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peas
Jun 18, 2003, 10:56 PM
Post #1 of 3
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Registered: Mar 30, 2002
Posts: 400
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Karl is one of my best friends and definately my most frequent climbing partner. His fiancee is living in Nova Scotia, so he has been back and forth between Vancouver and Nova Scotia for a while. Each time he heads off to Nova Scotia, we get together for a 'go away Karl' climb that will sustain him through his dry times in the flatlands. Last time he went away, we went up the Ultimate Everything in mid-November. It's about 15 pitches long and we did about half of it in the dark, and we had a great time. It sustained his climbing desire until he got back to Vancouver again.
Yes, I know there's climbing in Nova Scotia, but it really doesn't compare to huge multipitches on the Chief.
Karl has been back in Vancouver for a while, but he's heading off to Nova Scotia to get hitched, so he'll be away for a while without much climbing. This time as a 'go away Karl' climb, he and I climbed the Angel's Crest on the Chief a couple weekends ago.
The Angel's Crest is one of the classic moderates that goes from the bottom to the top of the Chief. It runs up an arete to the left of the Sherrif's Badge, and in front of the Zodiac Wall. It's about 13 pitches long and at 10b is quite accessible to those of use who can't trad lead 5.11's and 12's.
It was a scorching hot day, we got up late, had a nice drive to Squamish in the sunshine and a leisurely approach to the base of the climb. This of course put us behind 3 other parties. No worries though, we had lots of time but wanted to get back to the city for a concert his parents were in that night.
The first pitch it one of the weirdest pitches I've ever climbed. It literally climbs a tree for the first 20m, with slung branches for pro. You then do a swaying stem out onto a ledge and scramble to the anchor. Only in Squamish does your crux come from laybacking off of a tree.
The second pitch was the best of the pitch and I got to lead it! Angel's Crack. A awesome fingers layback with great rests and a kick in the ass hand traverse at the end. I flopped onto the belay ledge breathing hard and I had company from one of the parties above us.
The middle pitches aren't all that exciting until you get to the Acrophobes Traverse. In Greek, acro means edge, so when you put it together, Acrophobe means someone who is scared of edges. Fairly appropriate for this pitch. At soft 5.7 it's pretty easy climbing, but really exposed. The pitch mostly consisted of easy hand traversing on a knife edge with a few hundred meters of air underneath you. It finishes off by gaining one of the Acrophobe Towers that are visible from the highway and then rapping into the nook behind it. The sun was really scorching on this pitch, so we were happy to get into the shade again.
The next interesting pitches are the last two. The 2nd last pitch is an interesting 10a with a couple awkward crux sections and a lot of exposure. This was Karl's pitch and he'd been dreading it all day. He did it in fine style which put me at the bottom of the crazy chimney pitch.
The last pitch begins with a belly crawl that ends when you have your head poking out of the bottom of a chimney looking 12 pitches down to the forest floor. You somehow have to manage to stem the chimney then squeeze your way to the top. The chimney is really great, but if you ever do it make sure to take everything off of the back of your harness. You don't even set an anchor to belay on this pitch, you just top out of the chimney, walk back a bit and belay so that you'll get wedged into a crack if your partner falls. Karl managed to avoid the belly crawl by tip toeing along the edge. Much more stylish, but less fun in my opinion.
We topped out with plenty of daylight, but a little late for the concert since we got stuck behind slower parties. We had a great time and I hope Karl can last in Nova Scotia until next spring. He does have his haul bag packed and ready to go to Yosemite in case of an “emergency” though.
For those of you not familiar with the Chief, here's a picture
http://www.matthewbuckle.net/...ages/grandwall01.jpg
The Angel's Crest follows the arete to the left of the star shaped rock scar on the left side of the photo. It is in front of the Zodiac Wall and you can see the shadows that the Angel's Crest casts on the Zodiac Wall.
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miker
Jun 18, 2003, 11:00 PM
Post #2 of 3
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Registered: Oct 1, 2001
Posts: 170
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Now that is a good friend.
Sounds like a lot of fun.
So, seriously, 20m of tree climbing to start?
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peas
Jun 18, 2003, 11:02 PM
Post #3 of 3
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Registered: Mar 30, 2002
Posts: 400
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yup, quite a bit of the first pitch is climbing a tree.
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