As far as big, bold climbs go, you can’t get much bigger or bolder than a new route on the Southeast ridge of Cerro Torre in Patagonia. The featureless face on the near-perfect granite spire is permanently etched by Cesare Maestri’s infamous bolt line. And as far as climbing controversies go, you can’t get much hotter than the international conflagration burning over the chopping of Maestri’s 42 year-old bolts.

This is why the spotlight is on Squamish climber Jason Kruk and his American partner Hayden Kennedy. Squamishclimbing.com recently sat down with Kruk to get the full story on their controversial climb and the international row over the right of foreign climbers to rip out established bolts.

In 1970, Maestri used a gas powered compressor to drill more than 400 bolts up the Southeast Ridge of Cerro Torre. The Compressor Route, as it became known, was widely considered an artificial climb and a hollow claim of alpinism, much like the Italian alpinist’s claim that he climbed Cerro Torre in 1959. That climb was debunked when later expeditions failed to climb the route and found no evidence Maestri had climbed more than a quarter of the way up the mountain. More recently, there is growing suspicion that Maestri came up short on the Compressor Route too. He claimed he reached the summit after climbing to the top of the headwall. He stopped below the rime ice on the summit saying it was “not really part of the mountain” because “it’ll blow away one of these days.” But his true high point may have been just above where he left his compressor as his bolts peter out completely 20 metres from the top of the headwall.

In the last few years, the prize had been to climb the Compressor Route in the best style by eliminating as many of the Maestri bolts as possible. The goal became known as the “fair means” project. Kruk age 24,and Kennedy age 22, bagged it when they used only five bolts from previous fair means attempts and two of Meastri’s anchors. They graded the climb 5.11+ A2. Then, when the pair reached the top, they went down removing 125 Maestri bolts along the way.

The news went viral that the Compressor Route had fallen to a fair means ascent, and Kruk and Kennedy had chopped the bolts. Likely more than a few tons of green house gases were burned debating if what they did was justified. Some vilified Kruk and Kennedy saying they had no right to remove the bolts. A few called them names, comparing them to terrorists and referring to them with the initials KKK. Others stood by them, saying it was about time the widely condemned bolts were removed.

Kruk and Cerro Torre are well acquainted

“The first time I saw Cerro Torre I had to sit down. It takes your breath away. It’s the raddest peak on the planet,” says Kruk. At 3,128 m (10, 262 ft) it’s not the height of the peak that makes it so striking. Surrounded by lesser spires, Cerro Torre rises straight up out of the glacier and narrows to a small summit capped by a mushroom of ice.

Then the retailers and sponsors folded up their tents — thank you guys for all the loot you gave away and making this event possible.  It’s also great all the volunteers were thanked and fed with a volunteer bbq ath the Howe Sound Brew Pub. They also made this event a huge success.

After that it was time to say goodbye to people we met at the festival and to people we reconnected since last time.  That has to be one of the best things about this festival, the friendships made, the stories swapped and the laughs shared. Call it what you will, a community, tribe or sister and brotherhood, but climbers the world over share a unique connection. It’s at events like this that show us climbers why only other climbers can really understand why we have to and love to climb.

I’ll add some photos to this post soon, in the meantime check back the Squamish Mountain Festival page, they have some highlights and recap of the festival.

Thanks everyone for a great festival see you again next year.

Trade Fair and Demo Gear tents

The Dyno Wall

Jeremy Smith, VP of Squamish Access Society Board

Ed recounted some of the stories of making the first ascent of the Grand Wall. He remembers the huge media story it was back then and how a reporter miss-quoted him by writing he and Jim sucked moths to quench their thirst instead of sucking the water out of moss.
There was also a little nod to the contribution this first ascent made and climbing in general does for the city. Squamish councillor and former mayor, Corrine Lonsdale says the climbing community has done a lot to put Squamish on the map and she thanked the efforts of the FMBC for saving Smoke Bluffs. Lonsdale, who grew up in Squamish remembers when Ed and Jim were climbing the Chief and how everybody wanted to watch to see if they would fall.
And in Ed’s recounting, there are a couple of times that easily could have happened such as the time his rope came untied while leading the Split Pillar.
At the end of the presentation, Anders Ourom, a long-time climber who is writing a coffee table book on the history of Squamish Climbing got up to recognize Ed and Jim’s contribution as well as the place several other climbers have in the development of climbing in Squamish.
Here is a photo of some Squamish Climbing pioneers from left to right, Richard Strachan (FA Snake and Clean Corner, 1962), Ed Cooper FA, Grand Wall, 1961, Dick Culbertson, FA North Gully 1958 and guidebook author of Coast Ranges and Glenn Woodsworth, FA of University Wall 1966 and first guidebook of Squamish climbing 1967.

The next presentation after Ed was a complete change of pace as Tim Emmett took us through some of his exploits from hard sport climbing, DWS and base jumping. There’s a good story of how Tim met then married a local Squamish girl by actually falling out of the sky from a base jump and virtually landing on her at a beach in Thailand.

