Season Ending Injury + Hardest Problem in Stillwater

I've been in Squamish for a few weeks, bouldering and trad climbing in hopes to get stronger for the valley. After a slew of onsights in Skaha and Kelowna, I'm convinced the time in Squamish has paid off. Things were going great, and I arrived back in town stoked and ready to help Matt Hodgson finish his project on the West Main Buttress.

The new problem follows the thin right crack above the over hang.

Matt has been climbing strong, nabbing the first ascent of "the future project" in Stillwater, a boulder problem with strenuous technical moves on micro crimps. It had been walked passed for years, assumed to be too hard until Matt suggested I try it - and we quickly figured out the sequence. (You just never know till you try it!) After a few sessions Matt put it all together, though it's yet to be named or graded (though I'd guess it's around a 7...I originally thought it'd be a double digit until I actually tried it).

The day before I arrived, I had a gnarly fall while bouldering alone in Squamish. I felt I would flash the problem, a moderate V4, but I lost my focus and slipped. My foot blew off and I slammed hard into the rocks below me, a few feet away from my very poorly placed crash pad...in fact, it wasn't under the problem at all. Lesson learned - play it safe. I finished the problem immediately after, but noticed pain in my hand which became fairly severe later that night. 

Learning to be a lefty

After not being able to hold a tooth brush the next day or turn my car key, I thought I'd stop into the ER in Powell River. What I hoped would be a sprain turned out to be a fractured scaphoid, requiring a cast for 4-6 weeks. There goes my chance at helping put up the route in the Valley, sending any more projects, scrubbing new lines, bolting anything, and heading to California for November. Time to heal and reflect, re-connect with friends and focus on other things. This will also give me time to rehab a knee injury that's kept me from heel-hooking for 2 months. So, until next season, wishing you all great health - don't take it for granted.


In other news, a
great night bouldering session went down in August at Stillwater, which may have been the largest bouldering session in PR history.

Krista on Huff - V0+ during the first annual night bouldering party

Drinks and good times flowed, and I may have even ended up with a first ascent - though if it had been climbed in years passed by Colin or Rob and crew, I may have at least got the first intoxicated night ascent....though that's also debatable. At least I had spotters! 

Gripped Magazine's area profile on Powell River and the Eldred Valley

In the August/September issue of Gripped, http://gripped.com/magazine/current/ there's a feature on the climbing here in town. Considering the crew had something like 3 days here and had mostly poor weather, the finished product is impressive.

It was cool to see some attention given to the three areas in town outside of the Eldred, and very surprising to see the article didn't publish a single photo of any of the big walls, which are generally the eye candy of the area. Most surprisingly, the Flickr photos don't include the standard shot of the West Main Wall - guess it's old news!

Hat Trick - a 5.9+ TR route at Stillwater. (Or a highball bolder problem)

The article is well written, and the photos turned out great. The only two published bouldering photos were taken in the Carag Dur area, which has hardly been developed, and is extremely dirty. Hopefully this doesn't give Eldred bouldering a bad image, since there has been so much work put into scrubbing good quality problems in other areas. At least it shows that there are quality problems hidden in the valley waiting to be cleaned, and will let people see that there is more to Powell River climbing than just massive isolated big walls.

Check out all the photos on Flickr!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomsaint/sets/72157633879401446/

A correction to the caption printed for the photo of the boulder with the giant cedar snag on it: I called the problem Hollow Cedar Skies since they needed a name for it, though it is actually an un-climbed project. The boulder is un-named.

All photos credit  Sean St.Denis

Must Do Climbs - Volume 1

Anna working the rail

Instead of doing an area profile of each area in town, which would take a whole lot of time and work and people to photograph - I'm going to do a 'best of' list. This is the kind of project that will probably take several seasons to cover, but, it gives me something fun to constantly have on the back burner.



For the first installment, I'm going with one of my favourite climbs - Knobulator (direct) 5.9

Strechin' out mid route

Located in the Destruction Zone at Higgy land, it's the first climb you come to through the short trail from the parking spot.



This was the first route I ever top-roped, lead, and free soloed. It's also the route that many of my friends, and likely many other local climbers discovered as their first sport climb.  The rock quality is bomber, the opening moves follow a pure sequence, and the direct route through the roof is exposed and mega fun.

A grainy low light shot of Alyssa making the early reachy move

Powell River Climbing - Bouldering Guide Teaser pt. 2

Instead of rushing to get this done before the end of the season, I'm going to take my time and hack away at it over the winter months and have it ready before next season. Here's another sample, the first page/first area of the Stillwater section. This page comes after the driving directions and map on how to get to the area.

 A basic printable black and white 'quick guide' version will also be made available.

Eldred Valley - B Branch Boulders - Inverted Area. Just Another Project.

Matt H  - Just another project

This beauty was uncovered by Matt in what has become a cluster of problems I'm dubbing the 'Inverted Area', right near the beginning of the B Branch trail. This problem is a stone's throw passed the awesome Inverted Academics, which I fired the second ascent of before we started sessioning this project.

