Eldred Valley Adopt a Crag Party May 2nd-4th

It's that time of year again. Time to get the community together for the annual Adopt a Crag event. We head into the Eldred Valley to do trail work, have a big ol BBQ and party the night away. The Access Society also sponsors the event so there's some prizes to be had on top of everything. Don't forget the climbing, weather permitting. I hear this year there's plans to check out and potentially put anchors in to the main face on the buttress.

"This years 14th annual Eldred Adopt –a-Crag will be held on May 2nd to the 4th, Bring your trail building skills!! We will be working on the Carag-Dur trail, repairing 2 areas where rock fall has damaged the trail quite spectacularly.

Saturday evening after everyone’s much appreciated hard work there will be a Salmon BBQ pot luck and prize giveaway!! So bring your best climber campground fair to share!! 
Sunday Funday!!! Don’t forget to bring your climbing gear!! There’s a good chance that Psyche Slab will be dry and climbable!!!"

**Reminder that the roads are closed util 6pm Friday. So head up in the evening or the night before. 

A New Route on Mt. Bute

Mt Bute is just outside of the Powell River area, located in the Coast Mountains north of Lund and passed Desolation Sound. Near the end of Bute Inlet stands this amazing mountain of sheer granite, which now has two routes to the summit. I tend not to post anything about mountain climbing in the PR area since it isn't my forte, but this is an outstanding route on an incredible mountain - and too close to home to not mention.

The line (1) 'School of Rock' established in 2009 by Bruce Kay, Jimmy Martinello, and Jay Sinnes.
Click here for the story
 -Not exactly 'new', but still recent enough that I had only just heard about it, and thought I'd share.

[All photos pulled from Google images]

Winter Inspiration

I recently had the pleasure of meeting and climbing with +Sasha DiGiulian , the top female sport climber in America, as well as one of the top female climbers in the world. She happened to be in the gym I climb at in Vancouver - The Hive, while in town to host the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.  Climbing in the gym can get really boring for me. As fun as it is to have so many different problems to work out, meet new people and hang out with friends while climbing to good tunes in a warm and controlled environment, no matter how you look at it, it still isn't rock climbing - there's no rock!

Sometimes I wish I wasn't back in school, and that I spent my money to travel all winter and just keep climbing forever working odd jobs when I need to. The inspiring thing about meeting Sasha, beyond the privilege of watching someone climb who is a master of the sport, amazingly fluid and in control and so above and beyond my skill level - was learning about how much work she puts into balancing her life as a professional climber.

To say she is a busy person is a serious understatement. If someone can travel the world on a weekly basis, compete and train at the highest professional level, AND stay in school and stay so positive was both eye opening and motivating. It goes to show that at times, when you feel like putting off school (or work) to just go climb because it feels like that's the only way to really get where you want to be in climbing - it's grounding to know that a top end pro is able to balance a life way more complicated than your own and still be the best. Sure she was crazy busy, probably stressed out from time to time, and obviously school and personal life suffers from a career with so much time away - but she still somehow manages to pull it together, focus, and do it all with an amazingly positive attitude.

A few years ago I saw this video of a young Sasha (at age 18!) becoming the first woman in America (and one of three in the world) to climb the grade of 5.14d, and have always remembered this very wise and inspiring line -

"While no American woman has ever climbed 9a (5.14D), I think maybe not enough have tried" http://vimeo.com/33306702

Thanks for for the motivation +Sasha ! You continue to inspire the climbing community, and even when things seem impossible and crazy, if there's anyone with the focus and attitude to get through it all and come out on top it's definitely you!

And now some more winter motivation...some random pictures of climbing in Powell River. A few from the Lake Blufs, the Eldred on a rainy winter day,  Matt crushing on a boulder hidden away on top of Carag Dur, and a less bearded younger version of me at Higgy Land.

Starting out on the beautiful second section of Great Gig in The Sky (5.8)

Stemming on Great Gig (5.8)

Andy D plugging gear into the amazing detached flake of Pink Isn't Well (5.9), Lake Bluffs.

Getting rained out isn't so bad :) 

Matt Hodgson crushing. The Red Wizard - V Awesome.  

Me clipping on a route at Higgy Land years ago - Photo: Tara Trigg
Frayed Ends of Insanity (5.12a/b)

Buttress Boulders and B-Branch Photos - Eldred Valley

Just a few snap shots I snagged from Matt Hodgson. Hope everyone is staying warm and dry this winter. The first two photos are of the awesome new boulder discovered in the 'other' side of the road in the Buttress cluster. Eldred Valley bouldering at it's finest. This thing looks like it's right out of Ferngully. It's tall, and the rock quality is stellar. The line moves into a few crimps before hitting the crack to top out.

Anna's Green Fables - (Ungraded) 

Low Card - V1 (The shortest problem in the valley, it's an odd one)

Bulge Project - B Branch

This boulder in the Buttress area needs a bit of scrub down to get shiney, but after the carpet moss was pulled back some rad problems revealed themselves. Not a bad view of the Mainer in the background either.

Blessings in Disguise - Ungraded. West Main Wall in background.

Unknown problem, right side of Blessings

The classic block hold on the Open Canvas Boulder

Happy New Year....?

The Leprechaun's Wand

Here's a brief clip of Matt Hodgson right before getting the FA of the Stillwater project, which he's named The Leprechaun's Wand. He's decided not to grade it yet, and it may need another ascent or two to come to a consensus.

Of course, the video doesn't show the brutally small, fingertip sized slit that you start off in matched, and somehow Matt makes hopping on with the awkward backstep look easy - after a dozen attempts I couldn't even get off the ground into that position.
Being much shorter and not being able to start without a pad stack, I tried to find a different beta which will likely add a few moves, but I wasn't able to put it together.

It's great to see gems like this coming out of an area once thought 'totally tapped out.'

Support Your Local Developers!

If you've ever been to the Colin Arthur Dionne Memorial camp site in the Eldred Valley, you can't help but immediately wonder: "Wow, who did all of this?"  The climber's camp site, all of the structures and amenities, and all of the trails are the product of a very small group of local climber's hard work. Much of that original work was done by Colin himself, and the impressive scale and quality of the area is a testament to the man's unstoppable passion for sharing what he loved.

 Of course, no one can do it alone, and it takes a community of climber's who share that passion and love of labour to keep developing the areas, as well as to maintain them. This is no easy task, and everything is done for free. They spend their own hard earned money to purchase tools, supplies, the giant tarp, keep the out-house stocked, and anything else that's needed every season. Not to mention the hundreds of dollars it takes to buy bolts and hangers for routes...

 Every May, the Access Society (http://www.access-society.ca/) helps to sponsor the 'Adopt a Crag' event where we band together to do some heavy labour on the trails. Other than this, it is the unseen and un-recognized devotion of local climbers that give us all the incredible opportunity to climb here.

 While in the Valley this summer, a group of Americans were so impressed with the camp, that they had trouble digesting the fact that it was free to use. They were adamant about paying something, despite repeatedly being told that 'There's no one to pay, we do this for free!' Finally, they just left $40.00 on the table and told me to use it for something. I realized that maybe other people would be inspired to generosity in the same way, and so now I've created the Donation button.

 Since this is not a business or organization, the donations go to my personal e-mail address. To ensure transparency, whenever a donation is made I will post the tally, and whenever a purchase is made will post what it was for and a receipt if I can. If you don't like that system, please donate to the Access Society. Though not as direct, the money will still go to a good access related cause somewhere.

Oh and PS, the $40 they gave me was going to go into a splitting maul for the wood shed, but Matt discovered an apparently amazing bouldering area across the river, so the money went to him to eventually buy a cable for a new crossing.

Donate now! The donation button is on the top right of the home page. Thanks in advance!

Khartoum Road Closure

The road to the Khartoum Valley wall has been de-activated.  It is still easily accessible, but for now, you must park your vehicle and hike an extra 45 minutes or so along the road. Unfortunately this detracts from the appeal of Khartoum having such easy access, though at least it is an easy walk.

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/khartoum-/106861637

The de-activation is just passed 19 mile on the 3rd lake road. After walking passed this, stay on your left when you come to the next fork - the next road is on your left after a few minutes and trends uphill. This is the '4x4' road as described in the above link.

You'll know when you're at the climbers camp site, as it sits atop a cliff with a great view of the side of the wall. Continue up the road (not through the camp/waterfall) for 40m and follow the trail at right to the wall.