Adventures in the Forest

We have now been adventuring on rocks in and above the forest for two weeks.  It has been glorious!  The climbing here is so unique- the boulders are set amongst the huge trees of the peaceful forest.  Everything is green and moss and lichen covered.  Strange bugs and slugs creep around and funny mushrooms grow on many surfaces.  Despite the appearance that there are a lot of people here (based on the full campground and parking lot), it remains quiet and uncrowded in the trees.  The routes are also unique, with more tree-slinging, odd traverses and ledges than I’m used to. 

Since my last post, we have done LOTS of climbing!  We have completed 40+ pitches of trad climbing and done a fair amount of bouldering.  Eric sent Gibbs’ Cave (V8) and The Bulb (V8) and tried lots of other hard classics.  Two days ago he went a scary V5 called Doubt, a V7 called Undertow, and two V8’s- Autobody and Hunt’s Arete.  What a day!  I have sent two V4’s- Easy in an Easy Chair and Trad Killer.  I was getting very close on a really tall slab called Phat Slab (V5) but took a bad fall and am too scared to try it again!  We are looking forward to some more bouldering in the next few days and some more sends.

Most of our focus has been on route climbing.  It is hard to ignore the Chief as it sits there in magnificence overlooking the campground.  One day we climbed St. Vitus’ dance on the Apron, which featured a very lovely crack on pitch 3.  Our biggest day of climbing yet took us up Rock On (5.10a) to the Squamish Buttress (5.10c), which took us all the way to the summit of the Chief!  The view from the top was incredible and the climbing was great.   We linked several pitches together, so the whole climb ended up being a total of 10 pitches. 

We had another good couple days of climbing on the “Squaw.”  On our first day there, we climbed Birds of Prey.  I led the first two pitches of awesome finger crack, and Eric led the burlier 5.10 pitches.  Unfortunately, after our first day climbing at the “Squaw” we left our guidebook at the base of our climb!  The next day we hiked back up hoping to find it but it was nowhere to be seen.  We figured that as long as we had hiked all the way up to the base of the wall, we might as well climb something.  We didn’t have our guidebook, so we guessed where the start of another climb, Jungle Warfare (5.10a) was.  Well, apparently we guessed wrong.  The first pitch was an awesome splitter in a right facing corner that went from fingers to tight hands to hands.  The second pitch was an exposed face climb that probably went at 5.11c/d if I had to guess.  After that we went up some hand cracks, finger cracks and some slab and before we knew it we were at the top!  I was psyched that we didn’t epic and get stuck up there.   

 We had another big day yesterday, climbing Peasant’s Route on the base of the Grand Wall.  It was really inspiring to look up at the Chief from the Grand Wall.  Peasant’s Route is a stout 5.10c and we really enjoyed all five pitches.  After we came down we hiked over to the Apron and practically ran up Diedre a very class 5.8 corner crack.  It is supposed to be six pitches, but we did it in good style and linked everything.  We ended up climbing it in three 200 foot pitches, stretching our rope as far as it would go. 

Eric has amazed me with his ability to climb anything and everything.  He sends boulder problems quickly, sport climbs like a beast, and doesn’t think twice about tying into the sharp end on any trad climb.  Where I would usually hesitate and wonder if I have the skills to make it up every pitch on a climb (for example, I’m not so good at wider cracks so I might not choose a climb that had a pitch of wide crack), Eric just guns it!  He has confidence and the skill to back it up.  It is good to see him continually pushing himself to new levels in gear climbing.

While it is great to see Eric excel, it sometimes leaves me exhausted!  I have been left huffing and puffing while following a few pitches in the last week.  My calves burn, my fingers and hands tire, and I have to leave my pride behind and pull on gear every once in a while.  I love climbing with Eric and knowing that I have a rope gun to get me up any climb we tackle!

I also really miss climbing with Chelsea.  Chelsea and I both have pretty specific strengths and weaknesses in our climbing.  It is always really fun choosing climbs and splitting pitches based on what we excel at.  If there is a slabby or sporty pitch, I’ll take it.  If there is a splitter crack, Chelsea will get the lead.  I definitely miss my PIC and can’t wait until she is climbing again!

One nice thing about being in a place so long is that you start to discover the locals’ secrets.  One thing we’ve learned about is “Happy Hour” at the rec center.  This has nothing to do with drinks, but rather the price of admission.  If you go Monday-Friday between 11:45 and 12:15 it only costs $2 to get in.  Once you’re in, you can swim, hot tub and shower!  What a deal. 

We haven’t been taking too many rest days because there is so much to climb, but when we do we have a great time.  Today we went up to Whistler to check out the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. We saw lots of people mountain biking and ate some delicious ice cream.  We’ve also been swimming at lakes, and walking around and exploring.

There is a great community of climbers here (including some famous ones), which makes for a great vibe and a wonderful place to chill out.  It is very relaxed here and we sleep in late almost every day.  On the weekends, the parking lots overflow with people coming to hike to the top of the Chief.  For some reason I have started calling these people ‘tourists,’ even though they are almost all from BC. I get amused by the puzzled looks we get from the ‘tourists’ while cooking our breakfast out of the back of our car. 

Anyway, back to the climbing.  There is just so much of it, it’s hard not to get overwhelmed!  We are thinking about staying a little longer than we originally planned so we can do a few more of the things that we want (or we could try waking up before 10am).  The bouldering guidebook has over 2500 problems in it and even the select route guidebook has too much to choose from.  Eric would read me bedtime stories in the form of route descriptions (until we lost our book).  “Pitch 3, 5.10.  Start up the right facing corner and climb left to a tree.”  I fall asleep under the silent forest canopy dreaming of climbing.  When I wake up in the morning, the rock awaits :)