Squamish's stiffest routes...

[largelead]

Astrologger.
Plus now you might get smoked with rock fall! (Up's the stiffness I think)

[Tenn]

What about chimp dip in the bulletheads? Looks hard. Who's done it?

[Brendan]

What about chimp dip in the bulletheads? Looks hard. Who's done it?

Chimp Dip is slightly tricky at the bottom, where it looks tricky.

[cjsknigh]

When I was learning to trad climb, people would always say "watch out for those routes graded 5.9+, they are old-school and often super sandbagged"... While that definitely held true in places out east like Seneca, the New, Ontario, and the Red where I learned to climb, out here in Squamish, 5.9+ is a rare beast... But over the years I've come to treat a new grade with trepidation and respect here in Squamish - 5.11b. Like 5.9+, 5.11b seams to be a grade that hasn't been properly "upgraded" to account for the softness of today's climbers. That's not to say EVERY 5.11b in Squamish is hard for the grade - it's a total crap shoot. But when I'm getting on a new 11b, I always get mentally prepared and try to bring my A-game. I have noticed that a disproportionate number of these were put up in 1984...

Some examples?
Never Say Never - Gobsmacking Wall
- this is the climb that really "tipped" me off to the 5.11b grade. When I first got on it I had no idea that 5.11b was code for "f-ing f-ing hard". Galavant up an overhanging corner to a thin hands changing corners insecure crux... Then do 25 metres of thin face climbing with like 5 pieces of micro gear. I've been back (twice) to try to send it. The last time I got through the crux only to blow it on the upper part. An AMAZING pitch, one of the best in Squamish.
The Scimitar - White Cliff
- I went up to White Cliff a few times to try to learn how to climb offwidths. I didn't.
XTC Crack - Slhanay
- a recent addition. Maybe because it was sopping wet, but this seamed to deserve being on the list, and it wasn't even FA'd in the 80's (though Andrew Boyd routes deserve their own kind of trepidation in my experience)
High Plains Drifter
-well, it was graded 11b when I did it.
Astrologger - North Walls
- the king of sandbags. I fought my a$% off on this one, got within sight of the anchors, pumped silly and above my gear, took a massive wailing lob into the corner below. Then several more trying to get to the anchors. Amazing pitch!

Honourable Mention - incorrectly graded 5.11a
Wild Turkey - Bulletheads
-yup, definitely 11b.
Evaporation - Crystal Wall

[maurop]

Has anyone mentioned Orphan at Murrin? Probably the stiffest 5.8 I've done in squamish. If it were a person, it would be the manliest 5.8 of them all, putting all other 5.8's to shame (in squamish), making them feel inadequate. It shames a few 9's and 10a's as well.

[scrubber]

Since re cleaning Moovin to Montana last spring, I had worried that the first 5.10 pitch might now be significantly harder. I decided to remove a burly little bansi of a cedar that you previously had to reach to, mantle, then tiptoe off of. What resulted was about fifteen feet of tips jamming in the corner with nuts and #0-1 TCU's.

Yesterday I got the chance to lead it for the first time since cleaning it. I think it can still barely hold on to its 10d grade, but prepare for battle! Great climbing, great pro, and a solid tick for the grade.

K

[Kyle]

When I climbed this a few months ago I'd say that the 10d pitch on Moving to Montana felt harder than the 10d pitch on milk road in my opinion. The lower moves off the bolt were real stout too.

[pbeckham]

How about that first pitch of Movin' to Montana?
It used to be an 11d RP battle that made the rest of the route feel easy by comparison.
Do they make widgets small enough to cram in there or is it still small brass?

PB

[scrubber]

It's still almost all brass, Perry. My recollection is that there are just a few small TCU placements, but nothing larger than a blue metolious. That pitch is quite scruffy right now, unless someone has brushed it in the last couple of months. Its fantastic in its own right, but I don't expect to see many folks doing all five pitches.

K

[joewtc]

I find Placebo 11a at Sanctuary Basement pretty stiff.
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/placebo/107539188

[Peter Kriss]

Chimp Dip is slightly tricky at the bottom, and yes, it always is unless u knw hw to deal with it. Though I am own a moving company, I have been a climber myself for over a decade and I know how it wrks.