Back to Squamish

Frontside so cool

I headed back up to Squamish in October. The weather was a perfect 40 degrees with a nice breeze. It was awesome. Squamish is a really hard place to travel to, it is either to hot or raining. It is safe to say Squamish is sandbagged but in these little weather windows that only the locals get to enjoy, the grades suddenly feel right. My goal for the trip was the three v12's on the top 100 list--Summoning, Frontside, and The Method. First off I went to Murrin Park to finish the Summoning v12, a line I had greased off of on my summer trip. It felt great in the cold and after figuring out the transitions, I managed to send it--only after blowing the move to the lip when my left hand dry fired off of a crimp. Feeling really good about the send, I headed over to the grand wall to meet up with Jesse Warren who wanted to try Room Service v12. When I got there Jesse, Paul Nadler, and Carlo Traversi where sessioning. I threw down my pad and started trying. Room Service is a burly compression line on little edges with precise thumb catches. It kind of starts in the middle of the true line which has an obvious start hold but it looks real hard so it got climbed from the middle. Jesse had worked the line prevously and was psyched. Right after I got there he climbed it. Carlo started trying dreamcatcher 5.14d when his girlfriend fed him to much slack and he almost decked on the boulder it climbs over. I tried Room Service for a bit but I was more psyched to climb on Frontside. I figured I would come back after and give it more serious attempts.

Encore un Fois v11

Shots Fired

 The next morning I ran over to Frontside to try and climb it before the sun hit it. I warmed up on Shots Fired a fantastic v4 that sits on the boulder next to Frontside. I felt really good and after
rehearsing the crux move it was game on. The crux revolves around taking a slopy right hand divot and lock it off to your side and make a big crossover move to a good edge. You can't lose to much tension because of the boulder behind you. The first time I did the crux move to quickly my head tilted back to far and I dabbed on the boulder behind me. I like that aspect of outdoor climbing the variables make things more interesting. After falling a few time on the crux from the beginning, I managed to pull it off. Frontside has to be the most inspiring line I have done in Squamish.  Paul said he was going to session Room Service that day so I headed over there. I figured I would take advantage, the climb requires a lot of pads. I figured out all the moves but I was to spent to send such a powerful line.  Paul got insanely close falling after the crux. Feeling worked, we called it a day.
 The next morning I warmed up on some really good classics on the carpet ride boulder I hadn't done. I stopped at Killa' Gorilla v8 on the way out. It looked fun but contrived. I got to work, and it was a lot more powerful then I was expecting. I finally mustered up enough strength to pull it out. I looked at the variation King Kong v10 and thought what the hell. After a couple goes I was on top. It felt substantially easier. Right above it sits The Serpent v10, and it looks awesome. I gave it a flash burn falling about half way up. Twenty minutes later I hadn't gotten a single move higher. I decided I should come back and session it with friends that could maybe throw some beta my way because I wasn't getting anywhere. I was tired so I headed to the Method v12 it is mostly a technical line with not to much burl. I had tried it in the middle of the summer and I couldn't get off the ground. I figured out the beginning and was feeling good on the crux when it started to rain. It wasn't letting up so I called it a trip and headed home.