>> October-November 2002
Hard Sends and Another
Free Route on the Chief
The diversity of climbing options in the Squamish region is vast and development
shows no signs of slowing. This summer’s reported activity directly
reflects how each facet of the sport is still receiving significant attention.
The following are just a few highlights of this continued development.
Amazingly, the Chief received a third new multi-pitch free route this season.
Bruce Stover, an ACMG guide, along with Kris Wild and Roger Sarassin, finished
Planet Caravan in the Western Dihedrals just below the notorious sandbag
Clean Corner. The route follows some amazing corners and arêtes, providing
seven new pitches of free climbing, or nine, if Clean Corner (5.8) is used
to reach the top of the wall. Planet Caravan is mostly mixed 5.10+ climbing
with one straining pitch (5.11d A0 or 5.12b) but detours right out of the
main dihedral to avoid some very hard cruxes. These three direct pitches,
dubbed Supernaut, have gone at mid-5.12 with three pieces of aid, but will
go free at a higher grade. This is the plumb line and it’s an open
project so tighten up those laces and have at it.
One of the more impressive bouldering ascents from early summer was Jamie
Chong’s repeat of the sought after testpiece The Proposal. Many days
of work, some tendon injuries and a new pair of shoes finally saw him grab
the finishing bucket. The ascent was not without drama as Jamie fell off
the last move numerous times. Having repeated many hard problems, including
the famous Mandala, Jamie was able to provide an opinion of the grade –
solid V12. Elsewhere in the boulders, more desperate projects have been
completed but details and grades are sketchy. Hopefully consensus on some
of these will surface in the near future.
The hard working Mike Doyle had a productive week early in the summer. He
fired off repeats of three 5.14as in eight days which were all projects
for him. These included Patience at Cheakamus Canyon, Silent Menace in the
Kacodemon boulders, and Dinosaur Highway at Horne Lake. The latter was likely
the second ascent of that route and Mike spent no more than four days on
any of the climbs. Also in Cheakamus Canyon, 13-year old Sean McColl once
again took youth redpointing to a new level, sending the harsh link-up Captain
America. Although he’d redpointed each of the independent lines previously,
the link took him a mere four tries over two days. With this ascent he can
now boast a 5.14b redpoint at 13-years old. The route is not likely to get
downgraded as it had seen four ascents by seasoned 5.14 climbers. Mike Orr,
the developer, had many hard routes to his credit and worked his butt off
on the first ascent. Speaking of Mike, rumour has it that he’s traded
in his rope for a set of golf clubs and is burning up the fairways around
Seattle. Look out Tiger!
Finally, Steve Manboy Townsend sent Silent Menace as well. On last sighting
by Gripped, he claimed that he wasn’t a sport climber anymore and had
dedicated his life to trad climbing. The mind boggles, because Steve brought
sport climbing to new levels of danger and bloody mayhem, with numerous
long ground falls.
Correspondent: Marc Bourdon
John Clarke Receives
The Order of Canada
John Clarke was recently appointed to the Order of Canada. John was
recognized for a long career in exploratory mountaineering in BC’s
Coast Ranges, starting in the 1960s and including hundreds of first ascents
and traverses. Mountain writing, photography and speaking. In 1995 John
was the subject of the film "Child of the Wind," which won an
award at the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Few Canadian climbers or mountaineers
have been similarly recognized. Phyllis Munday was made a member of the
Order of Canada for contributions to mountaineering; Joan Ford, M.D, was
made a member for her humanitarian work with the Hillary Foundation in Nepal.
Correspondent: Anders Ourom
Chong and Amelunxen
Climb West Buttress Direct on Tantalus
Jamie Chong and Conny Amelunxen made the first ascent of the West
Buttress Direct of Mt. Dione in the Tantalus range. It was Jamie's first
alpine ascent and his second first ascent ever (his first was a four bolt
sport climb).The west face has had two previous ascents but the buttress
remained unclimbed due to a lack of obvious crack systems. They spent a
night on the wall and a night on the summit. The 700 m route went at 10c,
with 16 full pitches. Although they brought an entire wall rack up the route
expecting the headwall to require much aid, they found a fault through it
that made for relatively easy climbing. Pins were use for two belays, one
pin and one rivet were used as protection on leads, otherwise the hammer
stayed in the pack.
