The Grand Wall, 5.11a A0

Climbing the Grand Wall was the culmination of our experience in Squamish.  We started out climbing the very slabby Apron routes and started working our way up to harder, longer, and steeper climbs.  After being in Squamish nearly three weeks, we decided that it was time to tackle a bigger challenge.

The Grand Wall is hard to miss, climbing up the beautiful face of the Chief.  It is easy to pick out two of the most classic pitches, The Split Pillar and the Sword by looking up at the wall from the road.  At 5.11, the climb was a harder multi pitch than either of us had attempted before, and it was sustained at the grade, unlike some of the other climbs we had done like the Squamish Buttress which goes at 5.10c, but only has one pitch at that grade and the rest at 5.7.  We decided to gun it, and left the tag line at home so we had no option of retreat.

The Topo

5 Stars, oh yea!

The night before the climb we got tons of beta from our friend Andy who has climbed the Grand Wall at least four times.  He filled us in on all the important details and we went to bed psyched!  We woke up early the next morning, grabbed the gear that we had racked the night before and hiked to the base.  As we arrived at the bottom of the climb, two other parties showed up behind us.  Luckily they were awesome people that entertained me at all the belay stations. 

The first pitch is a 5.7 R, which means there is a lot of space between your pieces of protection.  It is a bolted dike that goes for 42 meters and has all of THREE bolts.  We linked this pitch with the next 5.9 pitch which is also slightly runout.  The next pitch is an awesome traverse that goes at 5.10b.  The movement was really cool and at the end of the traverse you aid up a short bolt ladder. 

Looking down at the runout slab pitch

 The first three pitches went by really fast!  We were already far off the ground, and even better, we were at the base of the split pillar!  The split pillar is an awesome splitter (who would’ve guessed) that started at tight hands (for me.  Rattly fingers for people with fat hands), went to hands, off hands, turny cups, fists and then a bit of offwidth at the top.  Eric styled the pitch perfectly.  I had to lay back some of the wider parts but eventually made it to the next belay.

The Split Pillar

Eric styles it

The sword is a really thin finger crack with a tricky bulge in it (crux of the route).  At the top is another bolt ladder.  Eric cruised this pitch also and brought me up to the belay at the base of Perry’s Layback.  Perry’s is a huge offwidth crack, which is thankfully bolted (or we would have had to drag a bunch of #4s and #5s up).  The face that you smear on while you lieback is fairly smooth and given that it was a right facing corner and my right shoe was totally blown out, I had to pull on a few draws for this pitch.
  

A nice view

After this pitch, we were only two pitches from the top!  Eric was feeling a little tired (understandably so) so I led the next pitch, which was a very technical face climb.  It was a little more runout than I feel is ideal, but I inched my way up, feeling my shoes crumbling away beneath me.  After clipping the last bolt, there is a reachy 5.10 move, which involves you making it up a blank bulge to a mediocre jug.  The only problem is that there are no footholds or handholds to get you there, so if you aren’t 6 feet tall, you basically have to dyno.  I did some creative sideways aid climbing and somehow made it to the top of the pitch. 

My very sad shoes

The last pitch features an undercling traverse around a flake and then easier climbing to the top.  I was feeling pretty gassed when I went to follow this.  The undercling traverse again featured a smooth surface with no holds where you had to smear your feet.  Darn shoes need some rubber!  As I was traversing out I was thinking about how it would be really inconvenient to fall.  I was about to hit the corner of the flake when my right foot slipped off the wall and I went boink!  I looked up in dismay to see the flake 15 feet above me, and nothing but smooth polished wall in between.  Rats!  I had to climb up the rope and really hope I didn’t fall in order to get back into the flake.  Eventually I was at the top!

Woo!

We were both super psyched on the awesome climbing we had just completed.  The Grand Wall was super varied, and featured every type of climbing at a sustained grade and at high quality.  It was AWESOME!  Eric climbed it in excellent style, onsighting it, and I was psyched to get to the top with just a little gear pulling.  Although we had finished the climb, we were not down yet.  We had to traverse the Bellygood Ledge which is a very narrow walkway above a sheer drop off—scary!  Fortunately we made it safely back to the ground. 

Bellygood Ledge 

Drop off!

Climbing the Grand Wall left us really satisfied, and with our food nearly gone, our  campsite taken from us (we might have forgotten to pay for the last few days), and rain in the forecast, we decided that it would soon be time to leave.  The next day we decided to go out for one last boulder session.  Instead of sending some projects, I got a new one and worked it til it was almost dark.  Eric had put in a few goes on Mantra (V8) and decided to try a few more times.  As the darkness crept in he took off his shoes and threw in the towel.  While packing up, he noticed that the crux hold should be held like a pinch, not a sloper, and put his shoes on for one last go.  He stuck the crux!  As he was going for the top he made the unfortunate realization that the top hold was a sloper, not a jug, and came flying off the boulder and onto a rock.  No!  He twisted his ankle pretty badly and had to hobble out of the forest.  It was a bummer kind of way to end the trip but he is in good spirits and his ankle is feeling much better. 

We hit the road back home, feeling lucky to have gotten in so many classic climbs and to have experienced such great weather (no rain!  Unheard of for a trip to Squamish).  Today we’ll head to SLO to see the puppies (update on Star- second Vet’s opinion was that she did not need surgery), and we will await our next adventure!