Sorry in advance for some of the poor quality photos, normally i wouldn't post grainy shots in a TR but there's not much info out there on this one & it's quite worthy so hopefully the pics will give people an idea of the climbing at least.
EDITED for WL
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Had a fun day on Monday. Did a route on the left side of the Squaw called Straight outta Squampton with my buddy Josh. We had attempted the route last year but were forced to retreat from the top of the first pitch due to extenuating circumstances.
I'll explain along the way.
It was a nice day in the quaint town of Squamish.
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We went with the standard start time of mid morning and arrived at the base of the Klootch buttress no earlier than 1130 i think.
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A bunch of really great, modern day, classic, 3-6 pitch routes start here. The White feather, Squeamishness, & Photophobia to name a few. All the climbing is steep & burly on crisp granite with lots of cracks.
Josh got psyched for revenge & headed up the first pitch which is graded 10c.
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This one is stout for the grade, on our attempt last year Josh made it to the top of this pitch with a mini epic despite his status as a 5.13 #boltclippingpoofter . This was our first sign we had underestimated the climb. He ended up lowering from the anchor with myself cleaning the pitch on tr before we went bouldering instead.
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Anyways he climbed it with minimal concern this time & i followed it reasonably smooth aside from some whack beta near the chains. We had renewed confidence.
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Then i looked up and saw my lead. The Hirvonen slot. The gateway to the upper headwall. I approached up some harder than they looked face cracks towards the gaping maw. I made it up this pitch in less than fine style. A bolt became unclipped and i had a nice little problem solving session which required way more energy expended than it should have. By the time i hit the anchors i was feeling reasonably buggered.
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You can see the bolt is unclipped in this shot. But hey, at least we got the shot lol.
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I guess i must have bumped it or something with my leg or foot?
Josh managed to follow it cleanly with some concern & a fair amount of grunting & 5.12 crimping. What a burly pitch!
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We chilled at the belay for a bit after that one for sure, wishing we had brought some water because next up was the crux pitch. It started with a bolted, crux traverse up into a long, steep, sustained, continuous finger & hand crack system with lots of varied climbing & another traverse crux up higher. Josh managed a great onsight of this pitch despite it being a bit scruffy & not too travelled.
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This shot explains the overall feel a bit better.
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I made it up there too after a few hangs at the mid traverse & a bit of grunting. A really great pitch that could use some traffic & love, graded 11c with a few distinct cruxes the real challenge is doing no move easier than 10a for the whole 35M+.
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We had done the final corner & gross slab before so we hi fived & did 2 quick 35M raps down the neighbouring route, grabbed the bags & headed to town where we met our buddy Justin. He had only ever been climbing twice so we took him to the smoke bluffs & lapped him out on some easy classics before putting him on his first lead ever!! It was rad & cool to have the opportunity to teach a friend this fine art.
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I wish i had a pic of my first lead!
After that some other buddies came by & we had a fire & got drunk in my backyard.
A great Monday…..
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Feels like summer, go get some.
