Kite Surfing!

Picture by Nick Sopczak

here in Squamish

Snow Kiting on Green Lake

Love it!
a new way to explore the mountain world.

all images by Nick Sopczak

World Tallest Tree

HUGE!

Fred Beckey article and video

Great video on Fred Beckey from the New York Times. Check out the article at
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/sports/othersports/16beckey.html?_r=2

Jeremy Blumel and Evan Stevens on a 5.12 roof crack in Chekamus Canyon

http://www.allclimbing.com/archive/2008/06/climbing-a-512-roof-crack-in-squamish/

Youtube video of our Chief slackline

Our high line rig on the Chief. Most of the walking is by Robin Avery. Check it out!



Thanks Ryan Warden for filming it!

Slide Show, Brew Pub Squamish, Oct 23

Second walk - of a slackline on the Chief

Robin Avery is the second to walk across the Chief between the second and third summit on September 20th 2008, the first day of Fall. Robin is originally from California and now is an undergrad at UBC in Vancouver. You can find Youtube videos of him sending front flips and 360's on slacklines. An experienced high liner he has sent the Monkeys Face, Lost Arrow Spire and several other notable walks around the USA. With a new safer and tighter slackline rigged by Matt Maddaloni his walk became possible. Next Saturday October 4th, the line will be put up again for all comers so please find us for some fun.

Josh Cross was the first to walk the line in 2005.

Bald Egos - second ascent

Suzie Beliveau and I finished the second ascent of Bald Egos on the Stawamus Chief over the course of five days. The route was put up in 2000 by Conny Amelunxen and Adam Diamond. I had previously lead the first A4 pitch low on the route but needed to rap off soon after and this time around Nathan Kukathus took the lead for me and completed the A4 pitch named "Copperhead Corner" helping me to fix to the top of pitch 3 so Suzie and I could continue the next day. Suzie lead 3 real pitches including, "Escape from Drifters", A2 beaks and blades, another A2+ pitch and her personal hardest aid lead yet at A3+. This pitch taxed her for 9 hours with a crux that required 5 very bad bird beaks and a copper head before she was able to sink in better protection. Previous to this climb Suzie had hammered in pitons only on one other pitch. Way to go Suzie. John Furneaux and client probably had the previous high point since the first ascent completing all but the last three or four pitches including the routes crux which I got the pleasure of leading at real A4. Bald Egos in the longest big wall route on the Chief and is similar in commitment as routes on El Capitan.

On the first couple of days two girls from Vancouver were climbing a Big Wall ascent of University Wall. It was their first Big Wall and they had only a single portaledge / slip on shoes without socks and jeans... and still topped out after three days. Nice Job!!! If you girls read this please email me so that I can get your perspective for a Big Wall article I'm writing. Thanks
mm

Big Wall Underground

Corey Dyck, Paul Cordy and I traveled to Crows Nest Pass three weeks ago. We explored Gangantua Cave which has the largest subterranean cavern in Canada named Boggle Alley. Our plan was to find a climbing objective within the cave with the understanding that difficult vertical sections of caves do not get explored very often. Our team was informed about an Aven (a vertical shaft approached from below) that may lead to new ground. We established several pitches over a course of a week that did indeed open a new series of Gargantua that had never before been seen. Two of our discoveries were quite noteworthy and these and our adventure will be shared through a slide show in Squamish at the Howe Sound Brew Pub in a months time. Stay tuned for details.

"La Coalition" Photo's

Suzie (my hot wife) deep in dirt on pitch 6

















Yours truly top of "La Coalition"














Pitch 6 just before the FFA
















Looking down at the impressive 5th pitch 11+
on-sighted by Maddaloni the previous day.

The best things in life are free! - NEW Squamish multi pitch "La Coalition"

The best things in life are free!

By Adam Hart

What do you think?

I say YES!!!

The month of Aug 2008 will go down in my world as the culmination of a series of life experiences aligning the universe to provide one heck of ride. In the end what remained were 10 bloody digits, black grainy, scratchy bits of grit pouring from both tear ducks, forearms crying for a Swedish message and a new Squamish multi pitch route called La Coalition.

La Coalition, La Coalition, La Coalition…….my first time. You remember your first time…don’t you? The soft touch of her skin, the sweet smell of her neck, the gentle caress of her lips....ahhhh La Coalition…..my first time.

Hey Damien what do you say we go climb Rock On into the Lower Pan Tease and finish up the Buttress? Damien, in his heavy French tongue, electrified the phone with his super keen demeanor. OUI!….I pick you up in 10 minutes.

