Summer's Long Wave Goodbye

Summer in Squamish has already come and gone, fall almost has for that matter too. I feel like I was generally sidetracked by other things most of the climbing season, but a recap is in order all the same. And, first up is a little shout out to my Squamish brother, Jamie Finlayson. Jamie recently had major spinal surgery, and so naturally, he missed the last half of our Squamish climbing season, but like all A-Types he took the down time from climbing to master, climbing photography. I think he's done a pretty darn good job, and I feel like a report on this season wouldn't be complete without a collection of the radical images Jamie took. Here are a few of my favourites.

I'm never satisfied with the amount of days I spend in the forest bouldering. And this summer quite possibly was my worst to date. One day in September Jamie came out with Colin and I, and we all enjoyed some fun messing around on problems we'd already done.

Sarah on that really hard V2 beside Super Fly. It's called Stu's Fly apprently.

Sarah topping out the V4 standing start to, The Golden Bowl. Isn't Colin giving such a good spot!

More good spotting technique displayed by Captain Safety. You guessed it folks, that's how he got his name. When it comes to pad placement, you better just throw them in a pile and let Captain Safety work his magic. He'll get mad if you don't.

Sarah in her natural habitat.

The Stinger Left, a super fun V6. 

Sweet photobomb courtesy of moi.

The Stinger Left from another angle.

And the top-out. Check out those muscles. I love how in all these photos Colin is the one spotting and I'm the one doing all the climbing. The boulders is the one place where I always get to be the leader. Take that boyfriend! Hehehe...

Then there was Shape Shifter, the crack to end all cracks in my opinion. I have a very severe love-hate relationship with this thing. I've tried it at least ten times now, and I just keep falling off it. But I keep coming back to it, all 30 metres of it's off-width to finger crack. 

Wow, gnarly! Jamie tells me I was pulling on a piece of gear here. Ha! That's awesome!

Jeez, I'm pretty sure I was about to fall here. 

This photo is out of order, sorry. This is near the beginning of Shape Shifter. But look, I've already got my terrified face on!

And some more fun playing around on the other cracks at the Long House. Here's a link to a topo and description for the Long House. Colin Moorhead has done a good job of summing it up.

Having fun on a 5.9 offwidth called Fire Water. I really do like climbingoff widths. Look at that freakin' fist jam people!

Bam! Placing a no. 4.

SICK! It's a chicken wing!

Unfortunately, the following adventures aren't in any kind of order. In fact, I don't think I could remember when each of these adventures happened even if I wanted to. As many of you who follow me on Facebook, or Instagram will know, I kind of went on a minor naked streak (ha, no pun intended) this summer. For some reason, I just found it good for the soul to be in the mountains, naked, and generally alone. I did; however, get into the hills with my good buddy and naked speed ascent record holder, Lena Rowat, for a scramble up Sky Pilot. Many people have asked if we dropped our trousers before getting on the gondola. Rest assured, for the future of naked speed ascents above the gondola, we refrained from leaving our clothes at the car! Instead we stripped down after passing the cutoff for the Mt. Habrich trail. It was a rather volitile day, so we didn't expect to encounter many people, and indeed, we were alone until we happened to sneak upon a poor unsuspecting guy that was turned the other way putting on his crampons. His suprise was obvious when we streaked past him with nothing more than sneakers on, and a hearty, "Hello!" Poor guy. 

Lena, naked as the day she was born, and scrambling above the Stadium Glacier. 

A white butt in the mist.

Lena put on a bright pink negligee on the summit, and then proceeded to ride back down the gondola in it. Hahaha!

Mt. Habrich through the clouds.

The access provided by our new Sea to Sky Gondola was not lost on me this season, and though I was unable to get into the big mountains much this summer, I did manage many smaller adventures above the gondola. On one particular occassion I was joined by my girlfriends, Jenny Abegg, and Luisa Giles. Jenny is currently on her own spirit quest, similar to my pilgramage of the last two years. Check her out here. We climbed a Mt. Habrich classic called, Life on Earth. It's fun, and perhaps a little spicy. 

Jenny climbs above the valley on Life on Earth.

