Lily the wonder dog

Lily is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever who is on her last legs and probably won't make it to another winter. She has been a part of my family since I was sixteen and I have spent countless days on the snow in the Valhalla Mountains skiing with Lily. Lily has numerous traits that make her such a great ski dog: she loves powder, she has seemingly limitless energy, and when the snow's too deep, she'll head down the uptrack and meet you at the bottom of the run. Lily's affectionate nature made her the center of attention with guests at my family's backcountry lodge (www.vmt.ca).

Here are a few photos to help you appreciate Lily courtesy of Whit Richardson:

As I write this, my new dog Benny is sleeping under the table with his head resting on my feet. Benny has REALLY REALLY big shoes to fill.

Summing up summer

A mid-summer whirlwind of work wrapped up with an amazing day of guiding on the Chief. On August 7 I guided two women whom have only been climbing a few years up the Squamish Buttress via Diedre (a 12 pitch 5.10c route up the Squamish Chief). This would be a proud feat in its own, but is made truly inspiring by the fact that the climb was in celebration of one of the women's 70th birthday! Both women have fabulous determination and climbed well and maintained their spirits right until the last slabby moves onto the summit of the Chief, where their husbands were waiting with champagne and smiles.

Sandy the 70 year old dynamo climbing the Squamish Buttress


Susan and Sandy enjoying a few sips of well-earned champagne on the summit

The next adventure of the summer was some sorely needed personal climbing time in the Bugaboos with Mandoline Clark. Numerous obstacles tried to impede us from getting there, including a night at the worst bivy spot in BC (imagine a train track sandwich with you as the filling), a broken down truck (we abandoned it on the road and hitch-hiked, got a ride with the nicest Spaniards wearing the shortest shorts I have ever seen on a man) and pouring rain at the trailhead. After the gruelling approach to Applebee Camp with backbreaking packs, we arrived just before dark to a huge crew of friends who fed us food and booze and immediately we were PSYCHED.

Our first day dawned crystal clear and hot, so we decided to work the kinks out of our travel weary muscles on Energy Crisis, a 2 pitch 5.11+ route on Cresent Spire near camp. We sent that and foolishly decided to simulclimb up McTech Arete, despite the ominous black thunderheads looming overhead. BAD IDEA. Shortly after reaching the last station the wind began to wail, rain began to fall, and we began frantically to rappel. To make a long story short we got pummeled by the biggest hail stones I have ever witnessed for about 2o minutes. At one point I was alone at an anchor and couldn't move due to the sheer volume of hail raining down on me. By the time we got to the ground there were 3 m high piles of hail at the base of the wall and peoples ropes were frozen into them. I was truly hypothermic and soaked to the skin, so I had to strip down in front of various random people to get a dry layer on. There's nothing more humiliating than trying to wriggle dry clothes onto wet skin when you are shivering uncontrollably and blue all over. Only one day into the trip and a dozen climbers in the Bugaboos had seen my boobs... great start to the trip! To add insult to injury, we got back to camp to discover our tent had been blown away in the storm. Luckily for us some climbers saw it getting away and put heavy rocks on it for us, but not before it sustained serious damage. The large tears in it did not help the situation when it rained and snowed for the next two days. Most of our friends left to dry out in Golden, but we decided to tough it out and wait for the good weather that we just had to believe was on its way.

Muscly Mandoline unconsciously getting ready for the hail


"Yay, this whole alpine thing is awesome.. ha ha ha ha (sucker)"


"It might be raining and all our stuff might be wet, but we're still here!"


Our tent, before it was blown off the mountain and torn to shreds


A CMH heli looking for a lost climber (who was located safe and sound in the Radium Hotsprings!)

The rest of the Bugaboos trip was pretty chill in comparison to that first day. We climbed some beautiful routes including The Power of Lard and Sunshine Crack on Snowpatch Spire, and had a fun day of soloing around on the West Ridge of Pigeon and the Kain Route on Bugaboo Spire. Our buddy Jon Walsh (www.alpinestyle.ca) shot a cool pic of me leading the last pitch on Sunshine Crack (IV 5.11a)

Sunshine Crack - Jon Walsh photo


The posse - Jon Walsh photo

My camera battery died on day three of the trip so that's all for Bugaboos images. Pretty amazing place, I am excited to head back in September for my ACMG ski guide glacier skills training week.

