“That’s such a good one. You may have been the first this season-nice feather in the cap.” Peter, local crusher.
One crag was within view of the white clapboard lodges of North Conway, New Hampshire, one just above an interstate, and the third looming over Howe Sound and the burgeoning condo towers of downtown Squamish, three granite crags famous for splitters and, in the right conditions, tantalizing smears of ice.
Easy access, slippery feet and strong partners made for a memorable break from the infamously long approaches and sketchy snowpack of the Canadian Rockies.
Remission Round 1:
My trip east started with a slideshow for the Dartmouth College mountaineering club, reminding me of 30 years earlier in my undergraduate days. A flop house with a well-stocked bar in the living room, fresh-faced undergrads talking eagerly of past and future alpine objectives, and my host an eager partner for the next day.
“Why don’t we go to Remission?”, my host Ryan mentioned. “I have always wanted to get up that one.”
Previously I had climbed its neighbour, Repentance, while seeing Peter on Remission.
“I saw people on it last week, so it’s in.” Ryan added.
My local guide friend Justin confirmed that it was thin enough we wouldn’t have to battle the crowds. The next day, looking up at the narrow pillar, I was heartened that someone else had already tested it out. The first pitch required some very thin ice manoeuvring and my host’s feet popped off seconding. The second pitch curtain didn’t really connect, so it seemed I was rope-gunning the route.
Justin walked around the base of the climb with a client just as I was getting established on this curtain, and was good enough to wait for me to get a stubby in before calling up a hello. One of the coolest things about Cathedral Ledge is friends can be having a casual conversation at the base while you focus on your breathing a couple of pitches up.
It was with a swell of pride that I received the text in which Peter thought I had a feather in my cap making the first ascent of the season.
“Nope, the only reason I made it up was I knew someone had already made the pick holes.”
Across the Great Divide
A few days later: “Do you want to try Across the Great Divide?”, asked Dane Steadman.
Funny Dane would pick that route, as it had the reputation for being the hardest unclimbed route on Cannon Cliff, the biggest cliff in the eastern US. Justin had given me some of the storied background: it was an aid line from the local legend Rick Wilcox, then Justin and Peter had drytooled some of the pitches, then another local had climbed it over two days. Nobody had sent it yet. Seemed like a bold proposition in keeping with Dane’s reputation.
Cannon Cliff wasn’t exactly a town crag, but it was granite and only an hour’s approach above the interstate, so kept with the theme of the week.
There are fixed pins all over this spectacularly airy pitch from earlier ascents and attempts, the only reason I felt good about leading it,with lots of easy pre-placed gear to hang from:)
I was thoroughly impressed by Dane’s ability to camp out on non-existent granite feet to onsight, while I frequently weighted the many fixed pieces as a means to get up it.
“But you led more pitches than I did” Dane granted. Isn’t it interesting how the best climbers are often the most generous and unpretentious?
Dane likes to do rope-stretcher pitches, skipping a couple of anchors on this pitch.
I had misread the topo, and Dane had linked so much of the harder climbing that where I was expecting a cruxy pitch to the top I was happy to find easy drytooling to regain the classic ridge.
R2D1: Remission round 2
Recovering from Cannon, Dane and I walked the 5 minutes to the town link-up challenge, R2D2: link Repentance, Remission, Diagonal and Diedre. Attracted by the most prominent pillar high on the cliff, I had already bailed on Diagonal once that week, when slippery feet and poor gear encouraged a sketchy retreat. It was only afterwards I was told the pitch’s gear was “not always where you want it” and its moves were “a bit of a mind game.” These coded phrases from very strong climbers were easy to interpret with hindsight.
With Dane and a 70 meter rope both Repentance and Remission passed quickly as pitch-and-a-third outings. Discounting Diagonal we skipped to Diedre where Dane asked if I knew how to torque 3 inch cracks, which I had to admit was new to me. Thankfully there was a tight rope overhead providing the security I needed to edge precariously up it. By evening’s light from the town we headed the 5 minutes back to the parking with R2D1 as a unique cragging experience.
The Stawamus Chief: Ultimate Everything
On returning to British Columbia the town-cragging streak continued as a cold front had formed ice all over the Chief in Squamish. I called up Fred, one of the stronger mixed climbers in town.
“I am pretty sure there is enough ice to top-out, it hasn’t been done since 2017.”, was the encouraging news. Neither of us had climbed the route in summer so we figured we would go and see where the fattest streaks were. At the top of the Apron we climbed onto sticky 5 centimeter thick orange ice, hiked through the woods to pitches of snice in corners, and meandered our way comically upward past trees and snow ledges to a final streak right at the top of the second summit.
