“If you climb offwidths often enough, one of these days you’re bound to get your knee stuck and shit your pants. It’s an odds thing.”

There are eight new routes at the Waterline walls in Castlegar you should know about including a 5.12/13 tour de force put up by Mirek Hladik on the Valhalla Wall. For access directions to Waterline, see page 47 of the West Kootenay Rock Guide. The Raven Wall See page 47 of the guidebook. Lauryn’s Line [...]

Rik and I visited Waterworld for the first time a few weekends ago on Vince’s recommendation. He was right, this place is unlike any other climbing destination in the Kootenays. The rap-in approach is an adventure in itself, one minute you’re walking through the woods and then bam – you’re a hundred meters above Lake [...]

Since there appears to be some interest in Lakit Lake, here are some pix from last summer, 2009. I headed over to Cranbrook with some of the Creston lads, Justin V and group members Bill M, and Chris H.We met up with Gord McA, local Lakit guru, and one of Bill’s ice climbing partners at [...]

Another good weekend in Arrow Lakes, this time at the newly named Waterfall Walls. Yes, we had rain, and some god-awful  ascending (how do you do this s&*# ?), but the results were worth it: a new trail an exciting via ferrata progression on Aaron and JT’s big roof route posion ivy for Vince a [...]

I’ve never considered myself a masochist, but then again, I’ve never climbed polished, featureless sandstone before. Last fall, David Wolinetz, Sonja Podstawskyj and I stopped in for 3 days of punishment at Indian Creek, near Moab Utah. Here are some photos of two of the routes we climbed – Super Crack (5.10+) and Fingers in a Light Socket (5.11).

Sonja and I were joined by David Wolinetz for an exciting October in Bishop. We spent most of our time in the Owen’s River Gorge, but took a few days to boulder in the Buttermilks and the Happy Boulders. We also checked out Pine Creek Canyon. Here are some photos:

Dave Jack, Bill Morris and I recently established a new route on Creston’s amazing Topaz Tower. When I first wrote about this area in 2002, I described it as a “futuristic rockclimbing peak”. Perhaps the future is now.

“The leader can’t fall.” “Really? Why?” “You’re wearing crampons on heavy boots, axes dangling from your hands, and  your screw is usually a long way done.” “Ahhh, OK, don’t fall. Check.” David Lussier took Kyle Ridge and I to the Rockies around Lake Lousie for a weekend of not-as-painful-as-I-expected ice climbing. The highlight was Day [...]

In 1994 I camped for a month among the Squamish boulders. I hid my tent near the Grand Wall approach path. Going back, my secret camping spot is now the landing for some world class boulder problems. On this trip, Sonja and I met some friends for a few days in the Boulders and a [...]

Smith is still one of my favourite places to climb and what can be better than 10 days working hard routes with a bunch of friends? Except for David’s 20m ground fall (he was totally okay!), it was one of my best climbing trips yet. Luke Neufeld did his best to send his first 5.13 [...]