Week 1 - Squamish: I got squished...

The day began early, after a late night shooting the shit with Ryan in the back alley. Up at 6, substitute yogourt for usual liquid breakfast, bring camera, rope, ten quickdraws, helmet and the rest of the gear. At the greyhound station early, my bespectacled climbing partner for the day in nowhere to be seen. He arrives as the bus is preparing to leave, great relief at this point. A slim man, with short hair and a french accent, Gilles from Portugal. I get the sense he's out of my league in terms of climbing ability (I have said I would be comfortable leading 5.8s or 5.9s), he's interested in sport climbing and trad.

We arrive in Squamish and walk over to the smoke bluffs. The VOC party was supposed to be meeting at the town's Tim Horton's. We can't find it so we continue on alone. The weather is beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and the sun's going to be bright and hot. We hike up (I'm relieved to find that I'm not huffing nearly as much as I was when I smoked and climbed stairs at the library for God's sake) to Burger's and Fries and find what we think is a 5.8 slab. It's steep, with nothing but the smallest nubbins for nail-holds, nothing but smearing action with the feet. I volunteer to lead it for the first climb of the day. It's difficult at first, I get to the first clip and I'm in. The bases of my soles are killing me, I make it to the second clip and (struggling) get in the quickdraw. I clamber up a little further, try to get footing off to the left, first lead fall. Not bad, expected it, though I didn't push off the wall so hands and forearms are grated. More scrambling, another fall shortly thereafter. Then I make a hard push for the third bolt, and have a great lead fall, my first big one, it even caused a wierd 3-4 second anxiety/adrenaline attack. It passes and I make it clear to Gilles that I can't get up this one.

I come down and a couple, Luc and Winifred approach and chat, it turns out that Gilles' book is wrong and I was trying to lead a 5.10a called High Boltage. Fuckin' eh! the last thing I lead was a damp 5.7 in Skaha. Gilles leads it quite well and sets up an anchor, and then I climb the bastard. Hardest outdoor climb I've ever done - feeling pretty proud of myself at this point. Luc and Winifred borrow my rope for a while; Gilles and myself scout out other climbs.

We retrieve my sport rope and head down to Fatty Bolger for some sport leads. We both lead a 5.6 called Dave's and a 5.7 called Stepladder with no falls. Good slab with more visible foot ledges and larger hand-holds. We run into a party of French-Canadian climbers (two of wich are in the VOC though we've not met before).

After a rest for water, and a small dose of sugary caffeine for me, we begin the lengthy hike to find the Octopuses' Garden at the top of the Bluffs. The sun's really out and its a sweaty hike for me. We arrive in trad country with a group of climbers laying protection up crags. Bill the Kaleida Cave administrator/builder is there laying protection up Octopuses' Garden. I watch for a while trying to learn. I can't help but staring at a climb called 'edible panties'. Gilles has disappeared around the corner to find Respiration Rock. I track him down and we're staring at a series of crags and crags so wide they deserve the term chimney. He instructs me in the belay style of traditional climbing, the language barrier proves to be a bit of a problem, but we're using two ropes and I eventually get the picture. Gilles starts up the wet and mossy 5.6 called Hernia. The crags prove torture on the feet as he places his cams and uses his friends as he calls them (as they call them in Portugal) to aid in getting up the chimney before moving significantly over to the left and using them again for a bit to get up the second chimney. He makes it, remarks at its difficulty, and sets us an anchor around a big tree at the top. He takes a while to set up the belay at the top and I take a while to get sore feet into climbing shoes before I begin to second the pitch. The first cam comes out without much difficulty but the crags destroy the feet. With much yelling from me and encouragement from Gilles, I muscle with my arms up through the first chimney, smearing to the left and right with feet until I reach the mid-climb bench and rest. I hammer out a nut and manage to jam both thighs and feet into the second chimney and pull desperately with my hands with much yelling and support from above. Make it to the top, hoot and holler, fuckin' rights - first experience in trad and it was grand. I make a terrible rappel down scratching every part of me as I descend, something about rappeling still freaks me out a little. Gilles cleans the anchor and comes down in proper style.

We pack up with just enough time to rush down the hill and into town to catch the Greyhound back to Van. All day no sign of the other VOCers. Nonetheless, a completely kick-ass way to celebrate 1 week without smokes. On the bus ride back we gaze at the Stawamus Chief (pictured above at right, next to typical squish rock). It's a goal, it might be a ways in the future before I can trad my way up it. I'm going to take a 2 day trad instruction course in Squamish before the summer. Harder sport next time, and maybe a little begginer trad.

Now I'm weak, with a sunburn and bashed up knees. Signing off for now...