warmed up. Whatever the case, Peter was soon up, up, and away, completely out of sight and way too far above me for any communication. That didn't bother me too much. The route finding had been easy and I was loving all these five star cracks.
Before too long I arrived at that big bivy ledge and soaked up some exposure for a minute or two. Probably just half a minute, really.
Absolutely no sign of the seasoned veteran anywhere, just me and myself standing on that ledge in the middle of nowhere. I looked up and to the left a touch and there was a beautiful crack. It looked steep and pretty real, but not too bad, I thought. I jammed my way up that crack for fifty or sixty feet and it seemed to be getting tougher as I went. Eventually it was thinning down to finger size and the warning bells started sounding in my head. This didn't seem to be what I'd read on the topo the night before and I was getting a little stressed. Suddenly the crack peterred out and at that point I could just see Peter, about half a pitch over to the right, and about a half pitch above me.
I yelled over to him and all I got back was something about a wet chimney with some ice or something. I was such a hack at route finding. Unbelievable, now I had to downclimb this entire crack and that was an undertaking in itself. By the time I'm back down on the bivy ledge, Peter was so far above me there wasn't going to be any more interaction at all. Oh well, bright side was I had the right crack now.
Several hundred feet later I'm perched in a corner, looking out left at this face traverse we'd read about on the topo. It didn't look like a givaway and it was seeming more exposed by the minute. The climbing looked edgy and my blown out shoes were looking like a terrible choice, especially the way I was wearing them, with lots of skin poking through.
It was only fifteen or twenty feet of traversing but it was killing me, or at least trying to. I climbed out and back into the safety of the corner, making a little more progress each time. The exposure out there was massive and that glacier a thousand feet below was pulling on me like a powerfull magnet. I went back and fourth about five times in all and eventually figured out how to do all the moves. Oh man, it felt SO good to grab that edge of the arete.
I pull around the other side of the arete and there's Peter, crouched on a little stance, saying a few more prayers for me. He knew exactly the epic I was going to be experiencing, due to my (his) shoes, and he'd been there for quite awhile. We hadn't seen each other, really, since the start of the route, and we were overwhelmed with relief. So happy to see my friend, Herculees, we're both still alive and feeling pretty chuffed with our progress.
We stayed closer for the remainder of the route, none of which I remember; must've been much easier ground up to the top. We summitted, uncoiled our ropes, and undertook some painfull rapelling. I recall the last rap ended us on a little perch above a huge bergshrund. We pulled the ropes and had to do a big leap, out and over the gaping slot, onto the snowslope. We changed into our runners and trudged through the snow to find our cache.
I hadn't quite recovered from my face-climbing epic and the idea of more climbing couldn't have been further from my mind. Peter informs me he feels great and is keen for more action. I felt terrible but had to turn him down. I was happy to be velcroed to the earth for the remainder of the day.
I hiked back to the cabin and got there well before noon, I think. The fittest guy on the planet went on to solo every other peak in the Bugs that day. He got in after dinner. The guy was unstoppable and I was very fortunate to have shared one route with him that day. And it was a Beauty.

hamish f

Social climber

squamish

Mar 23, 2012 - 08:07pm PT

Oh boy, now that I see that on the full screen, it looks quite long.
Hope it's not too painfull. :)

Scrubber

climber

Straight outta Squampton

Mar 23, 2012 - 08:24pm PT

Awesome Hamish!!!!

hamie

Social climber

Thekoots

Mar 23, 2012 - 08:31pm PT

Thanks for the story Hamish [F]. It was good to read your side of the story. PC had a one and a half page article in the 1984 CAJ, which I read years ago, and will now read again. The 1984 CAJ is a 'veritable treasure trove' of items recently referred to on this thread:

1. PC's article on soloing the BC and everything else in sight.
2. 2 sketches by Tami in above article.
3. 3 photos of The Word's Toughest Milkman. 3 photos, 5.8, Murrin Park, 1984??????? That was newsworthy?
4. 2 photos of Horrors of Ivan, S4 10c.
5. There is also a full page photo of Washington Bullets, S3 10c Murrin Park.

The Squamish article says that the S1,2,3 etc system refers to Squamish 1,2,3 etc, and is/was apparently similar to the totally incomprehensible [at least to me. I almost get it, but it just slips away] E system used in Britain. Can we get an explanation of the who, what, why and when of this really bad and short lived idea? We know the 'where'= Squamish. Tami? Hamish F?

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Mar 23, 2012 - 09:00pm PT

Thanks, Hamish - a good story!

The "S" grades came from a booklet published in 1984, called "Squamish: The New Freeclimbs". With a photo of PC on Fungus Razor on the cover. Fairly simple design - typed, copied, stapled. The S grades never caught on, though. The booklet was superceded by Jim Campbell's first comprehensive guide soon after.

Scrubber

climber

Straight outta Squampton

Mar 23, 2012 - 09:06pm PT

Thank goodness Kevin's "S" grade system never caught on. (And a better guide was published...) The back cover also sported a great photo of Amy B. I forget what route she was on.