West side of squam river

[gnarnaphobe]

Hey guys wondering if there's any developement going on on all that beautiful rock on the west side of the river? Has anything been documented? In the 2001 edition of the Mclane book it says there's more rock over there than the bluffs and the apron combined and that they tried to get the town to build a pedestrian bridge but it wasnt feasible at the time (pre 2001).

I think an easy access point is nessisary for all that rock, it is severly spread out, but could be and amazing camping destination for climbers.

Has there ever been a tyrolean or any thing, or has all the assents over there been boat accessed? -Would the access society aprover of a fixed tyro? -Would there be insurance issues (or something similar to the first Suicide Bluffs tyrolean cutting)

[Dru]

People get across in canoes pretty well already.

Matt's big roof is over there as is a bunch of other stuff.

http://www.climblife.blogspot.com/

[Tricouni]

And there are the Touch-and-Go Towers for true choss-aholics

[harihari]

And there are the Touch-and-Go Towers for true choss-aholics

twould be brilliant...faces south and all. tyrolean will never happen, though...they are a fair bit of work (physically) esp when they are long.

[squamish climber]

I often look west across the valley at all that rock and yearn to climb some of it. The area seems to have a lot of everything, cracks, off-widths, slabs and of course that monster roof that Matt climbed this fall. Does anybody have any topos of the climbs over there?

I think Squamish West side would be a very positive addition to Squamish Climbing, the district should take another look at a bridge. It would also improve access to beautiful hiking and back country skiing.

The Titan looks like an awesome climb.

Here's a picture, not the best quality but it is shot from the ground looking straight up into the middle of the roof. You have to look closely to see Matt in a green shirt. Source:Gripped.com



Here is the description Matt wrote on his blog

The crag is called Echo Wall and it lies directly across the Squamish River as seen from the Railway Museum in Squamish. The route has 3 pitches. The first is a 5.12a finger crack to the top of a small tower block. From here begins the 60 foot horizontal roof that consists of various sizes of flakes, rated 5.13b. The last pitch is still undone and may be 5.12 up a double overhanging corner.

I have been working the roof as a single pitch from the ground to the chimney at the lip of the roof. This makes for a huge 40 meter pitch rated at 5.13c. The climbing requires skills in sport and trad with chimneys, offwidths, hand jamming, overhead heel hooking, knee bars, crimps, slopers, finger cracks, knee drops and bouldering power moves. The protection is a mix of cams and bolts.

Today I go back for another attempt after a month away. Can't wait to send and share more tales of this amazing line. It is the biggest free climbable roof in the Sea to Sky Area!I have fallen near the end from a gritty hand jam that popped. I wasn't pumped! and quickly got back on and finished making for a send with one fall. This is after about 15 different days on the route with a lot of energy going into aiding it, clearing away loose rock, bolting around scary features and scrubbing, plus working out the endless complexity of the moves while always on lead... can't climb it any other way as it's so steep.

Matt fired the climb in September.

[Peter]

I have thought for years that a proper bridge would be excellent. It would open that side up to not only climbing, but more hiking and mountain biking etc....

[Tricouni]

I think Frank Baumann tried to get the town to build a footbridge across the river (in the spot the old suspension bridge was), but he didn't get too far.

Too bad.

[supafly]

how much does a bridge cost?

any idea on why the request was denied?

we should get some backing behind this, the rock on that side looks amazing and the bluffs are well.. getting pretty busy.

[BlahMatt]

how much does a bridge cost?

any idea on why the request was denied?

we should get some backing behind this, the rock on that side looks amazing and the bluffs are well.. getting pretty busy.

getting busy?

The rock over there looks really good. I always thought there was some land ownership issues, though. Never really investigated.

[Dru]

I've been over there twice. The first time it took Andy Cairns and I 4 hours to get to the base of Echo Wall, in the mid90s. The powerline swathes were horrendous, years of slash piled on slash with no footing. I imagine there's maybe even a trail to the crag now though.

