New routes! new crag! Gonzales Creek area

[slhughes]

aye aye, here's some new action to go at:

'THE FFERYS WHEEL'
located on the hillside above the 'snakes and ladders' slab, one km south of shannon falls. park northbound on hwy99 at the GONZALES CREEK pullout (trashcan and info sign). walk 100metres north and head into the bush just before the 'shannon falls, 1km' sign. at the first hydro tower, head north east and follow the flagged and cairn'd trail up the hill north of 'snakes and ladders'. 15minutes of steep hiking gets you to the FFERYS WHEEL.

this is the steepest part of the cliff band. there is a lot of potential for single pitch routes left of here. likely from 5.8 to 5.12.

routes established:

THE PERFECT WIFE 5.13b/c. FA STEWART HUGHES OCT 2010 25metres
sustained limestone feel, tension and techy power. crux at the end. i may as well tell everyone it's the best sport route around. which it is.
nine bolts, #8 of which is for dogging the crux and wasn't used on redpoint attempts.

THE K-TOWN CONNECTOR 5.13c. FA BEN HARNDEN OCT 2010 25metres
Ben's route climbs the perfect wife for six bolts and traverses left to hanging parallel cracks, clipping three bolts to another anchor. likely this is a more sustained but less cruxy finish to the pw. it looks amazing. ben pissed up it.

THE SADDLE SNIFFER 5.12b. FA STEWART HUGHES JULY 2010 20metres
10metres right and up from the perfect wife this line of seven bolts is very tricky, with devious moves to access the corner. you could say it's reachy and possibly 11d. there is 5.13 just off vertical potential here. i don't think its for me.

i'm going to try and get some more lines in. anybody interested in developing should go up and check it out. you can message me for any additional info. there is lots of rock above this band, visible from the road.
alright, see you later, stewart. kiss kiss

[Brendan]

Stewart, were you able to snap any pics? Sounds awesome!!

[staven]

Nice work Stu, you're an animal. I'll check it out next time I'm up there for work.

[slhughes]

cheers wes.
no pictures yet

[Peter]

If this was on Facebook, I'd tick the "likes this" box.

[staven]

If this was on Facebook I'd throw a cupcake at you.

[Fre]

Bushwacked around your crag today, but more to the right I think, got to the first wall right next to Gonz creek 50m up from the highway and walked up the slope till we saw a huge icefest/rockwall with a couple of neat cracks. Next time I might explore a bit more left of the creek, to see where your new routes are at. Amazing potential everywhere, some don't even need cleaning. Despite finding a frozen shoe and hat, no bolts or obvious (cleaned) routes up high I think

[slhughes]

allright m'dears?

last night i added a new line at the fferys wheel

'Rubble with a Cause' 5.11b climbs a flake system and overhang just right of 'The Perfect Wife'. it's a reasonably good route that will get your guns limber for the 'Wife. seven bolts.
FA: stewart hughes, jeremy blumel

if anybody feels the bolts are inadequate on the initial juggy section, let me know. ok, cheers for now, stewart

[squamish climber]

Stewart, this is great. Would love to see any pics or topos on this new crag. How much potential for new routes do you think this area has? What is the potential for easy moderates?

FYI: I merged your last post with the original one just to keep them together. Thanks to you and Jeremy for your hard work.

Anybody else climbed here? -- post up with your feedback

[slhughes]

aye aye. there's a fair amount of moderate potential left of the fferys wheel, including a 5.10 splitter, marred only by a scramble approach. some mysterion was building a trail that sidles under the fferys wheel and keeps going up a vague ridge with numerous fixed rope sections. i'm unsure of the objective, but it encounters several cliffs above the fferys. there's probably 20+ routes on the cliff band left of where i've worked. no mind blowing lines, though. there's a topo in climb on, but all the knowledge is up here. no photos yet, but a certain photographer was up there with us yesterday cajouling me to 'pose down'. which seemed rhetorical, because i'm in a constant state of pose down. ok, check it ooot. after you checked yo self, of course. stewart

[tobyfk]

allright m'dears?

last night i added a new line at the fferys wheel

'Rubble with a Cause' 5.11b climbs a flake system and overhang just right of 'The Perfect Wife'. it's a reasonably good route that will get your guns limber for the 'Wife. seven bolts.
FA: stewart hughes, jeremy blumel

if anybody feels the bolts are inadequate on the initial juggy section, let me know. ok, cheers for now, stewart

Yes! Could do with another bolt between #1 and #2. Possibly also below #1.

Also a hold came off the crux of this today. Consensus (four people) is that it is now a bit harder than the guidebook grade.

[slhughes]

oh for fucks sakes...

[tobyfk]

Well you did ask ...

I'll do the deed if you like.

[slhughes]

sure, go ahead. thin end of the wedge

[tobyfk]

A handrail up the collapsing ramp on the last few metres of the approach would be nice too.

Eight climbers up there yesterday ...