The Black Dyke goes
Free
"It’s the only route in Squamish that can be properly pointed
out to a tourist in 2.5 seconds" says Matt Maddaloni of The Black Dyke,
now an all-free, bolt protected adventure to the right of the Grand Wall.
Indeed, the basaltic intrusion that splits the Stawamus Chief’s west
face epitomizes the expression line of weakness. Encased on both sides by
an ocean of solid granite, the Dyke rises the height of the Chief like a
giant elevator shaft. It is characteristically blocky, loose and until Spring
of this year remained an objective only for those aid climbers "insane
enough to repeat it due to its massive death blocks pasted by dirt to the
underside of the ‘Gargoyles’ pitch," a 13 m roof 100 m above
the forest canopy.
Maddaloni, who is in the unique position of being the only person to have
ever free and aid climbed the Dyke is a talented all-rounder who has put
up big walls around the world. He became interested in freeing the entire
feature after succeeding on the sixth pitch, where 11 years ago Dean Hart,
on second, had pulled off the "crucial hold" which John McCallum
had just used
to send the pitch. Hart and McCallum had approached the Dyke from the left,
by-passing a pair of roofs which Maddaloni free climbed using bolts for
protection.
The menacing Gargoyles roof hangs frightfully over the first two moderate
pitches and provides the route’s first crux. After sending the ‘death
blocks’ into the talus below, Maddaloni worked and sent the pitch (5.12b)
which required wildly exposed "star fish chimneying" and horizontal
climbing out the end of the roof. The business of the route lay above however,
and involved a short, steep overhang with poor holds. Maddaloni is hesitant
to grade the Nubian Queen Roof, but concedes, "It’s the hardest
sport pitch I’ve sent." A number of strong locals have tried it
and the grade seems to be settling around 5.13b although it remains unrepeated.
When combined with the already established Upper Black Dyke this new creation
provides 12 pitches of climbing, much of it on moderate 5.9 to 5.10 terrain.
In keeping with the nature of the Dyke, however, it is somewhat loose and
runout and definitely not your typical sport climb. It still awaits a continuous
one-day ascent.
Correspondent: Andrew Querner
Sonnie Sends Existence
Mundane
Sonnie Trotter had a very successful trip to the Rockies sending
several testpieces at Acephale. He made the second ascent of Existence Mundane
(5.14b), first climbed by Scott Milton in 1997, using a new sequence which
utilized a hold that he uncovered below an epoxy edge (placed on the route
before Milton started working what was an open project at the time). This
new sequence does not appear to have changed the grade, as one move is easier
and another a little harder, balancing each other out. Sonnie commented
that the route took him longer to do than Just do It (5.14c) at Smith Rocks.
Sonnie went on to send Endless Summer (5.13d), another Milton testpiece.
Also at Acephale, Milton added an extension of Jingus Americanus, Fully
Jingus, which he graded 5.13c. He says it has “hard moves, awkward
moves, painful holds and a bad fall,” so we guess that there probably
won‚t be a second ascent anytime soon.
Bouldering Competition:
August 2, 2002
Centre Sportif du Club de Tennis Memphremagog, Québec
Men's Open:
01_Jason Kehl
02_Maxime Gauthier
03_Nate Gold
Women's Open:
01_Ally Dorey
02_Meghan Smith
Two Die in Tragic
Accident at Cap Trinité
On the 3rd of August two climbers from Québec city fell 80 m
to their deaths while setting up their portaledge on Cap Trinité.
Lucie Poirier and Jacques Veillette had climbed the first two pitches of
Les Grands Galets, V 5.7 A2, the most popular route on the steep 350 m granite
wall. The tragic accident made the headlines and was closely followed by
the media. The pair had been interviewed by Le Soleil, a popular newspaper
in Québec, just before leaving for their trip. The climbing community
was in shock. Jacques was a very experienced and safe climber with over
25 years of alpine, rock and ice climbing under his belt. Lucie, his partner
in life as well, was in her third season of climbing.
Jacques Veillette was attempting to scale Cap Trinité for the fourth
time and he had prepared carefully. They had a detailed topo of the route,
a schedule and they even kept a log book of their adventure. They arrived
at the bottom of the cliff two hours after lunch and decided to climb a
few pitches anyway. The first pitch is 5.7 and usually goes really quickly.
