Pine Valley Bouldering Potential

I had planned to head up to the Boulder Gardens on Mount Babcock to do some bouldering this past weekend, and try to get a good sense of how extensive the area was, and how many hard lines there might be. Unfortunately, I found out that of the 150 km between my house and the BG, about half of that is on gravel roads. Not being that keen to drive that much gravel for just a day of bouldering, I instead drove to check out another area I've been curious about - the Pine Creek Canyon north of Dawson Creek.

On Google Maps, it looked like a canyon holding numerous big boulders. This didn't really jive with what I know of the geology of the area - generally the underlying bedrock is a soft sandstone, which doesn't form large blocks. So with Lupin (the dog) in tow, I went off for a day of hiking and exploring (with my shoes and chalk as well, of course).

Parking at the bridge, I walked about 1.5 km down the mostly dry riverbed (with the occasional bushwhack) before I made it to the upper canyon. Here, as shown on the satellite images, there were large boulders scattered along 200 m of canyon. The mystery was solved - the boulders were indeed a soft sandstone, and had calved off the canyon walls, but the force of the flow was insufficient to move them any distance. The resulting boulders are pretty big - as much as 4 m tall - and while somewhat soft, could yield some brilliant problems. The season might be quite short, especially in wet years when the canyon holds lots of water. Also, attempting really hard problems might be dangerous, and small holds might snap off regularly because the sandstone is fairly soft. Still, for 'squeezy-slopey' problems, the area holds a fair amount of potential, especially in the dry autumn. Possibly as many as 200 problems? I did do three problems, although they were all easy (no mat, no spotter, a mile from anywhere, bad ankle...). Two of them were on the 'Anomaly' Boulder - a beautiful block of sandstone with a sculpted top.

I kept walking downstream, hoping to get to the lower canyon which (on the satellite images) held many more boulders (along about 500 m of canyon), but was nearly stopped by an enormous area of slope-failure (looked like it was bombed), and then was stopped by a cliff/waterfall at the head of the lower canyon. I would like to get down there someday, but since its a slog, I doubt it would ever be a worthwhile climbing ares (maybe some ice, though?).

Evaluation? A nice adventure bouldering area, but probably will never be a destination of any kind due to the approach and soft nature of the rock. The lines themselves look brilliant, though! I'll be back there once I'm in better shape!

What's next? The gritstone boulders of the Tumbler Ridge area, including Mount Babcock (the Boulder Gardens). More reports soon!

PHOTOS
[1] a view of the lower canyon from above the waterfall
[2] the Anomaly Boulder - there is a brilliant V3ish problem that starts in a 2-handed pod pocket on the right hand arete; the boulder is probably 2 m tall.
[3] the upper canyon
[4] big block in the lower canyon. The desperately sloping lip is probably 2 - 2.5 up. There are four brilliant lines side by side on this boulder, arete squeezing and pockets.

T.

Beaverlodge, Alberta!

We've completed our move to Beaverlodge, Alberta. Whereas Christchurch (New Zealand) was near one of the greatest bouldering areas on earth (the Castle Hill Basin), Beaverlodge isn't really close to any climbing, as far as I can tell. It isn't bereft of climbing opportunity, though. I've compiled a list of all the climbing (both real and artificial) in the area.

1) The Boulder Gardens (Near Tumbler Ridge). Years ago, Shelley, Curtis S., and I were among the first to put up problems here. The BG is about a 1.5 hour drive from Beaverlodge, and holds potential for hundreds of problems on coarse-to-fine grained sandstone in an awesome alpine setting. One of the best moderate problems I've ever done is there (Sen-Sen, V4). Downsides? 10 km up a gravel road and a short season (probably June to October).

2) Hasler Bluffs (near Chetwynd). This is by far the biggest climbing area in the Peace Country, and holds dozens of routes on bullet-proof sandstone. Lots of room for development, both in terms of sport routes and moderate gear lines. It's also a sun trap, so the season is surprisingly long. Camping is close and free. Downsides? A long drive (2.5 hours) and ants (apparently).

3) Jasper National Park. TONS of sport routes, up to .13+. Downside? Its far away - probably a 4 hour drive.

4) The GPRC Climbing gym. This is a surprisingly good gym, but seems to be pretty sleepy. I hope that it gets busier when the school year starts and the students start back.

5) My Garage. OK, this isn't a reality yet, but I've drawn up plans for a decent wall in my garage. I'm hoping its not TOO cold to climb on it in the winter. I have to start collecting holds, though - it's going to be a real task to get enough holds to make the climbing interesting.

