TR - late season Squamish cragging
A. Cairns
November 8
The alarm rings. The old man gets up to dress for work. As he puts on a
shoe he feels, through his thick wool sock, something in the toe. He
reaches in and pulls out a knobby twig and a few pine needles. The old
man looks up through the window to the full moon in the night sky.
November 7
The trail to the rock is icy. Near the end of the day, at Pink Cliff in
the Smoke Bluffs of Squamish, the old man finds a climb he's never seen
before. Later he will read in the guide: excellent corner; start from a
small ledge; a hard start leads to a difficult struggle above.
The left side of the corner overhangs. The right side is vertical. The
crack in the corner starts whisper thin, then stutters for a few feet
before nailing its line in a blood-chilling screech.
The initial small ledge is about 10 feet off the ground. The only gear
at that point is a small stopper at shoulder height. The first move up
the corner is strenuous and uncertain. A pocket in the corner crack
takes the tips of 3 fingers left hand while the right hand has a pinch
on the face. Pull hard while the feet come directly up on micro crystals
until the right foot can extend to a crystal high and far right. Press
on the right foot until enough pressure comes off the right hand to
reach up for the next pocket in the crack. Now convert to layback. Now
find that the next holds in the crack aren't great. Now look at the
stopper by the waist and reflect that an uncontrolled fall could lift it
out. Apply a lesson learned by another rec climber and retreat safely to
the ledge.
Now comes the tough choice. The corner is a measly 12 meters, the ledge
will be waiting for any mistake, the crack is gritty and innocent of
chalk, the moves are strenuous, and gear placements look tricky because
the crack is shallow and irregular. Why did I do it? Probably because
the mental coin toss wasn't a fair game.
The sun has set as we scuff through fallen leaves down the trail. Later
at home when the gear is taken from the pack the biners and cams are ice
cold. They remember the day and surprise me with how easily and directly
they remind me of it, too.
November 6
Frost on the blackberry brakes but another sunny morning. Andy A and
Andy C drive up to Squamish. Andy B is on another assignment. Probably
putting up the next Squamish 14.
The Andys hike up the Chief backside trail to the Upper Heliopolis to
seek the sun. The ledge under the cliff is deep in pine needles, now
warm. The air smells good. There is something wrong with the sun,
though. It is too far to the side of the rock and too low in the sky.
The climb is friggin hard. Slick Willy. A couple of short falls on lead
and an excellent 20 meter boulder problem on top rope. A runnel of
glacial polish snaking up steep terrain as smoothly as an Arkansan drawl
navigating consonants.
Now the sun has nearly left us. We start a traversing line which still
has sun on the first belay. The climb starts up a ramp and then follows
a crack. The first pitch is re-starting its own collection of pine
needles which it lost to the energetic FA.
There is no sun, now. Just the warmth of metabolism and the heat the
rock took up earlier. It doesn't feel cold, yet, but it will.
The climb follows a long flaw through low angle polished granite. It is
long because for every step up you take 3 or 4 steps to the right. On
pitch 2 Andy A has trouble removing a cam. I look at the shadows
climbing faster than us on the opposite wall of the valley and tell him
to leave it. He wants to get it on rappel. We'd have to walk back across
the top and guess where to go from. I scan the top for landmarks. Lots
of pines to choose from. Lots of luck.
At the second belay we look up and see a full grown bald eagle gliding
in the sun, lit brilliantly from beneath. Another reminder that time
isn't going to wait for us. At the third belay there are chains and a
bit of unscrubbed rock between us and the top. We're far to the right of
the last anchor. If we go down from here we don't know what we'll find.
If we go back along the top we will at least rappel into some part of
the climb we just did. If we manage to come down near the stuck cam we
will be near the first belay.
The top isn't flat, of course. I wasn't expecting it to be. There are
ramps covered in pine needles. At least the pine trees make up for it by
serving for protection as we thread through them. We find a tree with
slings near where we think we should rap. A good sign. It is too dim now
to see much detail below.
When I reach the stuck cam there is only the distance of my fist between
the rappel device and the knots in the rope ends. My tightly closed
fist. The bright aqua of the cam sling has faded to the grey of the
surrounding rock. Out it comes.
The first pitch anchor is near but unreachable, so I batman up to where
another climb takes off from our traverse. Must be a hard one because
the bolts are close. Good. Clip, clip.
To be safe (well, slightly safer) we had already set up Andy A for
rappel while we still had some light to see by. He comes down and we
deploy the wonderful ever-present amazing back pocket Tikka(tm) to
continue the descent.
November 6
You get the idea. I'm going to try the Fast Backwards button on this
gizmo.
CHUKKA-HUKKA-LUKKA-LUKKA-chirrrrrriiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Chiloe
A fine Memento --
> November 8
>
> The alarm rings. The old man gets up to dress for work. As he puts on a
> shoe he feels, through his thick wool sock, something in the toe. He
> reaches in and pulls out a knobby twig and a few pine needles. The old
> man looks up through the window to the full moon in the night sky.
>
> November 7
>
> The sun has set as we scuff through fallen leaves down the trail. Later
> at home when the gear is taken from the pack the biners and cams are ice
> cold. They remember the day and surprise me with how easily and directly
> they remind me of it, too.
There *is* something about late-season outings, in places where
winter comes slowly.
amanda
> November 8
Really enjoyable writing, thanks!
Amanda
A. Cairns
amanda wrote:
I wish you had the time and inclination to write more for this group. If you are the Amanda
who invented the Scot ice climber, I still remember his breakfast. And my memory isn't great.
I'll take this opportunity to apologize for running on about training in a earlier response,
but you did ask. Good luck with the weight loss.
Andy Cairns
amanda
> amanda wrote:
>
> > "A. Cairns" <lek...@intergate.ca> wrote in message news:<3FAFF310...@intergate.ca>...
> > > November 8
> >
> > Really enjoyable writing, thanks!
> >
> > Amanda
>
> I wish you had the time and inclination to write more for this group. If you are the Amanda
> who invented the Scot ice climber, I still remember his breakfast. And my memory isn't great.
c'est moi, (my last name changed). I'm glad you remember the story.
That makes me happy.
> I'll take this opportunity to apologize for running on about training in a earlier response,
> but you did ask. Good luck with the weight loss.
Actually, I think you have some extremely valid points. I meant to
respond, but I'm in a bit of a mess here with nntp posting... I can
post via a normal, sane method at home, but at work I'm stuck reading
stuff immedately, but having to wait hours for the google black hole
to spit out posts for response. So I forget.
You are 100% correct about working on weaknesses. I'm lucky to have
supportive and analytical partners that do give great suggestions.
Unfortunately, as soon as someone suggests I work on slab climbing, I
can't help but run in the other direction at top speed.
cheers,
Amanda
David Kastrup
> You are 100% correct about working on weaknesses. I'm lucky to have
> supportive and analytical partners that do give great suggestions.
> Unfortunately, as soon as someone suggests I work on slab climbing,
> I can't help but run in the other direction at top speed.
You are a natural talent. That is _exactly_ what you do when you find
yourself slithering terminally on a slab.
--
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum