Cram week then exam week

Not much to report other than being stuck in school. Made it up for opening day on blackcomb for some much needed powder gnar on my favorite hill. 11 more days till freedom!!
Here's some November iPhone pics.

Squamish from the north!

Jersey laps

Dani's birthday!

4 layer whistler nachos by me and legg

Pho noodles with my friends from uws

  

Straight outta Saskatchewan

My new project is a beauty. Dani found it on Craigslist from a guy who claims it's been sitting in a barn on a Saskatchewan farm. It's a pre war (1930s??) CCM cruiser. This is the one to match dani's ccm. It's not in the same shape we found dani's, but that's why it's called a project right! I will have to clean off rust, clean up the gusset welds and then either paint or clear coat it. I am tempted to just clearcoat it to leave the rustic charm. Then I'm going to have to hunt for wheels, ball bearings and a seat among other things. Should be a fun thing to work on in between exams. Thanks dani!!!

Portlandia Vol. 1

Maybe this post won't fit with my usual subject matter but perhaps I should reformat that anyways. I'm all settled into my new home in Portland and am fully immersed in full time student life. Endless hours of fresh air in the great outdoors has been replaced with endless hours in the library and anatomy lab trying to figure out all the O's and I's of life. I'v met lots of people and continue to struggle without food, which up until this point in life was always in the fridge when needed (seriously where does it come from!!). I think the hardest part about living here is seeing people consume so much light beer at parties and then go to taco bell to get the xxl chalupa or taco twelve pack. grossssssssssssssssssssssssss.

MORE TO COME.

One of the many dogs that come and go to my house

Human visitors!

The Grand Wall - Sept 19

With a big move and school looming overhead, Eric and I made serious plans to tick off the most classic line in Squamish. The plans started off causally earlier in the summer though... "Someday I want to climb that thing, we need to find someone who can take us up it"... "Totally man that would be awesome". Progressing to "Wouldn't it be great if we climbed it together at the end of the summer?"..." Sure would!!". I almost climbed it with Mika but there was a last minute lack of gear problem (nice one Mika!!), leaving Eric to be all like "Oh thats awful, I feel so bad you didn't get to do it", while inside he's like "SHIT YEAH MAN LETS GET ON IT". Then we started to get this crazy idea that we didn't actually need a rope gun and we could climb it together.

Hmmm ok? I was still unsure. Eric kept up his positive reminders and apparently started to tick off some hard shit without me (living in squamish has its perks). I showed up one day to climb and he went on a sending marathon ticking off flex capacitor 10c, apron strings 10b and wire tap 10a. I was amped to see he could send any 5.10 he wanted on demand! I wasn't sure about myself at that point as I hadn't been climbing to seriously, but well if Erics on a roll maybe I can step it up too.

So it came down to that day where we checked out the first couple of pitches and Eric showed what he was hiding. The plans from there got serious... "So its gonna rain all weekend but it might be nice monday or tuesday"... "So monday we send the Grand then?"... "We'll see". Sunday night came though and it wasn't too wet so we thought that maybe we could check it out if it doesn't rain overnight. Monday morning came with blue skies and Eric sent me the "lets do it" text, so I headed up.

Starting off with Apron Strings I led the first pitch with Eric taking over for the rest of A.S. and Merci me (which we linked into one pitch). A party had jumped in front of us on the flake escape ledges and was hanging out on the traverse pitch when we got there.  Once the belays were clear I led out on the traverse pitch to the bottom of the split pillar.

 

Party ahead on the pillar

View from the top of the pillar, Eric following

 I then headed up the Split Pillar with a layback section at the beginning moving into perfect hand jams. This was one of the coolest pitches i'v ever done, ending with a crazy chimney section onto the belay ledge. Eric followed up to me and we hung out waiting for the party in front to finish the sword. Eric then started up the sword of damocles (see story below) managing the 11a crux before stalling on the mid section. He decide to lower and give me a whack at it so he could save energy for perry's layback. The strenuous layback at the end of the sword is pretty intense with some wild exposure.



At the end of the sword there is a long bolt ladder leading up to the start of Perry's layback. The belay there is pretty uncomfortable but the views are good. Eric led up Perry's rocking the bolted offwidth layback leading us up to the large ledge of the flats. He then continued up the bolted slab to the bottom of the sail flake. Once there we were completely beat so I french freed the sail flake to take us to the bellygood ledge.

top of sail flake

We had finally finished the grand wall to top off a great summer. It was pretty unreal and we were amped. Now I guess i'm ready to move to Portland and do some school... maybe we'll get another go at it in the spring.

Bellygood ledge!

(c) eric carter

The Sword of Damocles

As you finish off the pillar you are gifted with one of the best belay platforms in the world. You can't imagine your fortune for being able to sit there. Yet you look above and the sword taunts you...

Damocles was an obsequious courtier in the court of Dinoysius II of Syracuse, a fourth centry BC tyrant of Syracuse, Italy. Pandering to his king, Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority surrounded by magnificence, Dionysius was truly extremely fortunate. Dionysius then offered to switch places with Damocles, so that Damocles could taste that very fortune first hand. Damocles quickly and eagerly accepted the King's proposal. Damocles sat down in the king's throne surrounded by every luxury, but Dionysius arranged that a huge sword should hang above the throne, held at the pommel only by a single hair of a horse's tail. Damocles finally begged the tyrant that he be allowed to depart, because he no longer wanted to be so fortunate.

Angels Crest: Aug 30th

The conditions are perfect... for Angels Crest!! Ahhh yeah its business time.
Eric and I headed out to the north walls for some fun on a Squamish classic. Its a long committing route that can take all day if you get stuck behind someone is slow, or its still wet. But like I said the conditions are perfect. We got up it in just under 5 hours with no problems and finally found out how awesome it is. We started off with the 5.7 tree climb to skip the first two dirty pitches on route to the angel crack. Once up we swapped pitches most of the way and cruised to the top. Partway up we found the raven totem pole left by squamish local matt mandolini, which depicts the story of how the raven stole the sun. Then we crossed the acrophobes which had a very alpine feel with their long knife edge ridges. Near the top we I led a killer 10a hand crack with awesome exposure. Then Eric cruised up the last chimney to the top. Can't wait to get back on it!

Eric following the 2nd last pitch, nice airtime bro!

What a view!

High plains drifter is over there

The route follows the ridge line the whole way. The coolest part was the acrophobes in the middle.

My eyes! the goggles... they do nothing!

HOW RAVEN STOLE THE SUN
Once upon a time, a mean old chief hoarded the only light in the world. He did not want to share it. Raven decided that he could no longer tolerate this after growing tired of flying in the dark. He turned himself into a cedar leaf and fell into the chief's dwelling.
Raven, as the cedar leaf, fluttered into a drink that the chief's daughter was drinking. She unwittingly swallowed raven down with a gulp of her drink. She immediately became pregnant and gave birth. Her baby had hair as black as a raven's, dark glowing eyes, and an awfully short temper. If the baby was bored, it would shriek. The chief ordered that the baby was to receive anything it wanted. One gift the baby got was a bag of shining stars. It liked the stars very much, until it accidentally threw them up through the smoke hole in the ceiling. The stars then scattered across the sky.
The baby grew bored yet again. It gave out more violent shrieks. It finally received a bag containing the Moon, and played with it happily. It remained pacified with the Moon until the Moon bounced out of the dwelling through the smoke hole.
The baby was angrier than it had ever been. Everyone searched desperately for anything to occupy the screaming child. All the gifts it received were rejected, as it pointed to the bag with the sun in it. The household finally gave the baby what it wanted, but did it reluctantly. But instead of opening the bag, the baby turned back into Raven, who flew through the smoke hole with the bag of light in his beak.. This was how Raven stole the Sun. Raven spread the light of the Sun throughout the world.

