The Vision

"The Squaw" is a 180m high rock crag in Squamish that hosts perhaps the densest collection of multipitch 5.10 crack climbs in Squamish with Jungle Warfare (10a), Birds of Prey (10b), Optimus Prime (10c), The Great Game (10d), Pipeline (10c), and Godforsaken Land (10d, AO). But when looking at the crag from the town of Squamish, I've often noticed that the most obvious feature---a 65m long right-facing corner---is off the charts. The corner belongs to the somewhat forgotten and vegetated "Right Wing" (10c-ish). With heavy praise for the potential of the route (if it were only cleaned up) in the Squamish guide, I decided to take on the project this winter. Along with some of my friends, I've set out to clean the thing up, with hopes of reintroducing what I think will become an excellent addition to Squamish climbing.

The Story of the Core Shot (or how Right Wing Almost Killed Me)

Before I selectively forget what happened when Right Wing nearly killed me, I better write it down. I write it here because there are practical lessons to learn about rope fixing, wet ropes, grigris, and how they can interact in a bad way.

In November, I spent a day cleaning all the big, loose rocks on the route. While working on the long 10b corner, I noticed that the ropes were drenched and that my grigri was difficult to control. I would pull and pull on the release to no avail until finally it lost grip entirely and I would fly down the rope for 10 feet before stopping abruptly, and bounce to a stop. After bouncing my way down the rope, I jumarred back up, cleaning loose rocks, until I came over a bulge to notice that the sheath of the rope 20 feet above me was kapput and the sheath below the shot had slid down a foot or two. Upon later inspection (I just ruined the end of the story by letting on that I didn't die), it turned out that the core was in decent shape and showing only minor abrasion. But still. The core shot came from the rubbing against the most subtle of bulges---virtually flat granite. Think of a ball 60 feet in diameter. There was scarcely a crystal poking out of it. That's what's most scary about the incident: the lack of a cutting edge. The problem was that I had such a long section fixed (70m) with dynamic ropes and without an intermittent anchor. My repeated bouncing expressed itself as sawing action at the point in question. I've since built an intermittent anchor and installed a second (back-up) rope. Future cleaners, take heed.

Bolting

I did most of the bolting yesterday. In a sense, I'm glad that I was alone for it in that reaching consensus between any two individuals about if and where to bolt is difficult. In the end, I decided to put in fixed stations throughout. I won't justify that decision here. What does seem worthy of mention is how I handled P2, the short, wet 10c corner. The pitch begins by stepping off a ledge, across the wet streak onto a series of moves off of good holds, bad feet, and big moves between them. All the while, the wet streak looms closely nearby. The photo at right shows the pitch. The yellow circles (x for bolt and P for pin) show what was there when I arrived. After trying the moves out myself and giving it a good think, I decided put in two new bolts beside the wet streak. The lowest bolt is there because the original move across the wet streak has a pretty nasty ankle-breaker potential (thanks Chris Geisler for letting me know about the deckfall potential on this pitch). Once onto the face, if it's dry enough, it's now well protected for some pretty tenuous moves. And if it's wet, it's an easy A0 bolt ladder. After talking with Don McPherson (FFA) and others, I got the sense that this pitch was a little too memorable (as in scary) considering how short and wet it is. My goal as was to make it more forgettable, as it is not what makes Right Wing great. I put in a final bolt at the top as there was no decent gear. The pitch is now all fixed. In the end, it as a 1-for-1 pin-for bolt swap. I pulled the pins. The angle was a good piece albeit erroded substantially; the baby knifeblade was half-driven, and the z piton was only 1/4 driven.

Almost done

Yesterday, Sarah, Jacqui, and I spent the day cleaning and the route is nearly ready to go. Just 20m of rock in need of cleaning. And bolting. After much deliberation, I've decided to make all the stations fixed and to place 3 new bolts in the 10c-ish pitch. The new bolts in that pitch will both allow me to pull out the existing, rusted, half-driven pins, and for the route to climb some interesting face beside the wet streak, making the wet streak less of an issue. The crack adjacent to where the bolts will be is slammed shut anyways: most of the time, too small for fingers or anything more than knifeblades.

Pre-Cleaning

Here are some photos from the day that I first fixed ropes on Right Wing with Anders Ourum.

Pitch 4: The climb will finish up the original finish to The Great Game, an overhanging 10b corner (The Beak Flake). Here's looking down it. Yup, looks full on.








Pitch 3: The next pitch down will probably be the one that gives Right Wing it's name (whatever name that ends up being): a full 60m rope-stretcher of 5.10 climbing. Plenty of chimneying and powerful climbing, and not a good rest on the entire thing. The belay is the first stance in 60m. Excellent cracks, fantastic gear, and stomach turning exposure. Here's a photo looking down it (note the ledge way down there, marking its beginning).
















Pitch 3: Here's looking down the lower half of the pitch.















Pitch 3: The lowest 10m of the mega pitch, properly vegetated, with the belay ledge below.



















Pitch 3: Panicing yet? Looking up the mega pitch from the belay ledge. The belay at its top (not visible) is located at the base of the corner visible on the skyline. Bring all the gear you own, and your friends' too.













Pitch 2: Looking up the short 10c-ish pitch. Note the unfortunately permanent wet streak. The climb will step across the streak to some good face holds (dry) before re-joining the corner at the top of the wet streak.










Pitch 1: The connection with Eagle's Domain (the white finger crack in the slab behind the climber).