See the FA of Inverted Academics here.  This is a tough problem to grade...especially since I've never done anything similar to it with such a full on leg hook before. I agree with Matt's idea of it either being a softer V6 or a sandbagged V5. Matt and I are pretty different height wise, so our styles are very different, and my lack of reach made me have to be fully extended and move dynamically. Looks like it'll need a 3'rd opinion.

The new project feels like a V6 or even a V7, but it's so hard to say until it's actually sent. Our fingers were fairly destroyed, so maybe it's even easier. Matt came super close to cranking it during the session, and whichever of us gets back on it next will likely nab the FA.

Also in B Branch, to the left of the main boulder right by the parking spot, I put up a new easy problem called Communication Eater. Basically, the problem ate my phone when I was cleaning it. I love it when a problem name's itself.

On the same boulder, there's 3 cool dyno problems starting from the same hold. It's like a mirror sequence of the seaside boulder - all starting on the same good hold, one going straight up, one going left, and one going right. This is why our fingers were so shredded.

I (mostly) sent the very fun leftward campus problem, which will be called Doobie Sloth (V5/6?) though I kind of cheated and had some momentum from leaving the ground so need to go back and send it properly before I truly claim a first ascent.


We also did some exploring in the Buttress Boulders, and found what I think might be the best problem in the entire Valley so far. It was too dark to take a photo, and we only tried the first move. It's hard, starting with what may be either a campus or very difficult heel hook on a rail (exactly like the super classic 5 star Sunshine and Lollipops in Squamish). It's steep, and though the top out was quite mossy, it looks like it will involve a very difficult, fairly high mantle.

 I can't wait to get stronger and put in some work on it to see how it'll turn out!

Oh, I also found out the possible grade of the new route 'Against the Current' on the Buttress. I think I heard somewhere in the 11+ range. I hope I have time to get on it before the season is over...so much to do so little time.

New route at the Lake Bluffs + A short film spoofing Planet Earth

Hit up the lake bluffs yesterday, and lead up Christie Dionne's new route, which I believe is called Memories....or possibly Mammaries....but probably Memories. Beautiful route that starts up a massive flake then goes right up more of a face. Bomber gear and very good quality rock. Felt to be in the 5.9 range. Could be a classic. - Come to think of it, that might not have even been the route... Man I can't wait for the new guide book! So much less guessing...

I then attempted an on-sight of what may have been either Charged With Vanity (the old guide book calls this route both 11+ and 12+), or the aid line Perserverence (C4) which turned out to be a little too lichen covered. It was a beautiful, exposed arete split into 3 sections by two lower horizontal cracks, before continuing passed a bolt on what appeared to be bouldery face climbing.

It felt too difficult to be 11+, so 12+ would be likely if it were Charged with Vanity.  In the old guide book there is no route with a bolt in that area...This line also had a fixed pin, which is what makes me believe it was Perserverance. If that's the case, I think that if it were scrubbed, it could go free. Just another project to add to the endless list. However, the description of both of those climbs in the old book doesn't fit the line at all....so who knows.

Whatever it was, it was really beautiful. There's a bail biner on a fixed pin up for grabs now, if anyone's keen.

In unrelated news, here's possibly the most original short climbing film I've ever seen. Granite Earth

I'm heading up the Eldred for a day, hopefully a few projects will go down - but it's been pretty hot out. Might be another lake day.

Yet another project, and, a side-project

Here's a little teaser of something I decided to start working on - a Powell River/Eldred Valley bouldering guide.
 A new guide book is currently in the works, by the person by-far most qualified to make it. I told her I'd help out with the bouldering part, and so far have only produced a hand drawn map...time to step it up! My recent trip to Squamish, and purchase of the new bouldering guide book got me super inspired.

The Stacks: SeaSide Boulder
1. Old School - V3    2. Middle School - V4/5    3. New School - V3

Since my budget is 0.00$, I'm attempting this project entirely with free software. So far the main challenges are creating decent maps without photo shop. I use GIMP, but I have a huge learning curve to deal with before getting good enough to illustrate decently with it.


My plans to head up the Eldred tomorrow may not work out due to car problems, but, here's a pic from my last time up there where some actual climbing went down. Matt H on the mega project, Dog Day Boulder, B Branch.

Projecting in B Branch

For the guide, I'm hoping to be able to use icons (crimpy, reachy, highball, etc) the same way the Squamish guide does, but may have to find away around that as well. I just want to make a printable PDF really, but of course want it to be quality. Wish me luck!

 I just found enough free-ware to build my own version of Adobe Creative Suite! I'm currently using BetaCreator to overlay images with lines and starting points, GIMP to add text/format images/edit photos/create maps, LibreOffice for text drafts, and Scribus for 'publishing' it all together into a book format.

 Thank God for all those people out there who want to make the world a better, freer place! 

Here's my first draft, trying to figure out how to use Scribus.  (*PF stands for personal favourite, I've decided not to use the classic star rating system, for reason which are explained in the guide) Also, the names and First Ascents in the sample below are likely to change, as I still have to do some research.