Arriving at the base of Rock On all the thoughts that come to your mind when you see a dozen people waiting to start a route rushed through me like a bull charging the herd at Pamplona. I was ready to strike…..staring down the crowd in anticipation for the first blow. For a few minutes Damien and I stared blankly at each other trying to figure out what we should do as an alternative. Bad Pants Party was our first idea……..ahhhh, I don’t know, I belted out, still overheated from the crowd. What about something on the apron then into the Buttress was the second idea, but that only added more fuel to my fire seeing as a similar crowed was surely waiting on the apron.

Hey Damien…..what do you say to a little exploration? Damien is a strong climbing who can handle an ice axe like Sharon stone handles an ice pick. Where we go, Damien asked? Let’s keep hiking up the gully for a bit and see what we can find.

Damien and I hiked up the gully for only about two minutes when I spotted this awesome looking roof on the Opal side of the gully. UP THERE, look up their Damien…..lets go climb that roof! I was as excited as a kid in a candy store. How we get there? Damien wondered out loud. We took a good look around and notice that there was a natural overgrown ledge offering access to the roof.

We stashed our bags by the base of the route and took flight back to Squamish to grab a few things. Charging down past the cattle in line at the base of Rock On all I could think about was the list of things we needed to get……pitons, hammer, extra tat, bolts and so on. We were so motivated to get on that roof that we were back up at the base in under an hour, ready to attack with a hammer as our side arm and pitons in place of bullets.

Damien started up the very dirty and overgrown ledge with ease. Leading the ledge which started hard right and finish extremely left, Damien fixed a couple of pins along the way. At its obvious conclusion we found ourselves staring down what appeared to be an impenetrable, overgrown ramp. The thin ramp traversed back right for some 10 meters and got smaller and smaller as each meter was revealed. Staring at this ramp I couldn’t help but feel as if Damien and I were a couple of gun slingers about to walk our ten paces before dawn. This thin, intimidating ramp was our draw bridge leading to the promised land. Damien started up the ramp cautiously with all the ammo we would need to siege the draw bridge and lower for all to enter.

Seven hours, four pins, three bolts and two very tired gunslingers later Damien and I were back in Squamish trying to decide when we would make it back up to finish conquering the ramp and expose the porn above. Weather and other commitments found us back at it two weeks later.

This was my first time……never hammered a pin, never placed a bolt, I hadn’t even spent any time scouting new routes before La Coalition...but that has all changed. Not only did we lower the draw bridge and send the magnificent roof, which was one of my proudest climbing accomplishments do date, but to our surprise the roof exit revealed a fourth pitch, fifth pitch and a final sixth pitch. After six long days and a few key additional soldiers later we had established La Coalition. I feel comfortable in saying that putting up this route, ground up with all bolts hand drilled, was a highlight in my life and took all the sweat, strength, energy and kahonies I could muster. I know Damien would agree with me when I say…it is a classic route and one worthy of a summer log jam similar to that fateful day in Aug 2008 waiting to climb Rock On.

Adam Hart

www.poweroffood.com

Cruel Shoes, Grand Wall, Roman Chimneys

Possibly the best 5.11a multi pitch link up in Squamish. Climbed it with Pat on Friday, August 11th. We made pretty good time (6 hours) and I finally got a chance to try the infamous 11d pitch on the Roman Chimneys. A little wet at the crux but most hard routes on the Chief are wet somewhere. The moves were still doable and all there including lots of gear. Keep a yellow alien and a red and gold link cam for the steep part of the roof. Super sweet line!!!

John Furneaux climbs Everest

Congradulations John on climbing Mt. Everest on May 25th, 2008. And to top it off he helped a client get there too!

Table of Contents, Alpinist Magazine #23

3rd pitch of University Wall, Paul Cordy belaying
, Paul Bride shooting

last week I climbed the Split Pillar with Todd, totally dry and in blazing sun. Not bad for February!

Free soloing Young Blood - VIDEO

This link will take you to a video of me attempting to free solo Young Blood, 5.13a.
ENJOY

VIDEO LINK

Building a cedar shelter at Ziptrek

Winter 2006 / 2007 brought lots of snow and we needed to build two shelters at Ziptrek during this time. Here are some photos of rigging the beams into place.

Ziptrek Ecotours, my life as a rigger

I thought I would show some pictures of my work as a construction rigger while working at Ziptrek Ecotours in Whistler BC. These photos were taken from last summer of 2007.

These images are of replacing line 7 from 1/2" cable to 3/4" cable. I am the dude in the red jacket organizing the crew.

