Four to the top of the Chief

This summer I spent a lot of time in Squamish and was able to get up four different routes that go to the top of the Chief. They were all great, but some lived up to the hype more than others. I was also able to climb Sunblessed and send a three year project of mine Crime of the Century.

Grand Wall 5.11a AO
I climbed this with Don as training for an upcoming Yosemite trip. In my opinion it is one of the best long climbs I have ever done, anywhere. It is sustained, protects well and provides pitch after pitch of perfect cracks and run out slabs. You can't beat it. This was my second time on it and I know that I'll be back for a third.

The split piller. I don't know why it's crooked. It uploaded like this. Sorry.
Looking up the Sword pitch.

Don traversing out bellygood lodge

Angels Crest 10c 14 pitches
I climbed this with Priscilla. It was her first time swapping leads up a long climb and she loved it. This was my second favorite climb up the chief. It was adventurous, long, and climbed mostly good cracks the whole way. I thought the route finding was pretty straight forward. I can't remember exact beta for the approach trail, but using the Squamish select book I was able to find it first try and you know when you are on the right path because there are reflective diamonds on the trees with "AC" written on them. It even had a great chimney finish.

The first 10a pitch on AC
The beautiful OW part way up. It can be bypassed on the right.
The random totem pole towards the top
The second to last pitch
The final chimney

Ultimate Everything 5.9 A0 10 pitches, plus apron.

I climbed this with Priscilla. She took us up Bannana Peel on the Apron and then I took over and lead Ultimate Everything. This climb was a little different then the other three because it had much less crack climbing and a lot of bolted face climbing. None the less it was a lot of fun and a must do. Oddly enough I always thought that this was the easiest route up the Chief but I think that it is harder than Squamish Buttress because it is much more sustained.

A short but sweet crack
Looking down the 11b or 5.9 AO last pitch

Squamish Buttress 10c 7 pitches, plus apron.
I also climbed this with Priscilla. It was my first climb to the top of the chief several years ago and it was me and Priscilla's first climb to the top of the chief this year. It is a fun climb, but not as good as the other three. It has more walking and approach pitches to reach the final headwall. The crux 10c pitch is a butt kicker, but apparently Sonnie trotter just put up a 5.9 variation that goes around it. You can find a topo of it on his blog under the title "The Ambitious Foreigner." Unfortunately, the batteries on my camera died so I don't have any pictures from our climb.

Here's one of the crux pitch from a few years ago

Sunblessed 10b 4P
I did this line with Don. We swapped leads up it and had a great time. It is a little adventurous, but well worth it.

The money pitch
The last pitch

Crime of the Century 5.11c.
After three years of projecting this climb I finally sent it. The main reason that I was so excited was that it shows the amount of improvement that I have made over the last three years. I tried this climb my first time in Squamish and got pulled up the entire thing. I wasn't able to do even a third of the moves. I remember falling trying to lead 5.8s that same trip. Now, after several years, my experience and strength have improved enough to send the thing. It was a wonderful feeling. Here's a video of some guys doing it on Vimeo

Crime of the Century

South America

Me and Priscilla had the amazing opportunity to spend January and February in South America. Here's a report from our time there.

We started our trip by spending a week with her family in Mexico city. This was my first time being in another country that doesn't speak English. It was harder than I thought it would be, but her family was wonderful and treated us like royalty. I'd like to say thank you to everyone who made our stay so wonderful, the only person that might read this is Juan Carlos, so thank you Juan Carlos.

Me and Priscilla at Sea Tac
Priscilla and her cousins
The crazy buildings in Mexico City. The city was built over a lake and is sinking.

After Mexico City we flew to Santiago for free in first class thanks to Priscilla's uncle who is a captain for Aero Mexico. We arrived in Santiago in the middle of the night and spent an evening in a hotel that charged by the hour after a very expensive taxi ride. It was disgusting to say the least.

The next morning we got up early to take a bus to Bariloche only to find out that the bus didn't leave until the evening. So we spent the day hanging out with our 70 pound packs until we were finally able to take the 12 hour bus, followed by a several hour layover, then a five hour bus. After all this travel time we were really excited to chill for a few days in Bariloche before heading to Frey for a week.

