50 Classic Squamish Climbs Poster

[Squamishmonkey]

Back in the winter this forum was discussing a chief poster:
http://www.squamishclimbing.com/squamis ... ght=poster

I decided to take on the task of producing a new Chief poster with 50 Classic Climbs on it. Back in January I flew with a photographer who took high resolution images of every section of the walls. Tim (the photographer) compiled all of the images into one giant montage of the chief. It total we used about 300 images; this allowed us to keep the sharpness of images so you can see individual crack systems, flakes and even a few belays. We then overlaid 50 Classic Squamish climbs, with belays, routes numbers, names, grades and pitches. The whole image was cleaned up by removing, roads, power lines etc.



We then found a printer that could maintain the resolution and printed it as large as he would allow without losing quality. The end result hopefully will get the approval of the Squamish climbing community. There are two climbers on one of the routes...good luck finding them.

All the major climbing retailers in Squamish, Whistler and Vancouver are now carrying the poster. Please take a look and any feed back is welcome.
http://www.50classicsquamishclimbs.com/

Thanks
Eric

[scrubber]

Awesome poster Eric! I bought one the minute I saw it. I can't believe the detail too. The stitching of the images was really well done.

Kris

PS
Waldo and his girlfriend are on the second last pitch of Banana Peel.

[Optimally-Primed]

Great work, Eric! Looks outstanding!

Question for you: You faced the difficult/impossible task of naming "The 50" classic climbs. I'm sure there are 50,000 versions of "the 50". My question is how did you decide which ones to put on? The simple (5 star rule in the Bourdon guide) rule wouldn't work because some of the routes are newer than 2004. Just wondering if you would share with us stories of the process.

Incredible poster... great work!
Jeremy

[Squamishmonkey]

Jeremy,
Selecting the 50? You are right I did not just grab the guide book and copy.
The selection only came down to about 20...i'll explain.

Please remember that these 50 are an opinion just like any guide book and it's stars.

Certain routes are classics with little debate e.g The grand wall,
Freeway, Diedre, U-wall, high plains drifter, AC etc, etc- This came to about 30 in total, giving me 20 to chew over.

Once I had established those on the poster I systematically went through each route on the walls that had 1) good visibility, (Which is why Rock On and certain other gully climbs are missing. 2) excellent situations/features 3) History 4) Outstanding pitches on them (Liquid gold's last pitch etc)

This gave me a list much greater than 50. We almost did 100 Classics but the poster became a blur of red lines and we wanted it to look like a great photo to put on your wall from about 6 ft but work as a guide book from 6 inches. I then looked at a grade spread to see if I was favouring the higher or lower grades and balanced the routes across the faces.
I have personally climbed almost all the routes on the poster and have over the past few years tried to climb as much of the newer stuff as it is cleaned. I also wanted to include some newer stuff that I think will become classics, the feather etc
(On a side note -The Milk road was not finished before I went to print)

The poster was printed digitally five times before going to print and I took it to a few friends who have climbed a huge number of all the Squamish routes. With their input and discussion between my partner and I, we came up with the 50 you see.

I am sure each and everyone of you will have a different 50 Classics which is great as I will be happy if my poster is used in a few heated discussion. You can always take a red pen and add 51 Classics!.

[jipstyle]

This is fantastic ... I'll be purchasing one ASAP.

Thanks!

[timtall]

Good job Scrubber. I didn't see those two on Banana Peel until I had been looking at the images for quite a few days. There are at least two more groups of people on the poster, possibly more but I'm pretty sure I would have found them by now. Has any body found the others yet?

Tim

[Steve Townshend]

I Love it! i too, bought one the moment i saw it in ClimbON. It looks great on my wall!!!

you could probably make a good living doing this for other areas as well. Yosemite, Ceuse (there is an airport right below Ceuse!), Potrero, Red Rocks, etc etc. and it would be one HELL of a road-trip/life-style to do! I'd have to buy a bigger apartment with more wall space!

Cheers!

[scrubber]

How are we supposed to find them with the big red line drawn right on top of them? My guesses are:

P1. Birds of Prey
P2. Cruel Shoes
Group on Memorial Ledge

My eyes hurt...

[jipstyle]

I bought it today at MEC on my lunch hour and put it up in my office for inspiration. It is beautiful .. thanks!