Cannabis Wall

Wow, it feels like ages since we wrote last and we’ve been up to a lot!

Over the long weekend it was “Logger Days” here in Squamish; a neat festival for the towns #1 industry. There were events going all weekend and we managed to take in the chair making competition. It was pretty impressive how detailed and exact they could be with a chain saw! Noisy, but neat!

The next day we decided to try to escape the long weekend crowds and do a climb that sees less traffic. The “North North Arete” goes at 10a, 7 pitches and boasted having “more interesting climbing” than the popular (and heavily climbed) Angles Crest (which is one arete over) and its trial head was literally just across the forestry road from our casa! As we found out, “interesting” evidently means dirty and chossy... there was certainly was a great variety of climbing but it was badly in need of some love (and cleaning). It felt like we were alpine climbing in the Rockies; rambling over huge boulders, fighting with tree over growth... but all in all a super fun day! It would be phenomenal if it was all cleaned up. The guide book also was a little vague on how to get off the route once you got to the top. We easily spent a few hours on the Zodiac summit wandering back and forth on a trail that ended in either direction at an impossibly steep rock face that dropped down hundreds of metres to the gully bottom. We found the way off by sheer luck (and desperation as a thunder storm was roaring just up the sound) and hurried off the backside trails, through the climbers’ campground and back to the tent in a wonderful (and surprisingly big) 12 hour loop.

Lowell and Heather woke us up the next morning and took us to Chekamus, a sport climbing area where we failed about for a while and sent some interesting stuff. Paul even ticked off an "11b" lead.

After a few days rest, we got it in our heads that we should take a whirl at “Strange Brew” a link up of “Cannabis Wall” and “Breakfast Run”, two fairly substantial and committing aid climbs up the impressive Tantalus Wall. The route description informed us that most beginners (ie: us) would need two days to complete Cannabis Wall and a third to finish up Breakfast Run, which seemed a little crazy since the whole climb is a total of only 9 pitches but as we found out, Aid climbing time is seriously fucked up.

Spending multiple days on the cliff side meant that we would need to devise some way to sleep up there. Being far too poor to afford a Portaledge (literally a metal framed ledge that you haul up the mountain behind you) and none available to rent, we took Dan’s (the climbing shop owner) half-joking advice and tracked down some hammocks. Then there is the issue of hauling all the food & water, plus other important items (ie: sleeping bags, clothing layers) that you will need... no small amount. Also not being able to afford a haul bag (durable, large, build to drag up rock faces) we stuff our day packs till they bulged at the seams, fastened them together and called it good enough.

We got our typical late start on the first day, slogged our stuffed packs and every piece of gear that we own (save one 3 inch and two 4 inch cams – the Big stuff) up the mercifully short approach trail. The Tantalus Wall starts off as a steep slab (about 60 degrees) and at about a third of the way up veers up to vertical with some slightly overhanging sections. It is an incredibly impressive looking wall.

Paul was up for the first pitch. A few hard hook moves off the ground gained a position in a tall but narrow flake arch which flexed visibly when you weighted the gear you placed in behind it. It was a relief when Paul reached the bolt line above, however the safety of bolts was short lived and ended with a contrived pendulum.

Starting the pendulum run...

At the highest point in the pendulum arch Paul had to try to place a hook before he was sent swinging back in the other direction. Silly.

Then I was up for my first ever outdoor Aid lead. With so much to deal with as far as the 20 pounds of gear, finding placements, etires getting tangled... etc. I was surprisingly too distracted to be nervous and slowly plugged my way up the left arching corner crack system. About half way up I took a moderate fall when the piece I was standing on popped to teach me that I need to more vigorously bounce test my gear before I trust them (Bounce testing has to be my least favourite part; wiggle and progressively weight and finally bounce on the gear that you just placed to see if it will hold you... it doesn’t always). About 3.5 or 4 hours later I was finally done and the sun was down behind the mountain across the sound.

A whole afternoons worth of climbing, only 2 pitches up and pretty hungry we decided to fix our ropes (Tie them off at one end to a secure point) and rappel, get pizza and a good night sleep and start off early the next morning.

We were back up at the top of pitch 2 at about 8am the next morning, and Paul was up for the third pitch – another left leaning corner crack with a neat move over a small ceiling to gain some vertical face climbing. Just as he got going it started to rain.

Nearly at the hanging belay.

Being good turn takers, I was up for pitch 4, an extremely thin crack system that ate up only the smallest of our small gear – nothing bigger then a 0.3 inch cam.

Graded as one of the easier pitches on the climb(at C1+) this pitch taught us that the Aid grading system really doesn't mean a thing - its all hard.

Pitch 5 was amazingly long and followed several different crack systems and varied substantially from tiny thin cracks to flakes and big fist sized (or larger) gaps, complete with a ledge traverse. Paul placed the majority of the gear and all of the 23+ slings & draws that we brought with us. By the time I had cleaned up all the gear and made it to the chossy dirty mound at the top of pitch five I was using my headlamp to see what I was doing. A whole days worth of climbing and only 3 pitches higher.

Sadly, there was no good place to string up a hammock nor lay or sit very comfortably. We tried to rest the best we could, but by 3 am we realized that we were not going to get any more rested and it would probably be better to try to get moving. Facing 1 more pitch to complete Cannabis Wall and 4 more pitches to finish up Breakfast run we realized we would be up there for two more days if we tried to continue on. If we had not already been utterly exhausted from the last two days of climbing, the fact that we were on our last few litres of water and the food we had packed had not kept well in the heat would have made us come to the same conclusion; we had to get off that wall.

Paul made a good attempt at pitch 6, but the daunting, descending, over a foot wide, chossy crack we were suppose to follow was just too much for us both. So, we set up a rappel line off of pitch 5 and bailed from there. By 8am we were back in the tent and incredibly thrilled to be able to sleep on our new air mattress.

We really got worked up there. We are both physically spent and will need several days to recover. However, it was an amazing experience and a great challenge.