The second phase of my summer vacation was spent in the Slocan Valley visiting my Mum and sister Nyree. We did some climbing in the Valhallas and some mountain biking out of New Denver. My sister is a biking machine and I almost died trying to keep up with her... my only hope was to get her telling me stories about how many billions of trees she has planted (she works as a tree planter). We also did some really great runs in the rain and even had a survivor style adventure where a landslide blocked the highway when we were out getting groceries and we ended up running 10 km in the pissing rain on a muddy, bear shit covered trail to get home. Sometimes I feel like I have gotten to be such a city girl since I left the Kootenays! It was great to spend time with family and help my Mum out with here bakery business... yum yum. Nothing like coming out of the mountains to a garden full of all kinds of ripe goodies and two women who really know how to cook amazing food. Following are a few snapshots of some of my Mum and sister's delicacies.

Rustic apple tarts


Festival of sushi


Basilicious


Nyree making pesto


Mum making apple tarts

The final adventure to report is the new addition into Evan and I's family. No, it's not what you think, I have not caught the 'Squamish flu' that is spreading like wild fire through the women of Squamish. No babies for me. My Mum adopted a puppy from some neighbors and offered him to us. If you meet him you will understand why we will never, ever give him back. He does great at the crag, is really friendly and even exceeds Evan in his ability to laze around for hours. I named him Benny, after my friend Ben Demenech who taught me a ton about climbing and tragically died in the spring of 2001.

Benny

Well that's all that's fit to post, and then some.

If I'm going to have to work it might as well be raining

It's been an insane month since my last post. Tons of working, partying and to be totally honest, not a lot of sending (or for that matter even climbing at all). The Squamish Mountain Festival was a huge hit with lots of great slideshows and parties (the Tight and Bright night was an especially good time... luckily for all participants climbers tend to have bodies that aren't completely disgusting when clad in spandex). There has been lots of amazing energy around town with many visiting big names showing up on local testpieces; it's an exciting time to be a Squamishite!

The last 14 days straight have been work days, but before that there were some good times. A great evening session out with photographer Paul Bride on the backside of the chief saw me sweating to the oldies on the heinous offwidth 'Boogie 'Till You Puke' with Paul snapping photos of my attempted (and very much thwarted) onsight attempt. Strangely, I thought the route was actually pretty fun and I'd like to get back on it and send.

Boogie Till You Puke - Photos by Paul Bride

Next came a killer day on Southern Lights with Mandoline Clark. We both had an amazing day, with her sending the burly Alaska Highway crux pitch and me onsighting the second pitch of The Calling, an Indian Creek style dihedral from big fingies through tight hands to hands. YAY!!! Beautiful pitch!

The Calling

Mando and I psyched at the top of Southern Lights

Revisited Zap Crack so my buddy Paul could snap a few pics of what I think is one of the prettiest finger cracks in Squampton. Kind of funky light up there made his job harder but I think the splotches of sunlight look super cool.

Zap Crack - Photos by Paul Bride

Finally, I've been sessioning Zombie Roof a bit since it makes a great after work, low commitment, blow off steam option. One of the days I was up there with Senja Palonen, her boyfriend Rich Wheater shot some pics. I haven't sent it yet, but yesterday was within spitting distance, so I'm hoping if the Squamish drizzle dies down I will dispatch it soon.

Zombie Roof - photos by Rich Wheater

Well that's all the spray that's fit to print. Hopefully my next post will have killer shots of Mandoline and I sending granite goodness in the Bugaboos; we are heading there for a week in early August.

Summertime, and the climbing is (not really that) easy

Many days of guiding, many hours of moving and many loud curses about how much SH#T I have collected over the years have mostly filled the time since my last post. But there have been a few really fun days of climbing since then too, including quite a few forays on climbs or crags that are new to me.

