New moderate multi pitch route at Check canyon, Sacilege

[Craig Mcgee]

There is a fun new moderate multi pitch route at Check canyon.
The route is called Sacrilege, a three pitch 5.10a. The route starts between the Toxic lichen wall and the Circus and climbs up the obvious left leaning, 5.8 bolted crack (Sacrilege). The second pitch goes at 5.9 and the last at 5.10a. The rappels from the last pitch go over the "Thin ice" roof, very cool and airy!. Caution a 60 m rope is mandatory to rappel off. Check out the link below as there is some very crucial info for the rappels

Conny Ameluxen, Craig McGee and Andre Ike extablished the climb over the past two weeks with the continued generous funding and support of the Canadian Forces Troops. The troops that have been training in the Squamish area for the past couple of months and have been very helpful in utilizing us guides to replace dozens of bad anchor and bolts throughout Squamish.

We also have replace a some of the anchors and bolts on the Circus and chained some of the bad draws that were in need of a bit of a retro.

Have fun. Craig

[/http://www.flickr.com/photos/23408544@N04/?saved=1]

[Craig Mcgee]

Oops, I hope this link works better

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23408544@N04/3706126026/


www.flickr.com/photos/23408544@N04/3706126026/

[Axel]

Cooool!

[woeisme]

A fine multi-pitch addition to Check with even better value than Charlotte's Web. Three totally different pitches with each progressing in grade from 5.8, 5.9, to 10a. The third pitch is a beauty, sustained at 10a through half its length. And the final rappel from the roof of "The Circus" wall is airy indeed.

[ras]

Check out the link below as there is some very crucial info for the rappels

Was up a few weeks ago, route was fun, but I had a bit of a mini epic.

Is there any reason that the first rappell anchor can't be at the ledge on top of the big slab, directly above the second rap anchor? It would be directly underneath the final anchors, then, and all the rap anchors would be in straight line.

For your amusement, and to reinforce the "bring the topo" message, what happened to me is I'd read the topo a week before, knew there was a short rap in the middle, but thought the rap was from an anchor on the top of circus to the middle of circus wall.

Anyhow, I didn't notice the rap anchors when I was climbing the route - they are in a bit of a hollow 10 feet out to the left of the route, and at a point where I was laybacking a thin seam and had my back to them.

I missed them on the way down, and ended up a metre short of what turned out to be the second rap anchor. That didn't work. I saw all the bush cleaning and disturbed soil, so I tried going left and ended at an anchor on top of the main event. I could reach it... but just barely, and the rope would have bungied out of my hand after I'd transferred to the anchor... it was obviously not the right way.

So, confused, I decided to jug up the vertical wall, get back on the route, and set an anchor off a few bolts on the 3rd pitch. As I did this, a 2 bolt anchor came into view. But the hangers were stripped from it! Aha, at that point I thought I saw how things were supposed to work, and was cursing whoever had damaged the route like that. Anyhow, still no choice but to jug and improvise an anchor.

Then, as I got close to the stripped anchor, I realized that there was a second anchor a few feet to its left... but not visible from below because it was in the back of a hollow over a ledge. No problem, a hard push, and a bit of a run, and I swung over to the anchors, and we were all good again.

Anyhow, it looks like there is a good ledge 15 feet over and 15 feet down from the current anchor, thats in a direct line from the top of the route to what is the second rap anchor, would be impossible to miss, and would be reachable even with a 25m rope.

[Craig Mcgee]

Yep, we thought about that spot. We thought the rope that would be getting pulled down would get stuck in the trees or whip over the edge of the Circus and possibly hit someone climbing. From were the station is now it solves both of these issues, but it is a little bit of a swing to get over there. We thought this would be an obvious spot, but maybe we should re-think were it is, anyone else out there done the route and have some feedback? How about the grades? Craig

[pinner]

Did the route today - what a blast! The beginning, cruxy section of pitch 2 is really nice, and the third pitch is also stellar.

The grades seem pretty spot on to me.

I believe I clipped 14 bolts on the 3rd pitch, where the topo says 13? glad I had the extra, which I planned on clipping the anchors with...

We skipped the second station on rappel, stretching our 70m rope straight down. When we pulled the rope it whipped down hard. I can definitely see some problems arising here with newer climbers on busy weekends, whipping ropes and maybe knocking rocks off on groups below. Great job cleaning though guys - not much there to knock off!

The ropes would definitely have bungied up without being careful.

The second rap station, which we didn't use, was very visible on both the climb and rappel - tough to miss - but I also had read ras's post, and was keeping an eye out.

I glimpsed another bolt on the arete from the final anchors, out right from Sacrllege - another route going in? Can't wait!

[ras]

Yep, we thought about that spot. We thought the rope that would be getting pulled down would get stuck in the trees or whip over the edge of the Circus and possibly hit someone climbing. From were the station is now it solves both of these issues, but it is a little bit of a swing to get over there. We thought this would be an obvious spot, but maybe we should re-think were it is, anyone else out there done the route and have some feedback? How about the grades? Craig

I can see your point. I wasn't thinking about people on the circus below, since it was a weekday, totally empty. Ropes whipping could be an issue, but its pretty overhanging up there. The rock is super clean, doesn't look like pebbles will come down. I don't think the ropes would get caught in those trees, though, and since the trees would be below the anchor station, it would be no worse then every time you pull ropes and they decide to wrap around some unfortunate cactus.

As for the grades, I thought they were bang on, too. And well protected for folks who climb at that grade.

The climbing is better than Charlotte's Web, IMO, though the view isn't as good as Star Chek, thats hard to beat! Nice to see more multipitch sport out here.

Thanks for all your work putting this up, Craig.

[Sunday]

Chek'd out this route today ... ha .... it was a good time. Kinda wierd climbing a bolted crack in squamish, but I guess it goes with the territory. Whipping ropes is definetely a concern, what is the walk-off like? I didn't see any flagging tape - although I didn't look too hard.

[corn_dog]

I thought you were happy you didn't have to look like a weirdo carrying the trad rack around at chek! Or that's what you told me!

Dan

[corn_dog]

Oh yah and it was awesome.