I'm hoping to get to the Boulder Gardens (Mount Babcock) this weekend. If I do, expect more pictures soon!


(A) The GPRC climbing gym. This picture was copied off their website.


(B) The Boulder Gardens near Tumbler Ridge (again, not my photo...)

Castle Hill Winter

We went to Castle Hill on the weekend, for what may be the last time before we leave NZ. It was an amazing day - brilliant blue skies, with snow covering all the mountains surrounding the basin. It was probably only 14C out, but the sun was SO warm everyone was in their tshirts. Truly stellar bouldering weather, crisp and dry!

I am, unfortuately, still recovering from my badly sprained ankle. It feels OK to walk around on it, but it is really inflexible, especially in frontal flexion. Needless to say, this makes climbing at Castle Hill really hard, as you need to drop your heels and smear a LOT. All I could really do was frontpoint, but I did manage to get up a few great problems. I also didn't want to fall very far, which also limited what I could climb. Still, the day was perfect and I had a lot of fun!

I climbed Timeless (V2), which is a really cool arete problem with a key mono pocket. I then managed to climb the V4 to the left, which is a cool line that climbs through a little bulge on 1 and 2-finger pockets. I really wanted to climb a few slabs as well, but was disappointed that my ankle couldn't flex enough. Rowan and Aya did a bunch of little problems too - they had a great deal of fun at Castle Hill.

At the end of the day, Shelley and I discussed how Castle Hill ranked with respect to the other world-class areas we've been to (principally Squamish, the Buttermilks, and the Bishop Tablelands). We discussed the pros and cons of the areas; the rock, the quality of the problems, the holds, the landings, the scenery, etc. Shelley thinks that Castle Hill is best of the big areas she's been to, and I more-or-less agree. What makes Castle Hill special is that a high proportion of the problems are really good, especially in the low grades. Squamish is awesome, but really is only great in the V6 - V10 range. Of course, I will likely think that the next area I visit is the 'best' area I've ever climbed at!

Here are some photos of our day.

Kia Ora!

Trent.

Injured!

Living - and climbing - in Christchurch in these earthquake-prone days is a bit uncertain. I feel a bit nervous climbing in the Port Hills, given that every month or so there's a tremor large enough to cause rock fall. Fortunately, climbing in the Castle Hill Basin has been largely unaffected, although with the onset of winter, snow at Castle Hill becomes more and more likely.

Discussions of these realities have become a bit academic to me in the last couple of weeks, as I am on the 'non-climbing' list for the time being. I was in a bouldering competition at The Roxx (the largest gym in Christchurch, and one of the largest in NZ), and I fell from the final hold of a problem only to have my foot slip in between two mats and smash, anklefirst, onto the hard floor beneath. From the instantaneous explosion of pain, I knew something had gone terribly off the rails in my ankle. It turns out I had badly sprained my ankle. After a couple of weeks, I can walk on it, but not much else.

The incident at the Roxx really sucks for two reasons. First, I was doing pretty well, actually - better than I had expected. The competition was the NZ equivalent of a Tour de Bloc, and I was climbing a lot of the mid-range to hard problems, and having a good time. To get injured in that type of situation always sucks, especially since now I'm back on the non-climbing list. Second, the injury was largely due to poor setting and poor mat placement. It turned out the problem had not been forerun and no one in the comp had done the problem. If it had been fore-run properly, they would have realised that the last (matching hold) was almost impossible to hold because it was too slopey, and that the fall off this hold had the climber spinning as they fell (hence the sprained ankle - I couldn't spot my landing as I fell). Still, it was a really fun competition, and the setting was otherwise really spot-on.

Hopefully I can heal quickly enough that I can get up to Castle Hill some more before I go back to Canada. I STILL haven't been to Flock Hill, which bums me out a bit.

Hope the climbing weather improves in Canada! I've heard its been grim!

Cheers

Trent

(the photo of the Roxx is taken from their website.)

April 22, 2011

Castle Hill! Truly one of the greatest bouldering areas on earth! I've really only been to Quantum Field and Spittle Hill, and even there, I've really only scratched the surface. I'm really hoping to get to Flock Hill (supposedly one of the greatest single collection of boulders on earth, with more climbable features than Quantum and Spittle) and to Prebble Hill. Perhaps one day soon...