Checked out Deadend Dihedral, a 3 pitch techfest in the dihedrals of the Chief with Jesse Huey. We wisely chose one of the hottest and most humid days of the summer to get on this thing and got seriously spanked on pretty much all three pitches. We eased our pain by downing cold beers by the lake, going swimming, then enjoying amazing food with friends at a kick ass pad in the Smoke Bluffs overlooking the entire valley. You gotta love Squamish in the summer!

The next day of the heat wave saw Mandoline and I on a mini road trip to Suicide Bluffs near Pemberton, BC. We thought that the breeze from the Soo river would keep it cool enough to climb, which was true. Did a few interesting routes before the sun hit and we ran away to the beach in Whistler, spending the rest of the day, yes, drinking beer and oggling rich, fashionable tourists before finishing it all up spraying and gossiping at the Brew Pub in Squamish for half price pizza night. The most exciting part of the day was the tyrolean to get to the crag:

Mandoline scales the tree at the start of the tyrolean


Tyrolean video

The next climbing day saw me heading to the Sherrif's Badge with Jason Kruk. I wanted to try Astronomy, a steep finger crack, and Jason wanted to check out the unclimbed extension to Hot Rod. It was a fairly unsuccessful mission, unless you judge success by the amount of sweat produced per square centimeter of skin. It was higgity-hot even in the shade, and no wind to offer relief.

white boy on white rock - Jason follows the filthy second pitch of Hot Rod

Jason looking sketchy, but climbing pretty well

The best climbing day I've had in awhile was with Kinley Aitken. We went to tackly Alaska Highway, the feared and revered 5 pitch route in the North Walls of the Chief. Taking our time on the route paid off, because we both managed to send every pitch of burly crack climbing that the highway offered up... a pleasant surprise to both of us! Some pics from the day below.


Kinley following the crux pitch - way steeper than it looks!

You know you are in Squamish when you find yourself doing 5.11 tree climbing - Kinley on the 1st and 3rd pitch.

Kinley getting ready to bust out on the pumpy 11a hand traverse of the last pitch

The last notable day of climbing was with Evan. In the middle of our intense moving session we needed to blow off some steam, so we thought that some overhanging, thrutchy chimney climbing would do the trick just right. U-Wall here we come. We had to make it to Home Depot before closing (oh god what have I become!!!) so we just played around on the first three pitches. I got schooled big time but Evan snapped a few cool shots of me following U Wall and toproping the Shadow. Amazing route, can't wait to get back up there now that I know what to expect!


"I thought chimneying was supposed to be restful!"

The gorgeous Shadow

Zombie, House, rap, Zap!

Sometimes life is funny. Everything
is all calm and serene for weeks on end and then suddenly.... WHAM!!!... a zillion things all happen at once and I hardly even know what hit me.

The first event in this crazy explosion of action was my friend Mandoline Clarke nabbing the (probable) first female ascent of Zombie Roof. This Smoke Bluffs roof crack testpiece was featured in my last blog post. I was lucky enough to finish my guiding day in time to give Mandoline a belay and watch her sail through the moves, making it look like 5.8. Unfortunately I don't have any shots of Mando climbing (taking photos while belaying on the redpoint is a bit of a faux-pas in my books) but I have this lovely portrait of Mandoline.

The next unbelievable event was that Evan (my mountain guide beefcake of a husband) and I bought our first home. Very exciting! Trying to hide my blood and chalk caked hands from bank managers, mortgage brokers etc. in meetings has been less exciting... but it's kind of like playing grown up. What a trip! No photos of our place because we haven't moved in yet, but there is a yard so I am predicting a summer of barbequed salmon garnished with fresh herbs grown in planters on the back deck! YAY!

Next stop on the tour of bizarre happenings was my day of guiding the Chief - FROM THE TOP DOWN!!! Yes, I guided my first rapelling tour of the 1700' face of the Stawamus Chief. Two very enthusiastic and adrenaline-seeking people hired me through Squamish Rock Guides. After doing a practice run in the Smoke Bluffs to ensure there wouldn't be any full on freakouts halfway down the Chief, we began slogging up the backside trail with two ropes, harnesses, helmets, belay devices and little else save my stash of emergency items (rack, webbing, quick links, etc.). We started off on the Roman Chimneys, an overhanging dihedral accessed by some seriously exposed choss-ledge scrambling. Two gut wrenching 60m raps interspersed by a cramped hanging belay brought us to the Dance Platform, a large treed ledge that is equal in height to the top of The Grand Wall. As my clients ate their lunch and relaxed, I nervously searched for the anchors at the top of Uncle Ben's, an aid climb that provides the most direct and steep path down the face. Five more 50 m + raps, including one nauseating free hanger over the Golden Throat Charmer brought us down to terra firma.