Around 2001 a bunch of us canoed across and hiked the Echo Lake trail thinking we could traverse across from it high up to that big slab with the wide crack you can see way, way up the hillside but the rain came in and we ended up just hiking to Echo Lake instead.

Realistically though there's just as much unclimbed rock on the hillside between Gonzales Creek and the Papoose as there is across the Squamish River, the hike is the same length and distance, and you dont need a boat to get there. It's kinda nice that there are crags on the west side of the Squamish River that retain that real wilderness feeling.

[supafly]

Realistically though there's just as much unclimbed rock on the hillside between Gonzales Creek and the Papoose as there is across the Squamish River, the hike is the same length and distance, and you dont need a boat to get there.

if it's what i think you're talking about, that stuff is pretty spaced out and more elevated i think?

[scrubber]

My understanding of the issues are that it is a significant span for a small foot bridge, ie, you would need towers on each end to get it high enough to protect it from the debris filled flood waters we get here a few times a year. This means $$$$. Add to that the fact that the land on the other side is predominantly a protected area (a step down from a park in my limited understanding) and the managers of that type of area may not want the sheer numbers of people that bridge access would deliver. Others who have pursued this will have far more (accurate) information than I can provide.

I'm all for better access to that area. Having a few more southeast facing crags would be amazing. I have however invested in a canoe so that I can explore over there in it's current state. Cleaning any routes over there that aren't naturally pretty clean seems like a bit of a waste of time in my books. Until lots of folks can get over there easily, anything unearthed will be buried again in two seasons.

If you've ever longed for that huge diagonal crack high on the triangular slab that Dru mentioned, you'll be pleased to hear that you don't need
a whole rack of number 17 Camalots to protect it. You actually can do it with #2's being your biggest size. Looks can be deceiving! It's about as steep as Diedre.

Kris

[squamish climber]

Kris,

More info on routes and that slab if you have it. Any pictures, how many pitches and what is the approach like once you are across the river?

I also heard there is Squamish First Nation reserve land over there. Is that true?
Thanks,
Dave

[Tricouni]

My understanding of the issues are that it is a significant span for a small foot bridge, ie, you would need towers on each end to get it high enough to protect it from the debris filled flood waters we get here a few times a year. This means $$$$.

The old suspension foot-bridge did have high towers. If the town is interested in expanding recreation opportunities, it might want to consider funding a bridge. Ideally I'd like to see consideration given to expanding the Squamish Chief Park to include some of the low, wetlands on the west side of the river as well as the Touch and Go Towers and Monmouth Creek canyon.

The T&TGT are geologically quite special, and they deserve protection before somebody decides to lease/buy the whole area and dig it up for road fill (as they've done at Watts Point).

[scrubber]

The only reserve land parcels on the West side of the Squamish river seem to be Yookwitz IR 12, and Yekwaupsum IR 18. Both of these are farther North than any noteworthy rock. They are both quite small too. The first appears to be somewhere around 50 or 60 acres, and the latter probably closer to 10 acres.

The protected area I mentioned over there is now actually a park. Tantalus Provincial Park and Bald Eagle PP are over there. There is also Baynes Island Ecological Reserve, which is a bit farther North than the rock. It's right across from the eagle viewing area in Brackendale. The land down low near the river appears to be Government property (Crown Land) and looks to have mineral rights claims on it. I have seen old mineral claim stakes over there. How long do those things last for?

As for the big diagonal crack, it is about 60m long. However what you can't see behind the trees is that the crack starts about 30m off the ground. Some nice unprotected 5.8 slab gets you into it. At the crack's terminus, we went up and left to the peak of the triangle via a pitch of unprotectable 5.5'ish slab. I had the delusional idea that maybe no one had ever bothered to go up and do it. Much to my disappointment, halfway up the initial slab in a bit of a scoop I found someone's dropped carabiner of small nuts.

I have no photographic evidence of the adventure because I dropped my camera in the creek in the way back down. It was a really hot day so we decided to rap through the waterfalls of Monmouth creek canyoneering style. There are some very cool water carved rock features and natural bridges on the way down.

Kris