The second pitch involves 30m of sustained A2 climbing and ends with a tricky
4 m pendulum. They must have lost a lot of time on this one since the rescuers
found a stuck cam in a crack right before the fixed station for the swing.
They seemed to have reached the station around sunset (7:30 or 8 p.m.),
since Lucie was found wearing her headlamp with the switch in the ‘on’
position. Jacques had forgetten his. They managed to unload their gear,
coil their ropes and begin to set up their portaledge. The fly was hung
from the main station and they had opened the two doors and clipped the
structure inside. That was when the accident happened. Instead of clipping
the ledge into the loop at the converging point of all of the slings, they
attached it to a piece of yellow tape which is usually used to help a climber
get up on the ledge or to hang the stove for cooking. Thinking the ledge
was now secure, they clipped their daisies to the locking biner (now on
the yellow tape) and removed themselves from the main station. What they
did next next will always remain a mystery. There was a sleeping bag and
some food bags inside the ledge. Jacques was probably inside organizing
stuff while Lucie was unloading the haul bags. The fly, which was supporting
everything eventually broke at the connection with its own stuff bag. Their
bodies were found the next day by park rangers who were checking their progress
on the wall.
On Monday the story made the front pages of newspapers across the province.
On Wednesday morning, François-Guy Thivierge and I helped the police
by checking their equipment. We proposed this scenario after seeing the
torn fly and ripped out slings of the portaledge. We both spoke to the media
many times, reassuring the public about the safety of climbing and big wall
climbing equipment in particular. The wall was reopened by park authorities
on August 12th and they will surely be more strict before issuing more permits
to scale the face.
It is not my job to say who’s guilty. This is an accident and nobody
could have predicted it. We can, however, point out the facts which led
to the fatal mistake. They started to climb late and maybe should have left
their bivy gear on the ground and fixed a rope for the next day. They finished
climbing in the dark and set up their ledge with only one headlamp. They
also should have stayed clipped in to the main anchor as a back up. Finally,
they lacked practice in setting up this specialized piece of equipment.
They borrowed the ledge from a friend two days before leaving. In any case,
this was the most terrible climbing accident in the history of climbing
in Québec and it will certainly leave a shadow over subsequent ascents
of this fabulous wall.
Jean-Phillipe Villemaire
Christopher Grasswick
1962 - 2002
Died May 24, 2002 from trauma suffered in a fall while descending
Kangchenjunga (8586 metres) in Nepal. Only an hour earlier he had become
the second Canadian to reach the summit with his partner, Stuart Findlay
of Edinburgh, Scotland. Digital video footage shot by the pair en route
and on the summit displays Chris’ love for the mountains and his desire
to be there despite the hardships of climbing at altitude.
‘Grass’ actively pursued a higher level of consciousness through
self-imposed challenges. His desire to explore the boundaries of his own
personal limitations led him to complete what was quite possibly the first
ever solo circumnavigation of the Queen Charlotte Islands in a sea kayak.
In climbing he was able to quench his thirst for adventure while fostering
many friendships. When not in his office, the cockpit of an Airbus 330 commercial
jetliner, Grass could have easily been found on the granite cracks of Squamish,
on a frozen pillar in the Canadian Rockies or anywhere in the alpine. The
Himalayas captured his imagination and he visited there five times.
A global community of friends and family will miss his sincerity and passion
for living. His mere presence inspired confidence in climbing and everyday
life in those around him. Those of us who were lucky enough to tie in with
Grass can perhaps, best honour his memory with a promise to live life with
a fiery intensity, to venture into the unknown and explore our true passions.
Rock on Chris, your spirit continues to guide us in the mountains you loved
so much.
Andrew Querner
Galen Rowell 1940-2002
Photographer and climber Galen Rowell and his wife Barbara were killed
in a small aircraft crash near their home in Bishop California on August
11. Rowell was well known both for his climbing exploits which ranged from
first ascents of big walls in Yosemite in the 60s which inspired his book
The Vertical World of Yosemite, to fast ascents in Alaska and the Himalayas.
His books The Throne Room of the Mountain Gods and High and Wild inspired
thousands of people in their love for mountains and high places. He spoke
of how for him photography was and "art which becomes the adventure,
and vice versa." There is hardly a climber anywhere who has not been
influenced by his work, which has appeared in Gripped, Climbing Magazine,
Rock and Ice, and many other publications. He will be sorely missed.
