Liquid Gold

[J Mace]

I believe this route was cleaned up a few years ago ? Saw some traffic on it on the weekend and it looks spectacular. Anyone have an online topo they can post up?

If not is there a hard copy at climb on?

Thanks

[Optimally-Primed]

Climbed Liquid Gold this weekend. *Great* route. The last pitch is one of the best 5.10 crack pitches in Squamish---70m of 5.10+ hands and fingers.

Here's enough beta to get you up there. Gear: doubles to #3, one #4, optional #7.

Approach via the campground. Hike along the base, and keep an eye out for a place where you can either continue straight (beneath a boulder) or scramble 5m up to some trees. Scramble up to the trees, and you'll see a cleaned, shallow, left-facing corner.

P1. Up the corner (maybe a move of 10b or c) until it starts arching left. Finger traverse a dyke going rightward (10+?; 2 bolts). then build a gear anchor in the corner beyond. 40m or so. Good pitch.

P2. Up a corner that jogs left a few times at roofs. I found one move to be hard (5.11?)... pulled on a cam and was back in the 5.10 business. Not the greatest pitch... There was another option for this pitch that looked like it may have been cleaned: Step left on a ledge and climb a shallow corner crack. Dunno. Didn't do it. 20m or so.

P3. Up into a chimney, which turns into a squeeze/wide offwidth. Maybe 10b. Bring one #7 camalot if you're not solid on squeeze chimney/offwidths. Above, climb some enjoyable face cracks to a major treed ledge. 30m or so. Good pitch.

P4. Climb stellar cracks, with several crack switches (moving right). Lots of hands to fingers climbing. 70m exactly... if not 73m. A good foot ledge is available at about 40m with as much gear as you could want in the crack above. Optional belay. Stellar. An instant classic!

We walked off, down a trail, to the right... it involved downclimbing a corner pitch on a fixed rope. A rap there may have made sense. It brought us down to the Slot Machine area... and down.

[Peter]

To descend you can also walk up and to your left, on top of Wild Turkey. There is a station there and 3 dbl rope raps get you down, there all bolt stations so don't get confused by the tree ledges.......

[Brendan]

To descend you can also walk up and to your left, on top of Wild Turkey. There is a station there and 3 dbl rope raps get you down, there all bolt stations so don't get confused by the tree ledges.......

Great. The shoes stay behind!
Thanks

[Optimally-Primed]

Here's some beta on Liquid Gold from a friend of mine... some differences with what I suggested. I'd go with this over my original impression... In the text, "You" is "Me" (Jeremy).
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I thought P1 was the crux of the climb, at solid 10c. I thought your description was a little off, i was expecting to go out R as soon as the crack started trending left and so i climbed straight up where i could have kept on keepin on left for a bit until the bolt was in view. Maybe better to tell folks to go up until they see a bolt on the face above, pretty self explanatory then. After the hard climbing on that pitch i thought it was pretty f---ing run out, albeit on easy terrain, to the next gear in the corner. A fall here would mean lots of missing skin as you slide and bump your way down the slab and ride out the pendulum at the end of a healthy 10+m of slack from the last bolt. Don't fall!

P2 -- after a fine gear belay, we went straight up what i thought was the best line, i thought out left looked OK except for one move of pretty blank looking slab to get to that other corner. Straight up off the belay i thought was about 10a, and the crux of that pitch above i thought was maybe 10b in one or two spots. I belayed at the comfy spot below the OW section for the next pitch.

P3 i went up el offwidth and facing out really didnt think it was so bad, i thought the actual OW/chim part was 5.8 or 5.9, and i had decent gear up high inside, placed and then climbed down and out to get up the wideness. Above that i thought there was maybe a move or so of 10a or 10b, then all was well up the fun top section to the roomy ledge. .

p4 we did in 70m, and was of course the best pitch. I think again maybe it was about 10b or so, harder than the other two pitches due to the sustained climbing. I thought the crux was about 1/2 height as you change from one crack to the next, i was stumped for a bit climbing up and down on the steepest part looking for the obvious step across, finally i just committed and it was fine. The rest of the climb to the top was good. Where the angle eases off a little at about 50m i would consider belaying, not a terrible stance, but a 70m pitch is rare so going to the tippy top was worthwhile. i was glad to belay off the tree but with a long lead to bring me close to the edge because the rope wanted to get stuck in the crack a little right at the top.

A fun afternoon out, it was a little warm so the long pitch was sweaty and slippery on the hands, but so many good jams it was OK.

Descent
Walked off liquid gold climbers R using fixed ropes, pretty easy not to screw it up, rather beaten paths and fixed lines and all.

Gear:
doubles to #3, bring lots of runners (12?) even for chim pitch, smaller than #7 fit in the crack up inside er, i think i had #1 or something but not sure.

[geoffgeorges]

Does anyone know when this got a FFA and by who? And who cleaned it, and when?
I know about Krimo Gold and it's 1st pitch anchor appeared in 2011 or 2012. My understanding is that the original LG start was right of the current start going up left trending finger crack with anchor in the moss above it, going directly into corner of 1/2 moon chimney. And why did they consider it better to finish in the now brushy Vertical Smile? Was the last Liquid Gold pitch vegetated long ago when aided?

[marc_leclerc]

I know that Boyd was on the FFA. Classic line. The last pitch gets 11a in squamish select but i think its mid range 5.10, requiring jamming of all sizes, maybe rope drag and placing gear makes it harder? I'm unsure as I've only climbed it alone.

[slinky]

I agree with Marc that the last pitch of Liquid Gold is way overgraded at .11a - .10c at most.

[Kasper]

After climbing this recently, I would say that none of the grades for this route in the select book are in keeping with the rest of the Bulletheads (Particularly P2 and the mega pitch, though also true of P1 and P3). There's no use debating grades though.

More importantly: The 'original' route I'm referring to above has been much overlooked in favor of Krimo Gold, which is unfair. The original route has very little wide climbing and goes through some awesome water features. Get on it. Just don't bring all the big cams that the select book recommends. It recommends doubles to 5, you can place maybe one 4, and you don't need anything bigger than a 3.
ALSO, the book implies that there is a bolted belay at the top of P2, which there is not. P1-3 are all gear belays.
Some of this information may already be in the update, sorry I haven't bothered to check!

[Kyle]

Good to know. I've been wanting to get on this route for a while. How long would it take for it to dry after the amount of rain we've had lately and with the hot weather coming? Does the third pitch seep bad?

[Kasper]

Kyle, I couldn't say for sure, but we climbed it the day after some truly massive rain came down in Vancouver (I hear Squamish didn't get hit as bad, though it did rain a fair bit there leading up to our climbing day). It was completely dry.
It's a short walk to the base of the climb from the campground, and you can see up into the corner system from there. I'd be optimistic, and just go climb something else if it turns out to be wet.