New Area - Porteau

[sandBag]

Hi Everyone.

I've been busy the last couple of summers and with some help from others, started a new climbing area. The area is just south of the Porteau Rd exit on highway 99. If you are familiar with Deek's Lake trail parking lot you will know where to park already. The 2 crags are located 500m back towards Vancouver and a 5-10 minute hike into bush from there.

To make things easy for me, I have been using projectclimb.com, a climbing route web database to list the crag and route info. Here is the link to go directly to Porteau.

http://projectclimb.com/FE57D2A0AA54832 ... rteau.aspx

Just a couple things to remember when you visit.

• The area is still being developed and please respect the pink tape on projects and any gear/ropes hanging used to establish routes.

• I do my best to ensure loose rocks (if any) are removed. There will be the odd breakage of small footholds and handholds. Where a helmet if you have one.

Enjoy!
Cheers Shaun

[jstod]

Cool!!

[rockandsnowjunkie]

Great! Nice little crag midway!

[rolfr]

How is the development going? Any updates?

[dakine]

Three of us went up there on Sunday and tried out a few routes on the First contact wall and the Watch tower.
It's well worth the drive and 10 min easy hike into the area. "Howe sweet it is" is a long interesting route 35m with two distinct cruxes. I'll be going back to sample the harder lines as soon as I can.

[sandBag]

Hi

Glad to see some chalk on the routes. I took most of last summer off to climb... but with some more help this year I hope to get more routes done and open. So if you see a white Subaru parked on the side of the highway about 600 meters before the Porteau Rd/ Deeks Lake Trailhead parking lot exit, that will be me working on more routes. Stop by and check it out. As Dakine said, its only a 10 min walk in from where im parked.

Cheers,
Sandbag

[bn]

After a few weekends of scrubbing I've finally given back to the climbing community with my first ever first ascent. The line is located at the right hand side of the Watchtower.

The line is called Sewn Up and I reckon it goes at approximately 5.10a. Sewn Up is 26 meters with 15 bolts (13 for the route, 2 for the anchor) and is a friendly route intended for beginners and those still developing their lead head. The climb begins on a large undercling and nicely cruises to a short well protected crux, followed with more easy 5th class climbing.

I've left 2 of my draws at the top until I pick up some rap rings, please leave them there for the time being.

Chalk it up,
Bryson Norrish

[bn]

Sewn Up had it's anchor changed to rap rings today and it's now ready to go. Also, after some additional ascents the consensus is that the route may be 5.10b/c.

[sandBag]

Hi All

Here's a topo of the climbs. It can also be downloaded at http://www.quickdrawpublications.com/Fr ... loads.html to download as well.

So far this year we have added 4 new routes and a fifth is close to being redpointed. There are now 16 routes open ranging from 10b - 12b, 5 10's, 6 11's and 5 12's. Take 10 - 15 draws.

enjoy.
shaun

[squamish climber]

Looks great Shaun. Thanks for developing this new area. Do you have any photos you can post?

[sandBag]

will gets some photos once i stop climbing or cleaning.

I added a bolt to 'I Wanna Be Adored' which makes the variation 'The Poser' - cut left after the 7th bolt instead of the 6th and then climb into 'Charlie Don't Talk'. Probably 10+.

'Power Play' which is left of 'Hold the Line' is open now and goes 11d.

[Uncle Rico]

Way to go Sandbag, great effort there! We are going to climb there this evening actually after 3pm... I will try to take some photos - Rich

[sandBag]

quick update...

1. 'I Wanna Be Adored' can be climbed to the left and then back right between rthe 7th and 8th bolt, thereby avoiding the hard move (harder if you are tall as you need to get your feet high on underclings). It is a bit easier at 11b instead of 11c

2. 'The Rustler' is now 11c after a few more sends instead of 11b.

3. The route right of 'The Rustler' is now open. It is called 'On Edge' and goes 11-. Needs to be confirmed though. It climbs the laybacks and then up the arrete. Gets easier after the 4th bolt. Crux is tenuious and bouldery for the grade. 11 draws plus anchors if you are top roping. there are fixed biners at the top as well.

I will now be giving my attention to the harder unclimbed projects on First Contact and hope to have all routes climbed by the fall just in time for the new Vancouver guide book coming out in the spring.

enjoy.

[dakine]

I'd suggest bumping the grades on the first contact wall for the 11's they all feel about the same to me in around 11c. Solid Gold feels bang on (we pulled lots of rock off) Pre clip the second draw if you don't boulder hard.

[sandBag]

hey thanks for the update.

Those routes have not been climbed in a couple years and I re-climbed A-Team yesterday and feel the same as Dakine. I intended Mr T and Solid Gold to be sticked clipped. So yeah best to do that. I think with some more traffic the routes will clean up better. It is hard to tell what might all pull off. The rock is not the best on First Contact that's for sure but the routes are unique for Squamish as they are steep and bouldery. You definetely need to get your burl on. I got pumped on A-Team as forgot about the hand foot match at the 3rd bolt.

I have worked out the moves for the route right of Solid Gold and should open it up soon. 12b/c I figure. This is being rename to 'Clip Full of Blanks' and should be stick clipped as the crux is right off the deck and comes in at around V4/5.

cheers.