Chebacca's 5.10b 3p at Shannon Falls

[quantum7]

Posting this on behalf of a friend involved in this route's development. This route is on the trail up from Skywalker and goes at 10b

"Chewbacca's!
This route is on Gobsmacking wall at Shannon Falls and I think its real swell. I spent somewhere over 200hrs digging and cleaning it over the last year or so. The idea to clean up "Snot" came from Bryan Kent, and he did all the sketchy logging on the route and spent a few solid days cleaning up there. Jessica Taylor created retaining walls and stairs at the base area and Joel Beckmann and Taran Ortlieb did a little brushing and ushbaing with me too. Check out Josh Smith as he styles up pitches 2 and 3. Oh yeah, and get out there and climb it!"

[mcfly]

Climbed this 2 weeks ago and thought it was great!
Excellent trad climbing with nice belay ledges atop each pitch.
Thanks everybody for the hard work involved in cleaning this line!

[hans]

I climbed this yesterday, and it is awesome.

Pitch one climbs easy ground to a steep off fingers/thin hands crack finishing at a small ledge with two belay bolts. Graded 5.10a on the topo and this seemed about right. This felt like the hardest pitch to me, though perhaps because I wasn't warmed up yet.



Pitch 2 climbs a slightly flaring chimney that protects very well via a crack in the back, finishing on a large ledge with a great view of Howe Sound. Two bolts for the belay. Graded 5.10a which may be right, but felt at least 2 grades easier than the final chimney pitch on Sunset Strip.





Pitch 3 climbs a steep crack (hands/fingers) that angles up and right. At the top of the crack a couple moves left gain a featured slab past a bolt. At the top of the wall the angle eases greatly, and an easy slab gains a tree belay by the Skywalker descent trail. Great pitch. Graded 5.10b but felt easier than pitch 1 to me.

Walk down the trail to the right to get back to the base of the wall.

All pitches are fairly short, and pitches 1 and 2 would link easily. A single rack to 3 or even 4, with double BD 0.5 and 0.75 would protect the route well.

The route developers did an outstanding job cleaning the route. My wife and I really enjoyed it, and our only thought was that the route would benefit from rappel anchors, and could have finished at the top of the steep part of the 3rd pitch.

Thanks to all involved for the hard work.

[cramhead]

I climbed the route yesterday. It's excellent! Thanks for putting it up.

If there is any commentary I could offer it is that on pitch 3 it would be great if there was a bolt accessible while standing on the small ledge after traversing leftward from the rightward trending crack. I ended up taking a pretty good pendulum fall on first attempting the traverse into the leftward facing dihedral. As it was, my helmet took the blow, and I still have my nose. I would be happy to contribute a bolt if the setters were so inclined.

[hans]

I stood on that ledge for a while before I was willing to commit. I remember thinking that the fall would be a bit ugly.

There is a good but somewhat hidden hold on the left facing wall (left of the ledge, right of the slab) that makes the move to the bolt ok.

[t-bone]

I did this route last week and concur with the other posters - it's an really good climb with a couple of excellent pitches. Yet another new 4-star 5.10 route!

p1: Some easier climbing leads to a short steep finger/hand crack.
p2: Grind up the wide flare with excellent pro in the back of the crack. I had the opposite experience to a previous poster and thought this was tougher than the final pitch on Sunset Strip (which I thought was 5.9). I think 10a seems about right for this pitch
p3: The money pitch, imo. Steep, but excellent finger locks lead up to and airy, right-trending crack. The step across is a bit spooky but once you commit the move is actually pretty easy. I can empathize with the previous poster about having another bolt but am torn as adding one would make it a bit of a bolt ladder. That said, it is a bit of a pendulum fall. I actually felt the crux on this pitch was the right-trending crack, not the slab move at the top.

Thanks to those involved in the cleaning effort.

[squamishbeta]

Excellent route and a great cleaning job. Highly recommended!
Glenn Woloski

[tendollarpants]

awesome. rad. fun. I had a great time on this yesterday after work.
P3 & the chill ledge up top is a great place to watch the evening light in squamish (and the thunderstorm rolling in from the N).

the walk-off is in pretty good shape from all the traffic coming down from Skywalker.

[tobyfk]

Really nice route, great work by the developers.

There's now a stuck DMM offset nut on pitch 3 ... probably extractable for anyone with a nut tool (we both forgot to bring one up the route).

[andypl100]

Great route. Nice, steep climbing and a fun departure from the frequent "fingers-in-a-corner" pitches at Squamish.

While I didn't feel a bolt was needed for the step-into-the-corner move, I did feel like the bolt you clip once in the corner was oddly placed. It is way out left, and a fall from the exit-move out of the corner would almost assuredly end up flipping someone upside down since the rope runs behind them and way left to the bolt. Just my two cents.

Thanks for the effort and great route!

[tedium]

I was also concerned regarding the placement of the bolt on pitch 3 but did not want to be a whiner. In addition to the previous comment regarding a fall from above the bolt, clipping this bolt on the left is difficult as it requires pulling the rope across your body (with a fair amount of rope drap even if you did use long slings to protect the right-trending crack). A placement on the left-facing wall seems much more logical and would avoid the risk of flipping the climber if he/she fell at the crux.
Having said that, this is a great climb and many thanks to those who cleaned it up!

[hans]

Don't add a bolt! Please.

It's good the way it is.

[J Mace]

Regarding the P3 bolt, both of us just climbed straight up to it from below, there was no issues with ledges or swings. We had no topo so we didnt think to go right there and step back again...

Thanks for the good route, and I thought the chimney was far easier than the parallel passages chimney.

Cheers

J

[Kyle]

When I led the 3rd pitch, up at the move where you go from the right crack to the left below the bolt, I seen a sneaky yellow tcu placement at my feet which kept the rope in line below me for the moves up to the bolt. Those moves proved to be much easier after discovering a nice little crimper. Each pitch in my opinion deserved about a grade lighter than stated. Still a really great route. It would be nice to rap it from the lip of the third pitch rather than have to walk around though.

[jstod]

Really fun route - thanks to those who cleaned it up!

Julian