Last to report is that after repeating the 45 minute approach eight times, six times for climbing and twice only to be shut down due to wetness, I finally sent Zap Crack. It's a beautiful 12d overhanging flared finger crack on a gorgeous white-pink granite wall, deep in the woods and high above highway 99 in the Valley of Shaddai. I first saw the route two summers ago, and instantly wanted to climb it but never made it happen aside from a few toprope sessions. Last September, my friend Senja Palonen made the first female ascent of Zap Crack and really inspired me to get off my lazy ass and commit to the hike this summer. Luckily, my buddy Mandoline was pretty psyched to work on it too, so we have made our six days of work on it really fun. Part of me is sort of sad to leave this peaceful zone in the woods behind... my next project is mere meters from the highway and not nearly as peaceful. No more singing and dancing and yelling curses in the privacy of our own forested crag. The send day was warm and dry... most of my previous lead attempts had been done during a light rain (the crack stays pretty dry during sprinkles, but seeps if it pours). The photo is of me freezing my ass off at the end of Juneuary at Zap Crack, shorts on head, skirt by Glad.

Evan captured this video clip right before the send:

Wanted: Used and annotated copy of Roof Crack Climbing for Dummies

There are many good things about rainy spells in Squamish: your skin never needs moisturizer, you don't have to work if you are a climbing guide and you have multipitch work booked, you have lots of time to fester on the couch and bicker with your spouse, and most of all, you don't have to deal with redpoint jitters if your project du jour happens to be a crack climb. I really missed the west coast drizzle when I lived in Utah... day after day of sun just seemed so tiring, so monotonous. But right about now I could really use a bit of sun on my face, hands cradled in some warm granite goodness.

At least rainforests are really, really pretty

The rainy spell began 2 weeks ago on a high note. I had projects at Cheakamus Canyon, one of the few crags in Squamish that stays dry in the rain, so part of me was a bit excited when the rain began; it was time to work on my sport climbing! I also thought it was great when I dispatched a few of my sport projects only a few days into the rainy spell... I was feeling stronger than I thought! As luck would have it all of my guiding work was instructional, so I still got to earn cash while biding my time setting up mock leads, mock multipitches and lecturing on the importance of finding that perfect zone between over and under cammed protection.

My first day off in a week arrived and the forecast was looking good... I was psyched! I hiked up to my current flame, a flaring finger crack located high above highway 99 just south of Squamish. I knew it was likely seeping, but I couldn't climb anywhere else without at least checking. Unfortunately my wise friend Jeremy Blumel was right, it would have been possible to fill a water bottle, albeit slowly, from the drips issuing from the crux of the route. Damn!

Optimum Squamish sending conditions

Please, please get dry little crack

Slipping and squishing down to our car, Evan and I hatched plan B: Zombie Roof. It's location in the Smoke Bluffs means that it is open to the wind and is west facing, meaning that if anything was going to be dry, it would be. Sure enough it was dry, and I tasted the bitterness of complete and utter shutdownedness while flailing around upside down. It was great to watch more able roof crack climbers go at it: my friend Jason Kruk euro blew his chalk and pink pointed with laughable ease, my husband Evan growled and yelled his way into the tight hand jams before the lip, getting very close to sending, and my climbing gal pal Mandoline Clarke burled her way through many one-hang burns making my heart swell with pride. Inspired but frustrated, I returned for a few burns today with Mandoline and Evan. Wow. Chossed hands, sore abs and I still haven't clipped the chains, ouch. Guess I have a smoke bluffs project now too...

In your heaad, in your heaaad, zombie, zombie, zombie ie ie ie

Here's a video Evan (AKA Rainy Rest Day productions) put together on Zombie: