A cold day in Squamish

We pulled into the Grand Wall lot at about 12:30pm; I was glad for my four layers as we made our entrance into the shaded forest, setting up near Superdyke (V3) to warm up.

We hopped on Dyke surfer (V0) as a warmup, and I admit that I felt a little weak. The rock was cold, and I worried that I'd slip on the top-out. But we continued on. Off to Largonian Bulge (V2), which I'd last tried years before when we first came out to Squamish. I remember that we were regularly sending V4s and a few V5s, and we were shocked that the V0s and V1s would spit us off so callously. Largonian Bulge was then a V1, I think, and it just epitomized the shock we felt upon moving onto real rock.

Flash forward to today, and I dispatch it with ease. Despite what I felt those summers ago, I would comfortably say that the grades do match well enough.

We then moved around to look at Slave to the Pushers (V5) with another pair of climbers. It's a burly, somewhat awkward and slappy climb, in many ways typical of the problems in Squamish. We worked on this while Kasper and Daniel worked on the hardest V3 in Squamish, the aforementioned Superdyke. A few tries in Slave is sent, but Superdyke resists all of our efforts.

Daniel and I quickly mopped up Palminator (V4), the left-hand cousin to Easy in an Easy Chair (V4), and we moved on to look at Lounge Act (V6), which Kasper wanted to try to send.

After setting up in one of the nicest spots to watch a climb, Kasper shows us the beta, and Daniel promptly flashes the climb. A few tries later, Kasper and I both desperately send it, and we move on below to try out the juggy Swank Stretch (V5). When my turn comes, I pull on, reach up left to the finger slot, hoist up and out right... and stick. Up the the jugs, and out--flashed! A while longer as each of the other climbers make their sends, and we move on to the project of the day.

Worm World Cave (V9). No luck on this, but we make a lot of good progress in terms of the first few moves. It'll go, it'll go.

We looked at Corrupted (V7), which seems quite tricky: There is a match on a hold barely large enough to hold three fingers, and then the crux move of a big swing out right. Sadly, none of us were able to send this either.

Packing up, we quickly stopped off by Trad Killer (V4) which I happily flashed, and then out through the talus fields home.