Bugaboos: August 3-8

BC's alpine granite playground!! Eric and I went to the Bugaboos for the first time and it was unreal. After a crazy breakfast at the big bend cafe in golden we drove the 40 km fsr into bugaboo provincial park.

Once at the parking lot you have to cover your car in chicken wire so the porcupines don't eat up your rubber. Then you have to psyche yourself up for the huge hike up to the alpine.

Cresent Spire on the right, Bugaboo on the left

The hike rises up from the valley to the Applebee dome campground, which is at the center of all the action. From Applebee it is a short hike to most of the spires and its a great hangout spot. I found some friends from Squamish once we arrived and made some plans to climb Lions way on cresent the next day.

View from the tent

On Lions Way with Eric and James

Running from the storm

On the second day we went for the 7:30 am departure and headed up the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col towards the Bugaboo Spire. Our plan was to climb the Kain route in order to check out the descent for the Northeast ridge of Bugaboo.

We made it to within two pitches from the top when some dark clouds starting moving in. Stuck behind a slow party we decided to bail in case the weather didn't improve and an infamous Bugaboo thunderstorm started.

The south summit

The strom didn't materialize by the time we reached the b-s col so we decided to head up snowpatch spire on the buckingham route. This cool route went up to the lower summit with nothing harder than 5.8, with a great position on top! By the time we rapped and hiked back to applebee we had been gone for 13 hours and were pretty wiped. Some stove problems ensued and we learned how important it is to be good at fixing your stove in the backcountry. Eventually we got it working and made a well deserved dinner. 

On top of Snowpatch Spire

The next morning we were pretty tired so we slept in and left camp around 12 towards Pigeon spire. We went to climb the west ridge on pigeon which is said to be the best 5.4 in the world. After and long hike from applebee through the b-s col and across the vowell glacier we made it to Pigeon. Though it is impressive in its own right the Howsers dominate the skyline.

The Howsers!

hiking across the Vowell with Pigeon in the back

Looking back at the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col, where we came from

Ridge walking on pigeon, The howsers to the right

Looking down from the summit!

After making it to the top we worked our way back to camp and hung out with some friends on the couch around the "campfire". We built up a couch out of rocks on the edge of applebee dome so that we could have a sweet view east down the valley. Then James took out his lantern to give a campfire effect. Eric and I also planned out our attempt of the Northeast ridge for the next morning.

Northeast ridge of the Bugaboo Spire.

We got up around three am and started the walk towards the bugaboo spire in the dark. After 45 min we arrived at the start of the climb in the dark and looked for the first moves off the ground. Once the sun rose we had more luck and started up towards the Bugaboo-Cresent col. Apon arriving we weighed out our options and decided to bail as it didn't feel rigtht.

Once back at camp we packed up and headed home after a great trip in the mountains. When we got back to my car we were relieved that no rodent damage had occured but I noticed that the logging road did destroy my tailpipe on the drive up. Hopefully I can get back to the bugaboos next summer, since it rules!

Skywalker and Malamute: July 25-26

After a lazy start to Sunday, Dani and I drove up to Squamish in the heat! Finally a little bit of summer even if it makes climbing a sweaty challenge. We went up to Shannon falls and went after the new 5p 5.8, Skywalker. There was only one party a couple of pitches up so we started up and away. It was a cool climb, even though there was a couple of awkward moves. The highlight definitely a quick dip in the pools above shannon falls to cool off after climbing.

Traverse!

So cold, yet so good

Today we went back up to Squamish after a bike ride around stanley park. Even though it was wet (apparently it rained sometime?), we went to the malamute and climbed in the crazy heavy wind where it was dry. The Malamute rulesssss, such a good view and position.

Paul's crack .10a (dani's getting good!)

High mountain woody .9

It's Windy!! 

Howe sound

Haha dances with wolves.