The wonderful hostel we stayed at for a few days
Lake Bariloche

We spent a week in Frey and got on a bunch of great climbs. This was Priscilla's first time climbing routes in the mountains and she loved it. The highlight for both of us was climbing Aguja Principal, the tallest rock in the area. The views were incredible, the climbing good, and the giant birds were pretty cool as well.

Priscilla about to shoulder her giant pack for the hike into Frey
Frey
The first climb we did. Diedro de Jim
Priscilla on Sifuentes Weber/Monti 100m

At the top
Looking up what we just climbed
Bouldering
Looking back towards camp
Aguja Princiapal
The crux slab pitch at the top
Enjoying the summit crest and views
Looking back towards camp
It was someones birthday at the hostel so the caretakers made a wonderful meal for everyone

When we were in Santiago we met some guys who told us to check out Cochamo, the Yosemite of South America. After we got down from Frey we started looking and were blown away by what we saw. Huge granite cliffs set in beautiful valleys. We had to go.

We left Bariloche and made our way to Puerto Montt where we spent a few days getting ready. We started our journey with a several hour bus ride that dropped us off on a gravel rode in the middle of no where. We did happen to have a map, the only beta we could find, and it appeared that we were in the right spot and 20 kilometers away. Normally, this wouldn't be too far, but with almost two weeks of food and all of our gear it seemed much farther. We figured all we could do was walk so that's what we did. It wasn't long before we realized that there were dinosaur sized flys that were determined to make our lives hell. We spent the next several hours slogging down the road swatting giant flys until we finally broke down and asked some farmers to carry our stuff up on horses. Everyone else does it, why not. We spent the rest of the evening killing bugs down by the river and relaxing before making the hike, without packs, the next morning.

Giant flys
Camp in the farmers yard
Having some tea with the farmers and some people from Spain
The muddy trail on the way in

Our time in Cochamo was interesting. We spent some time climbing and a lot of time hanging out in our tent while it rained. When we weren't reading until our brains hurt we spent time bushwacking thr0ugh the jungle to find crags, climbing on overhanging cliffs, gardening up 1000 foot lines in virgin valleys and enjoying the adventure that is cochamo. The climbing here was certainly adventurous, but most of the stuff has seen very little traffic. With a few more people this area could become classic. Also, the guy who opened the refugio is a great guy from the states and he goes out of his way to make your experience enjoyable. Here are some pics of what we did there.

Priscilla on Apnea. Classic.

The hut where everyone eats and escapes the rain
Priscilla at Pared Seca trying to avoid the rain
Our campsite at La Paloma
Looking accross the valley at Trinidad
Looking down a 10 pitch 10c we did called Fiesta do monos
Fiesta de monos

After Cochamo we headed down south to Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. Our time there consisted of intermittent glimpses of beautiful mountains, extreme wind, some ice climbing and lots of vomiting. Priscilla spent her first night there puking her guts out all night. After a long and exhausting night she took all day to recuperate. All the while I was thinking "how bad could it really be." Well, I got to find out. The next day we moved camp to the climbers camp below cerro torre and I spent the night throwing up. I can honestly say I don't ever remember blowing chunks like this. Every time I felt like I was going to puke up my small and large intestine. I would finish and be covered in sweat from head to toe and tears and snot would be flowing at max volume. I now understood what my poor girlfriend had experienced a few nights prior. It took me an entire day to recuperate as well. After another day spent in the tent we decided to move camp to the cerro torre camping area. Luckily the weather was finally blue bird and we got the see the mountains for the first time in 5 days. Unluckily we only had one more day before we had to leave and the mountains looked like they were covered in ice. No climbing the big stone for us. Instead we went to the glacier and did some ice climbing with the tools we had been dragging around for the last 6 weeks. It was Priscillas first time and she loved it.

Fitz Roy
Fitz Roy again
Cerro Torre
Tyrolean traverse to get over the river
Priscilla swinging the tools

After Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy we started our journey home. It took us a couple weeks of travel intersperced with "we don't have room," "the next plane doesn't leave for three days" and "you can't carry your rope on, actually you can't even take it on the plane." By the time we finally made it home I was glad to be on American soil.

We made a quick stop at Perrito Moreno

My beautiful girlfriend in Santiago
We spent a couple days in Mexico city as well. Priscilla's family