Powaqqatsi; 5.10d - 7p

[J Mace]

I may check this out this weekend, should I replace the fixed rope ? if so how long does it need to be ?

[harihari]

I may check this out this weekend, should I replace the fixed rope ? if so how long does it need to be ?

I would say probably 20 M or so. If you really want to help, put two bolts in-- it would be very easy to make a short 5.7 or so pitch to get to the ledge where Powaqatsi and Koy. start. And that fixed line that is hanging there is only there to mark the spot-- don't pull on it; it's rotten.

[J Mace]

First off I just want to say this is a great route and the whining that is here is well whining

1) there is no fixed rope to access the route, just walk along te trail to base, about 5 painless minutes from gulley along an old trail.

2) the fixed rope you see across from Rock on Start is not the route just drop down from here and across the wall along trail to base.

3) the trail is best from about 30 m below start of rock on

4) bolting, um its fine we didnt see the last bolt by the sort of loose flake so maybe one bolt too many but come on.

5) "loose flake of death" are you kidding me its fine,

6) route is a a bit scruffy but seeing how we were the second party that day and someone else cimbed it the day before it should clean up pretty quickly.

7) apparently you can link into upper echelon as the party before us was doing

I think this route is graded well, no pitch felt harder than advertised.

thanks for the great route

[paulc]

First off I just want to say this is a great route and the whining that is here is well whining

6) route is a a bit scruffy but seeing how we were the second party that day and someone else cimbed it the day before it should clean up pretty quickly.

7) apparently you can link into upper echelon as the party before us was doing

I think this route is graded well, no pitch felt harder than advertised.

thanks for the great route

Hmmm, I think you were behind us on Sat (party of three?)

Agree, good route, typical for that face, easy cracks, harder face moves, 2nd pitch would be easier if you were tall, but wasn't nuts for 10d. You know everyone loves bolted cruxes, but then again that means that you are face/slab climbing through the cruxes...

Pitch 7 has 10b on the left and 10a on the right, we did the 10b, wouldn't recommend it, there is a pretty dirty section that is the 10b (lots of loose dirt in the crack, roots you can't pull out by hand in the jams. The 10a looked clean and easy (I don't know why we didn't do it...).

Still a fair amount of loose rock on the ledges etc, we knocked a small rock off from the top of 5 with the rope. Route wise it was pretty clean. I wouldn't worry about the "death blocks" but then again, we clipped all the bolts

We didn't actually end up doing upper echelon, we bushwhacked around on Caramba Terrace for a while and got pissed off with it, so bailed for BBQ action. Is there supposed to be a trail from P over to UpperE? We found some flagging, but there wasn't much and it didn't seem to lead anywhere like a trail (even a rough one).

We did as someone suggested and linked 4-5 and 6-7.

P

[J Mace]

Ya that was us, I saw the bush that you guys headed into and I thought you may have some problems but one of my friends said there is/was a trail.

We had problems on the 10 b as well, the 10 a looks good

Cheers

[Mo]

Just spent the morning working on the approach trail to Powaqqatsi and Koyanisqaatsi (which someone should indeed go and clean). The trail is now well cleared and flagged. The fourth class step is cleaned to bare rock and is quite straightforward. As soon as the 'Rock On' trail reaches the South Gully there are two pieces of flagging tape on the other side of the gully leading you across the boulders and up onto the ledge. It's less than 5 minutes. Enjoy.
The flagging on Carramba Terrace is old and starts at the base of the Sherrifs Badge.

[t-bone]

Finally got around to vclimbing this route last weekend.
Thanks to whomever flagged and cleaned up the approach trail - it made a HUGE difference.
Here's what I remember from the route:
p1. (5. pretty non-descriptive short slab and then a scruffy corner.
p2. (10d) Excellent pitch, with great 10+ slab/face climbing. One of the 2 best pitches on the climb.
p3. (10a) So-so. This pitch is over-bolted and imho needs at least 3 removed as they are right beside good gear placement. The final 2 are right beside a bomber handcrack. Maybe there was a flake in there before but its clean as a whistle now.
p4-5 (9, 10d). the 5.9 pitch is pretty good, but the 10d pitch is the money. If you are going for the onsight I wouldn't recommend linking the two pitches. I ran into some rope drag on the final slab (last bolt) and ended up using a quick A0 hand grab to ruin the onsight (gotta go back now). I'm sure if you're a strong climber you'd be fine....or you can easily skip some bolts on the 5.9
p6-7. (5.3, 10a) The 6th pitch is barely a pitch, but the 10a corner is pretty good. We went right based pn previouis posts but the left variation looked pretty damn good.

Overall its a pretty good route (i'd give it 3/5 stars). Its in a location that I'd never visited and there are great views of Rock On and Calculus crack, plus its a quick rappel with a single 60m. Next time I'll bring a camera and a smaller rack (maybe 5 or 6 cams from blue metolius to yellow camalot).

[ryanguy]

Just did the route on Sunday Sept 7th.
Great approach trail, very obvious with a nicely cut path to the open ledge where the route starts.
Overall great climbing with a nice position and good belay ledges. Combining this route with Upper Echelon would make a great day. We decided to try Europa instead to try something new.
p1. decent with some fun moves.
p2. nice moves.
p3. one move wonder but good overall. That flake is still there at the level of the last bolt. It doesn't look like it is going anywhere but it does move and pro wouldn't work in that cracks. The bolt is a little far out left but I assume that the route setters were being extra cautious as with other bolt placements keeping them well away from cracks and edges. Maybe a few too many bolts but that is up to the route creators who don't deserve our criticism.
p4. nice slab.
p5. fun moves in a great position. What a find. We took the advice of doing p4 and 5 separately and it did help.
p6-7. Very worth combining. Took the left variation which was fun and not too dirty.
Easy rap off.
Overall excellent work by Sean and Scott. I'm glad someone finished a moderate route up this wall because it was on my list of eventual to-do's. Anything else in the works Sean and Scott?

[Mo]

Thanks for the kudos!

Work has been done on Upper Powaqqatsi - but it's now open to anyone who wants to work on it. There's some suberb climbing in the five pitches above Carramba Terrace which end on a big pedestal. I was intending to have rap anchors from there and then the route carry on to the top.

Most of the anchors are in place - I'll attach a photo (ovals are the non-existent anchors). The second and fifth pitches will probably be easy to mid 5.11 and the third pitch might be hard 5.11 or harder. Someone go do it!

Cheers


[img]/Users/seanmaurice/Documents/Coastal%20Recreation/Coast%20Climbing/Powaqqatsi/UpperPowaqqatsi.jpg[/img]

[Mo]

The photo is now in the photo gallery under trad routes - let's see if this link works:

http://www.squamishclimbing.com/photo-a ... um=9&pos=3

[jeh]

UE/UE seem to start "across" from Powaqqatsi, and maybe one tier "up" as well - has anyone successfully thrashed between the two?

I will try to flag out a route between them tomorrow (Saturday), if anyone's interested in the link-up.

Watch this space...

J

[Dave Brayden]

I thrashed between the two last year (although I didn't know about Powaqqatsi at the time). There is a tricky step to negotiate, but after that it's open, flat, forest all the way to UE/UE.

There are several dirty and nasty gullies around to the left from where Powaqqatsi finishes. However, the best way might be to head straight up about 20 feet left of the last Powaqqatsi anchor. Last year there was some flagging tape up a dirty and loose gully. I followed it down from UE/UE, but went back up the steep slope by Powaqqatsi.

Have a look, it's definitely possible ... I'm sure that, with some exploring, you could find an easy way up.

Cheers,
Dave

[jeh]

This past weekend we flagged a route from the top of Powaqqatsi to the base of UE/UE.

Head left from the last anchors for a short distance and then go up steeply and cut back right. The forest opens up quickly and about 10 minutes of easy going leads to the start of UE/UE.

The old flagging noted above went to the base of Upper Powaqqatsi. There are anchors all the way to the top (as shown in the photo linked above), but a lot of work needs to be done to get that climbable. However, we managed to traverse over from below p6 of Upper Echelon and piece together the final three pitches.

The P/UE/UE link-up would be trivial, and the UE/UE combo offers options to spread the Apron crowds out. And then there's all the potential between UP and UE/UE...

[Optimally-Primed]

I climbed Powaqqatsi for the first time today. I thought the route was quite interesting, reminiscent of the kind of climbing found on Cruel Shoes. The trail to the base was easy enough to follow. And the flagging from the top of the route to the UE/UE was good enough to lead us there without mishap.

But to be perfectly honest, I worry about the future of this route. We found it in a fairly dirty state. Every pitch had dirt on edges and in cracks (mind you, the cruxes were clean). It's going to take a steady flow of traffic to keep the route clean. So far, it hasn't been receiving enough traffic for this to happen. Hm...

Whether we like it or not, a competition for the rock has begun... between us and the Big Green Machine. And I'm afraid that we are losing the battle.