SkiSickness

The weather was amazing last weekend. I stayed the weekend at Julie and Jorge's. Julie is in the midst of submitting her thesis but she took a day off to climb the Chief with me. Jorge is sans use of one hand right now so he watched us climb up the Apron and then from the top.

Julie and I had a fun time climbing harder variations of St Vitus Dance on the Apron. We linked it up with Karen's Math and Memorial Crack to get to the Squamish Buttress. It was a rewarding day for us since we climbed it all by ourselves without our boys.

This is the first 10a flake/roof variation on St Vitus. A little wet at the top but still a superb start.


I get off route and end up over a slabby 10b roof. It was a little scary. Julie follows in this dramatic looking pitch.


First two pitches of the Squamish Buttress. It was a rather puzzling 5.8 start but then an easy dance up a slab.


One of the many 5.8 pitches on the Buttress. I lost track.


Julie is following the final pitch before the infamous 10c crack near the top.


Jorge was able to see us from the top. I was tired at this point with the hardest pitch of the day ahead. Jorge shouted telling us "bah, don't be a wuss and just climb it."


Julie lead the final pitch.


At the top Jorge asked "do you want cold beer? I have some food as well." AMAZING! Yes and yes to both. Jorge still scrambles up and down stuff better with one hand than Julie and me with two.


The next day I climbed Birds of Prey with their neighbour, Andrea. She's a wonderful person to climb with too. We simul climbed the first two pitches and I got to lead most of the pitches. I was super excited.

Andrea is following the long 10b pitch at the top. Its had such great funky moves, one involving rock humping.


We also found a dinosaur in the chimney. Very rare object to encounter when you're climbing.


The fun chimney ending to BoP.


I'm over the moon happy and I love Squamish. Thanks again Julie and Andrea, and of course Jorge!

There are more pics here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/naomiaustr ... directlink

Looks like an awesome weekend!

naomig wrote: I get off route and end up over a slabby 10b roof. It was a little scary. Julie follows in this dramatic looking pitch.

That's No Saints Left. Your picture makes it look so steep. Do you remember that, Alex?

Ya. I remember that in my sport shoes. I remember wanting to chop my feet off to stop the pain.
That one was a fun pitch though. I remember the move over the roof being pretty cool when I figured it out. I'm sure the slab afterwords was fun to lead. I remember treadmilling up that too.
I'm glad Naomi found that 5.8 face move on the Buttress tricky too. I kept trying to go straight up instead of just grabbing that fat ledge on the left. Nice one. I also love that picture of No Saints Left.

Oh no, sport shoes are suuuuuuper painful for longer trad routes. I got new AMAZING trad shoes yesterday since my beloved Miura finally gave up on life on Sat. They are 5.10 Blanco Anasazi's and very excited to try them out this weekend in Colorado.

I actually did not like the No Saints Left variation, but maybe that's because I was climbing it thinking it is a 5.8 and it's way harder.

The stoke... Its... Infectious!

Aside: does anyone else have trouble with the picasa link?

love it, naomi.

also would like your feedback re: this:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=271
(sweet, sweet cross-post)

Cool,getting me motivated to get on the rock.I wasn't sure if it was cheating to climb out to the left on the buttress on that 5.8 slab pitch with one bolt.

Atraslin wrote:I wasn't sure if it was cheating to climb out to the left on the buttress on that 5.8 slab pitch with one bolt.

I think going to the left was the 5.8 move. I climbed it straight up and the crimpers did not feel 5.8 like.