The story behind Squamish route names

[squamish climber]

On another thread Tenn offered up a story behind the climb Even Steven.

Even Steven definitely deserves mention and more traffic. Heard an interesting story about the origin of the name of this one...Apparently the first ascencionist had spent the spring scrubbing up bop till you drop at the cirque but then got called away to work before climbing it. When he returned he learned that a friend of his had gone and done the first ascent of it while he was away. He was choked, to say the least, as he had put in a lot of work into this quality line (has this one been mentioned on the list??). Some time later while climbing at the pet, the guy who had done the f.a. of bop came up to the guy who had scrubbed it and said he had something to show him. They walked down to the lower pet and there was a freshly excavated and cleaned crack line. The route was offered up to the guy who had scrubbed bop. He sent it, claimed the f.a. and named it "even steven" as the score was now settled.

Cool story. I second the comment from slopr that it would fun to hear the story behind some other Squamish climbs and how some of these pitches came about.

I've heard there is an interesting story behind the FA of Genius Loci but know nothing more than that.
Here are some other climbs I would like to hear the back story to:
- Neat and Cool
- Man of Leisure
- World's Toughest Milkman
- Cruel Shoes
- Daily Planet
- March of the Kitchen Utensils
- Penny Lane
Can anybody provide the background on these climbs? I know some of these names come from pop culture, literature and music but I'm wondering about the reasons for giving these climbs those names.

There are many other climbs that going by the name alone suggest an interesting story. So post up if you have some stories to share.

[BK]

HaHA!!!! March of the Kitchen Utensils is really a good one! It commemorates the first nude ascent of Diedre one fine busy weekend when the protagonists had to speed stem past the usual line up of parties. They wore paper bags on their heads and carried a rack of Kitchen Utensils!

The individuals shall remain nameless but are now considered pillars of the community. (hint: one has a kid making him proud, another takes the road less travelled, and another prefers to swim.

a few more to add to the list:

mouth full of dead eels
smell of fat chick
loggers are people too
chemical Nazi
Anders Bum
Mad englishmen and dogs

[thebigchin]

Neat and Cool was spray painted on the cliff at the time. I think you can still kinda see it.

[rolfr]

I can help you with " The Smell of Fat Chick" FA Randy Atkinson, play on words "really randy"

Anders Bum aka Seasoned in the Sun, FA Anders Ouram. Also his classic Question of Balance on the upper Apron , first done in EB's was also known as The Birdwalk. Penny Lane may not be as obvious to the younger crowd, a Beetles song and another Anders classic.

Man of Leisure, Glen Payan did the FA in a cheap leisure suit , i think one of Kevin's older guides has a photo of this.

Worlds Toughest Milkman is the Reid Fleming comic book. http://www.reidfleming.com/rf01.html

I think the best route names are the double entendres, or innuendos where only a some people recognize the alternate meaning. Eg "Sticky Fingers" a nice finger crack and where someone stole my fixed rope .

The list goes on; A Cream of White Mice, a play on words for the British classic A Dream of White Horses" and my personal favourite put up by my friend Ian Wigington. Walker on the Wild Side at the Senior Center.

Half the fun of putting up new routes is naming them.

[BK]

Out of the same comic comes Mr. Crabbe, Mr O' clock and The horrors of Ivan. The Worlds toughest Milkman was a favorite of Mr. Croft. I didn't know that the comic was found in the Georgia Straight, along with such superb works as Harold Head and The Fabulous Fury Freak Brothers. This was when the Straight was a respectable counter culture rag and not the limp, effete liberal commercial twaddle of today.

The story of Loggers are People Too, Strawline, and (more to the point) Mears Island would be best told by a real logger. It is a story of proper blue collar route wrangling. If someone is looking to renovate some really fine but neglected rock these would fit the bill

[Tenn]

What about pipeline? Done first as an aid route with sawed off chimney pipe as pro. Apparently the FFA wanted to rename it pipeloads...

[squamish climber]

Funny story Bruce, about March of the Kitchen Utensils. I had never heard that one before. And Mears Island and Loggers are People too bring back memories of a different time when things were a lot more polarized and the 'war in the woods' hit close to home for many people in Squamish.

Rolf, Sticky Fingers has a whole new meaning now -- Definitely a double entendre.

Please keep them coming.

[slopr]

Rolf, Sticky Fingers has a whole new meaning now -- Definitely a double entendre.

Please keep them coming.

Totally, i always assumed it was named after a girl

[scrubber]

Once upon a time, back in high school, a good friend of mine had a girlfriend. That was good, except that she would prefer that he spent his weekends with her, instead of driving away every Saturday morning at 4am with me and our other friends to go skiing. (The focus of our universe back then, followed closely by losing our virginity).

Try as she might, the icy hills of Quebec, New York and Vermont usually won out. Well, this girl did have a few good qualities. The most notable of which that I can recollect was her ability to put together amazing mix tapes for almost any occasion. So when we would blaze out of town in the wee hours of the morning, usually on a Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut induced buzz, we would usually be rocking out to one of her mixes. Even years after they broke up, her best tape was still played every weekend. The name of that mix tape was The Ultimate Everything.

K

[staven]

Great stories. I love hearing the history of climbs I've been on or looked at in the guidebook before going to sleep at night. Anyone know the history of Spiderfly - the McLane guide hints that it surrounds a famous Squamish legend.

[Dru]

If I recall this story correctly, Luc told me "Under The Gun" refers to the 1990s false rescue when SAR and the RCMP got called out after a tourist mistook a haulbag left fixed at the highpoint of an aid route for a climber who had fallen and wasn't moving.

[damien]

This is becoming one of my favourite threads. It is great to learn the history of the climbs.

[squamish climber]

I was hoping Anders Ouram would jump in here, hopefully he will, because he's got a lot of this already down. In the meantime, with full credit to Anders and his thread over on supertopo here is little more history on route names:

Neat &Cool: Yes it does come from graffiti but part of it is missing . It was painted by a Squamish high school student, and said “I Am Neat & Cool”. The student, named Paul, later took up climbing, and was possibly the first born and bred Squamish climber. - source Anders Ouram on Supertopo.

Still waiting to hear the story about Spiderfly.

[BK]

Paul Kindree? I didn't know it was him. He's famous for all kinds of stuff. Running Squamish SAR for years, Starting corsa cycles, doing unroped cartwheels down diedre, using kitchen Utensils for pro...

[BK]

I thought of another one - Altered States on the Backside trail.

There's nothing like a little judicious pitoning to "soften" those gnarly cuticle rippers

ah... another would be Dora's Delight, which I'm sure can best be imagined