On Good Friday we went to Castle Hill with our good friends Rocio and Christian (and their little girl Violeta) to hide easter eggs amongst the boulders for Aya, Rowan, and Violeta to find. It was perfect climbing (and easter egg hunting) weather - sunny, a bit windy, and probably 18C. Christian and I had a great time doing easy highballs around the Perfume Bottle. The features on the problems on Spittle Hill are AMAZING. AMAAZZZZINNG. Rocio and Christian headed home around 2:30, so S,A,R, and I headed over to a cluster of boulders near the car park, where the well-known V6 Tricky is located. There were a handful of friendly Australians there, and one of them was trying Tricky. He asked if I wanted a spot, so on went the shoes... I'd tried Tricky before, but couldn't do the crux move. I tried it a few times, but failed again. They wanted to try some of the other problems on the boulder, notably Halloween (V6). It's a blunt arete that climbs entirely on pockets that range from sloping 4 fingers dishes to deep monos. I managed it after a few tries. Such an amazing line! The rock in Castle Hill is so aesthetic, both to look at and to climb. They wanted to try Horror Show, another brilliant V4 pocket problem on the boulder. I managed to get up that without too much problem, despite the slightly spooky topout.

The Aussies were from Melbourne, and were super-friendly. I felt really blessed to have run into them, and to share some of the greatest problems anywhere with them. One of them was named Trent, as well. We agreed that Trents are really solid people. ;)

Anyways, here's a picture (taken earlier in the year, as evidenced by the green - rather than brown - grass) of Aya and I looking over the backside of the Tricky Boulder.

It's a little frustrating to be SO out of shape when I climb at Castle Hill. Its such as technical area, I think I could climb to V10 or so without too much problem here if I was in good shape. As it is, I feel lucky to climb V6 here! It doesn't really matter how hard you climb at Castle Hill, though - the problems of all grades are amazing.

More later! Take Care!

Trent.

Back in the Saddle!

It has certainly been a eventful year on the climbing front, although not in a pleasant fashion. This year started with a layoff from climbing, then progressed with a serious neck injury that completely prevented any climbing for several months. In the last third of the year, however, I have been climbing more and more, which is nice. I am certainly not up to my usual standard in terms of strength (or difficulty of climbs), but it feels great to be back in the climbing "saddle" again.

In January of 2010, we moved to New Zealand. My mind was filled with sugarplum visions of bouldering at Castle Hill, and I was really looking forward to getting on many of the hundreds (thousands?) of classic problems the area has to offer. However, a serious neck injury (a prolapsed disk in my cervical vertebrae (C5/6)) not only prevented me from climbing, it caused more or less constant (and sometimes brutal) pain for several weeks. No climbing, no running, no stepping off curbs abrubtly, no anything. I was pretty much out of commission all winter, and it was only by spring that I felt I could start climbing again.

Since then, we have been to Castle Hill several times (mostly bouldering on Spittle Hill). I am still getting used to the style of climbing there (low friction, hard presses, tricky footwork), and really hope to spend a lot more time there before we leave New Zealand. With my French friend Luc, I also went climbing in The Cave (in the Port Hills above Christchurch), which was incredibly fun - my Edmonton climbing friends would love it! Steep, bouldery, and lots of fun movement. I have also done some bouldering on the beach here, although the volcanic rock is painful.

I'll try to get some photos posted here soon. Until then...

Cheers!

Trent.

Godman Creek - Bits and Pieces

Hello, again.

I'll precede any comments by first stating that the Godman Creek Topo is now online - it's on the Quickdraw Publications 'Free Downloads' site, and will also be featured in the next issue of Squamish Climbing Magazine, along with an article and photos on the area by Jonas Gagnon.

Was back at Godman Creek on Saturday. A fun day of climbing, with GREAT conditions. I watched Clairee *almost* climb Cheshire Cat. Almost. The FA is still up for grabs - I'm sure it'll get done in when the cooler weather hits us.

I climbed Moby Dick again. Twice. This is seriously one of the best problems I have ever climbed in my life (and I didn't even get the FA). I also linked the beginning of Sailor's Prayer into Moby Dick, creating a new long problem that I called Sailor's Dick. It's a rad line, probably only about V3, but climbs all kinds of cracks (although, frankly, I only jammed once). A cool line, check it out.

I started cleaning some new 'problems' in a new area I call Blurred World. The area is 'blurred' because I can't decide if the climbing is bouldering or route climbing. Many or most of the lines are in the 20+ foot range (some in the 30+ foot range), and many are cracks... Bouldering? Crack climbing? Routes? Who knows. Still, there'll be some fun lines there, including 4, 30 foot cracks which look hard. One looks VERY hard.

I'll likely be back at the Creek on Friday, as long as I can get my NSERC PDF application wrapped up this week. UGH.

Later.