The Grand Wall....so so so so so so so cool!

The Grand Wall was the single coolest climb either of us have ever done. This climb consists of 10 pitches of beautiful, clean, safe, difficult and exciting granite followed by a very exciting hike off. We started climbing at 6:15am and climbed about 1200 vertical feet, for 8 hours and 15 minutes. We climbed cracks and crimps, laybacks, chimneys and slabs. This climb has it all! The most impressive pitch was the famous "Split Pillar", 40 meters of crack climbing that increases in size from finger-width to fist-width to entire body-width (photo below). This has definitely been the highlight of the trip! 

Since then we have climbed every day challenging ourselves on difficult traditional climbing routes. Each day we feel more comfortable on the rock and more confident in our abilities. As our time in Squamish comes to an end we can truly say that we made the most of it! The guidebook for this area has a "Top 100 Routes" list, and of those we completed 34, including several multi-pitch climbs. In total, we have climbed well over 100 pitches!

Checking the weather (poaching Internet) outside of Starbucks

Patrick leading The Split Pillar on Grand Wall....amazing!

Looking down from the Grand Wall. There were several parties climbing it that day- see the party behind us in blue? 

Hiking down from the Grand Wall summit- feeling pretty groovy!

Angel's Crest- check! Now on to Grand Wall!

Hello!

After a successful Angel's Crest send, incredible Shabbat with new friends, beautiful day multi-pitch and single pitch trad cragging, and intense day of bouldering, today was a much needed rest day. We spent it catching up on email, getting clean and grocery shopping. In addition, we are gearing up to climb the Grand Wall tomorrow. We will be climbing directly up the middle of the Chief (10 pitches) and hopefully all the way to the top (an additional 3 pitches up the Upper Black Dyke). In total it will be 13 pitches of mostly 5.10 and 5.11 climbing. We'll be getting up bright and early tomorrow and starting around 6am!

Early in the morning below the first pitch of Angel's Crest.

The Acrophobes pitch on Angel's Crest: climb up easy slab, find hidden bolts, rappel off the back, walk, scramble, descend a fixed rope. Start climbing again. Can you find Ellen here?

Done! 8 hours and 41 minutes of climbing. ~11 hours from car to car!

Patrick battling an off-width. Hardest 5.10 ever. 

Tomorrow's big adventure!

2 weeks down only 2 more left!

Can't believe we have been here for just about two weeks. On the one hand we have climbed and seen SO much, but on the other hand there is still so much to do! One of the highlights of the past few days was seeing a black bear at our campground. He was so darn cute it was hard not to approach him to pet him :)

In other news, yesterday we climbed a route called Skywalker. It included an exposed, traverse pitch that, while easy, was still quite exciting! The climb left us at the top of Shannon Falls- pictures below.

Tomorrow we are planning on climbing the entire Chief via a route called Angels Crest. It will take us the better part of the day and will definitely be an adventure!

The "Skywalker" pitch...just a stroll along the cliff

Belay anchor just before the Skywalker pitch.

Shannon Falls- the sound and force of this waterfall was indescribable. 

A cool crack climb

Tomorrow's project!

so. much. climbing!

Today is consecutive day 6 of climbing in Squamish. The past two days we have been climbing multi-pitch routes in preparation for one of the longest routes up the Chief. The amazing thing about climbing in Squamish is that trad, sport and bouldering can all be found in close proximity. Yesterday we took a semi-rest day. We climbed 6 easy pitches up one portion of the Chief called the Apron. On our decent, we ran into some friends who were bouldering, so we joined them for the rest of the evening. World-class multi-pitch trad and bouldering in one day, you can't beat that! In case half of these climbing-related terms are foreign to you, you can check out the definitions here:

climbing term definitions

Today we climbed another multi-pitch route, it was much more physically challenging and took more than 5 hours.

Below are some pictures of our latest adventures!

Cooking delicious post-climbing dinners under a tarp (it was raining earlier)

Sport climbing a classic route at Rogue Gallery

Just another beautiful scene from a climbing area that is a short hike from the car

Our good friend Keith trying a really hard really long route

Patrick on the first pitch of Exasperater...lots of hard pitches still ahead!

Getting a drink at belay station #2 of the Exasperater/Peasant's route extension. 

All that hard work yields a gorgeous view! 

Patrick at the anchors of today's multi-pitch route. See the little people above us on the left? They are climbing a very looong and challenging route that we would love to do before we leave Squamish. 

Squamish is Beeeeeautiful!

After a couple of lovely days in Montana we hit the road again for the ~12 hour drive to Squamish, BC Canada. We had a slight slow-down at the border where we were asked to produce bank statements and to state our permanent residence and place of employment. We could do none of these things and so,  having unsatisfactorily answered the border patrols questions, they proceeded to search the car. They soon realized that we were perfectly harmless and let us continue on our way. Whew!

We've been here for 3 days now and it it has been really incredible! Amazing climbing, both sport and trad. Great meals (think lots of potatoes and pasta) and, incredibly, we found our favorite imported Israeli wine at a budget grocery store in Mt. Vernon- perfect for Shabbat!)

Who is taller? A long hike led to one mediocre climb in the backwoods of Montana. A wild white water rafting adventure followed!

Beautiful Squamish with the Chief in the background. 

On our way to get clean!

Nature's bath tub!

Montana Montanas

We are in Montana and had a fabulous day of climbing at Mulkey Gulch followed by a peaceful float down the Clark Fork River and an evening of Trivia. The climbing required a 3+ mile drive up a bumpy logging road into the depths of a beautiful canyon. After 24 hours of driving on Monday and Tuesday, today we finally felt we were on the trip!

The storage unit absolutely stuffed. This is going to be fun to unpack someday.

The car, affectionately names Tzipi, with all of the road tripping essentials.

Two trip essentials, quickdraw and UW Chabad mug.

And plenty of room to sleep!

The view from Mulkey Tower. A 2-pitch gorgeous climb. The dirt road on the valley floor leads back to the highway. Fun drive!

This is my niece Alisa (the one in the middle). She turned 6 today, but spent her birthday in Germany so I couldn't call to say "Happy Birthday"! Hope she'll see this post!