Free soloing 5.13

Brian Smith (Reel Water Productions) and Todd Gillman, both part of the Range Life Team, and Steve Rogers (Bread and Butter Films) hooked up with me on my attempt to free solo Young Blood, 5.13, on the Cakadaemon Boulder below the Cheif. The route starts 30 feet off the ground near Rurp Riot and Dream Catcher. We set up a trapeez net out in space below the route using a 30 ft circular high strength fishing net and industrial strength bungee cord. We climbed 40 feet up several trees to attach our bungees and connected the other bungees to rock anchors such as bolts and cracks. Everything was equalized and set up to stetch away from rock to prevent abrasion. Needless to say it was a bit of a rigging nightmare and took an entire day to set up.

Jumping into was some of the most fun I've ever had and falling off the route into the net some of the most TERRIFYING of my life. Well worth it though!!! I never did finish the route, the crux takes you out near the edge of the net, but it was sure fun taking huge whippers into space on your back. Thanks Steve for the rad shots taken with multiple flashes. The one picture where you can see the net is of Danger Dan Tetzlaff canonballing off the rock horn.

Victory lap on Freeway

Adam Hart and I climbed Freeway last weekend to finish off the summer season of climbing. Super fun to introduce him to Freeway, such a classic line.

The first image is of Adam pulling out the crux on Cab Overhang

The second image is me pushing off on the next traverse pitch out the roof.

The vertical image is looking through Daylight Crack at Adam's #3 Camalot

Land Kiting

Thanks for the photos Paul.
I finally bought a kite, a 5 meter to be exact. It has been 2 weeks and I've finally learned how to maneover on my board back and forth across the school field. What finally made it work was discovering that if you went to the very back of the field the wind was more stable and more consistent. Unfortunatley you need to get your flying skill level up so that you can skim across the tops of the trees with the kite as you bomb down the field. Crash into the trees and it is all over. Today I also landed my first 180 aerial turn. The pictures that show me getting air are the multiple attempts. So fun!!! and yes I'm obsessed once again.

Viking Warrior - Lives again!

The roof crack called "Viking Warrior" was discovered in the late 80's by Gord Ross. Gord never got around to getting on the crack and told me about it one day in 2000. Later that year, myself, Gord and Patrick Delaney went to climb this roof crack. After a 15 min bush wack and a bit of scrambling we were at the base. I got the FA by a mix of aid and free, it was clean from the start. This line was beautiful i thought and was steep and very powerful climbing, right up my alley at the time. Both myself and pat worked it for a few days but never sent it. We both got to just below the lip but could not do the moves to top out. We figured it was in the 5.12+ range. After those few attempts we forgot about the Viking......

Seven years later it sees another go! I've been telling Mat about this for awhile now and tonight we went to check it out.

At first Mat was mocking me, saying it looks like crap rock but after he got on it he changed this mind quickly.

Mat climbed the route figuring out gear and the moves, then he pull the rope for a ground up attempt. Mat walked the first 3/4 of the route. I tried it again and got worked from the start - not near enough power right now :) I thought mat had it for sure but the crux is at the lip, he threw for the final hold but just missed it and peeled. After a brief rest he tried it again but could not put it together. It must of been because he put in a full day of rigging at zip trek (must be getting soft mat, it must be because your 30 in the fall!) We'll head back at the end of the week and I'm sure mat will walk the route. Till then.......

Then I'll disclose the location! He agrees its about 5.12+

Land Boarding

Wow! I tried out a 2 meter "trainer" kite, thinking this will be easy and won't kill me, for kite skateboarding on a "mountain board" or Land Boarding. Super fun and the 2 meter kite could actually make that board rip. Mattieu from the Howe Sound Juice Co and Kites gave me a demo. An avid kiter he had never tried a mountain board even though he has a trike and many, many kites and boards for water. He loved it too. I'm definitley getting into this sport. Possibly a 4 or 5 meter kite so that I can rip grass, sand or snow on skis. We tried it in the high school field here and it was super fun. I just need a bigger kite now so I can get air.

Bugs Photo Spread

Nathan Kukathus (sic designer of all things useful) and Paul Bride (full time pro photographer) chilling at the base of the West Ridge of Pigeon Spire.

Paul Bride loving his job
West face of the three Howser Towers. The 6 rappels of the Becky / Chouinard is off the left South Howser Tower and over the grim and wide bergshrund at the base. Then manoeuvre around some BIG crevasses.
Paul B, shooting Nathan on Pigeon.
Paul shooting again.
Nathan on the summit block.
Nathan kicking back some Fireball Whiskey!
Good food, good times.
Calgary girl ripping it up on the North East Ridge of Bugaboo Spire.
Her friend leading on the N.E. Ridge.
The very exposed ridge atop Bugaboo Spire.
Hiking across the glacier from the Bugaboo / Snowpatch col to Pigeon Spire / Howser col.
More hanging out on the Pigeon.