And there's home! We'll be there in an hour and half. Not bad for a day in the mountains.

Then, after a rather emotional week, I decided it would be fun to hike through face-height brush for a few hours to reach the long Northwest Ridge of Mt. Joffre, AD 5.8, 500 m, rising in it's entirity 5 km from the Duffy Lk. Road to the summit of Mt. Joffre. And you know, it was fun. Go do it!

Susie emerges from the grasp of the alder jungle.

Down climbing halfway along the ridge. Susie is rocking her alpine short-shorts.

Susie and Luisa in the sun, with half of the ridge and the emerald green, First Joffre Lk. below us.

Susie had a good day!

One of the bonuses of my romp up the Northwest Ridge was that is let me scope the descent and conditions for the classic Flavelle-Lane, TD- 5.9, 700 m, on Joffre's north side. I'd been keen on trying this one and had managed to coral my friend Joel Beckmann to join me for a try. The day started off great, Joel even read poetry at each rest stop. Ha! But, things pretty much went straight down hill after that. As we ascended the glacier below Joffre's north face we began to notice alot of large rocks peppering the snow. The time was also getting late, and the sun was beginning to warm the face aboveus. As we neared the base it became apparent that we were going to have a difficult time getting across the moast and onto the buttress. Having been a low snow year, and a very hot summer, things had really melted out!

As we fumbled about trying to get on to the buttress we heard the sound that makes your stomach go into your toes. Rock fall. We were now almost directly below the Twisting Couloir as it seemed the best place to jump onto the buttress. But what we hadn't taken into the consideration, was that the sun had now been warming the slopes beside the couloir for about an hour and it began releasing a blitzkrieg of rocks. Our only option was to make a dash for a tiny alcove on the face directly west of the couloir. Miraculously, we were safe there from the refridgerator sized blocks that came hurling past us only to explode on the snow at our feet. 

I kind of had a sickening feeling that we were in big trouble and we decided not to move. We ended up huddling in our safe nook for four hours as we waited for the sun to leave the face, and the rock fall to subside. Finally, we made a mad dash for safety at the toe of the glacier. I was scared, really scared, and I feel like we kind of got away with something that we shouldn't have. After that, Joel and I took a while to decompress, and we talked about what we did wrong. Hindsight is always 20/20 and there were several signs that we should have paid attention to, 1) we should have started way way earlier, and been at the base of the buttress before the sun even rose, 2) we should have paid attention to the rocks littering the glacier. That was a pretty obvious sign that this side of the mountain was very active with rockfall, 3) from here forward I will do my darndest to avoid couloirs as I approach my summer alpine rock climbs. I'm done with that shit. In winter, couloirs are endless fun, in summer, they're funnels for big rocks. Never again!

Joel is reading poetry people. And, yes, we should have already been at the base of our route.

The now infamous huddle ledge is just right of the major buttress in the centre of the picture.

This is where we huddled for four hours.

And here's the evidence. Rocks strewn all over the glacier.

I ended up climbing a few long routes on El Jefe with some good buddies, including Paul Cordy's new route, Parallel Passages. Here's the topo. It's super fun, with lots of burly wide cracks. Go do it! Here are some photos from a trip up Milk Road, which is the extention of Milk Run to the top of Tantalus Wall. What an incredible route, it's well worth all the stars it gets.

Paul leads the money 10d corner on Milk Road.

Susie following the very final pitch of the Milk Road. It might just be the best traverse in Squamish, and I typically hate traverses. With eight pitches or so below you, it feels like you're traversing on air.

Paul on that same pitch.

And there's even a perfectly flat ledge topout.

Sarah and Susie on top.

Luisa follows with her awesome sun glasses.

And I'm just including this picture because I love it so much. This is Susie on Quagmire Crack. 

And last, but not least, Captain Safety and I had lots of fun. He bought a van, "hello sweet road tripping vehicle." We named him Mario Cart, aka La Flama Blanca. Here's a few pictures of Ol' White Butt and I.

The first sleep in Mario Cart. I couldn't get Colin to wake up for this picture. Hahaha, typical.

Our friend Tim Matsui likes to take clever little photos with his iPhone. This was one of them.

That's love.