Tim Emmett at SMF
Some of us still had some energy at the end of this to rock and dance at the Robot Disco party. Props to the climbers who got it together and dressed the part.

So that’s the short version. More later.

….Later, OK here are some photos from the great day yesterday

The CASBC and SAS trail day crew

Volunteer crew at Cat Lake

Charlie Harrison and Hoi-en Tang from SAS

CASBS director, Adam Connor explaining the benefits of membership to Kevin Henshaw and Lauren Baldwin

Nina Capriz

Cory Richards with his fiance Olivia Hsu

There was a big crowd tonight for this event, I mean we’re talking packed, not an empty seat, young, old(er), local, out of town, sold-out kind of crowd. And in it’s understandable, who wouldn’t want to see Squamish’s renowned photography talent face off in a photo contest?

Five shooters gave it their best shot to take home the $1000 first place prize — Dave Humphreys, Rich Wheater, Paul Bride, Chris Christie and Jim Martinello. Check out the SMF page for their bios. It goes without saying that all these guys are extremely talented and have a unique perspective on climbing photography. Chris Christie, was the crowd favourite and the judges agreed, they judged him first place. What stood out for me was the way he clever framed many of his shot using the landscape such as trees, rock formations and arches. Paul Bride who came first last year, grabbed second place. Jim Martinello came third, his shots of climbers in outline against stunning backgrounds drew audience appreciation.

I got a little insight in the work and stress producing a media presentation like this involves. Rich Wheater told me he dealt with a computer/hard drive crash last night. It took him until 2:30 am to rebuild and refine his project again.

Quite a few people took home swag that was flying around during the intermission.

Thanks to emcee Scott Milton, organizers Laura, Justin and the techies for a great evening.

A lot has been happening on the Squamish climbing scene over the last year so here’s a quick recap:

Starting right here. You may have noticed Squamishclimbing.com – the go to site for climbing in Squamish has undergone a significant upgrade. The forum is now easier to use, navigate and post. There will soon be a new user photo gallery where you can post your pictures and see what others have done in Squamish. And the crag and map pages have been upgraded allowing easier updating. Check it out, sign up and start enjoying the benefits of the community forum.

On the climbing front the big news is that the Malemute has been made part of Stawamus Provincial Park. Hopefully this will put an end to the illegal camping at the top of the Malemute which has been a problem the last few summers. While some of the lower parts of the crag remain closed to climbing because of the CN Rail right of way, look for improved rap stations that provide access to many of the lower climbs. The Malamute offers a unique seaside climbing experience with some of the best cracks in the Sea to Sky corridor.

An area that has seen a lot of work over the last year is the Smoke Bluffs. The park advisory committee has spearheaded a new trail from Crag X up to Lumberland and the top tier climbs. If you have never visited the park before you will be impressed by the climber-friendly ambience such as benches and picnic tables at the base of some crags, helpful signs and maps and several pit toilets. This has got to be one of the few urban parks in the world that not only welcomes climbers but goes out of its way to accommodate them.

On the new route front there’s additions galore, meriting an article on it’s own. Here are some highlights: On Tantulus Wall Jeremy Frimmer established the nine pitch Milk Road 5.10d A0 (5.11d). This is a fantastic route with crack, face and a memorable finish on a delicate dike. The climb is on par with the Grand Wall in difficulty and commitment. Also On the Chief, Sonnie Trotter put in a two pitch 5.9 finish to the Squamish Buttress called Butt Face, making a great moderate route to the top. Speaking of moderates, Slab Alley 5.9, one of the first climbs on the Apron got a big overhaul by Anders Ourom, and Kris Wild cleaned a new start to Calculus Crack 5.8. eliminating the bushy tree climb at the bottom.

More committing climbs have been put up on the North Walls and Slhanay including The White Feather, 5 pitches at 5.11d with reportedly the one of the best pitches in all of Squamish.

On the sport climbing front new bolted lines have gone up at the Pet Wall including the four star Underwire 5.10d/5.11a put up by Chris Small. For full on sport climbing the Chek area north of Squamish remains the place to go.

Lots and lots of new boulder problems have been established in the last year. Definitely check out Marc Bourdon’s book Squamish Bouldering Guide, Second Edition. It came out last year and is a brilliant and comprehensive book on more than 2500 problems.

Phew, that just starts to scratch the surface as far as new routes go. Check the new routes/cleaning thread on the forum for more info on the routes mentioned and many others.

Now to look ahead to events and happenings this summer. The highlight is going to be the Squamish Mountain Festival July 13-17. Every year this celebration of local climbing culture and international gathering gets better and better.

Speaking of culture, last year Live at Squamish had it’s debut. And by all accounts it rocked. This year the music and art festival is gearing up for even more fun and great bands. The lineup this year includes Weezer, Metric and Major Lazer. Needless to say August 20 to 21 is going to be very busy in Squamish. You may have trouble finding a campsite anywhere in town. But if you want to climb and take in a great music festival this would be the time to go.

Okay that’s it for now. Have a great and safe climbing season.