Climbing log

Physio, working on healing

2012-02-28T21:32:00.000-05:00

I had my first physio appointment yesterday and hopefully it is a first step toward getting my shoulder fixed up. The plan is to attend physio once a week for the next 6 weeks. The good news is that climbing is ok as long as I don't push it too much.

Shoulder update

2012-02-21T20:43:00.000-05:00

So my shoulder is still less than perfect but I believe some progress has been made. Actually, it is hard to say, since I injured my AC joint on the same shoulder back in mid January after taking a fall skiing. Perhaps, I'm back to square one. In any event I have been back to the gym a couple times.

It is certainly difficult to take it easy at the gym; there are so many problems to try. So far I have avoided anything overhanging by more than 10 degrees unless it is dead easy. On a positive note my fingers still feel strong.

On the medical side I have been to the Medical Sports Clinic in Ottawa where I was told I have rotator cuff tendinitis. I sort of knew this already but I needed to jump through the hoops to get a physio referral so my insurance will cover the sessions. My first appointment is this Monday and I hope a step toward getting healthy for the coming climbing season.

Staying active

2012-01-15T22:50:00.001-05:00

To keep myself from going crazy due to a shoulder injury I have been staying active by cross country skiing. It does bother my shoulder a bit but at least it is a different movement than climbing. Over the past weekend Cynthia, Patrick and I set out from P19 in Gatineau Park for a 12km loop to Taylor Lake. It was a balmy -20 degrees Celsius but with little wind it was a beautiful day. The skiing along trail (parkway) #50 to #55 (Taylor Lake Rd) and then onto Taylor Lake was quite enjoyable with scenic views at Lac Renaud. The loop back along #55 has a blue portion of trail with a very steep section that I took a good fall on but the rest was manageable. The linkup to #51 and back to P19 was a great way to end the day.

Winter blues

2012-01-09T21:23:00.001-05:00

Holy cow, I have not posted in awhile. You know, I have the usual excuses: holiday travels, work, sleep or lack there of, yada yada yada and it has been 1.5 months since I last posted. Now that is out of the way I can talk about climbing.

As always, January is a good time to recount the climbs of the past outdoor season and look forward to the next. Last year at this time I outlined This year's goal. It included getting multi pitch trad experience, well that did not happen. Although I did climb the first pitch of Black and White at Weir, I did not have the stomach to try the upper pitches. However, some of last year's goals were partially met with A visit to Barkeater with Matt in the Dacks, fighting with the Colonel at La Petit folie, part deux with Gen, and a Mid week at Montagne d'Argent battle royal against Coeur vaillant with Pete. And, although it did not seem like I was climbing that much I did manage to climb 70 or so, (non-distinct, i.e. lots of repeats) pitches. For the detailed list see Lists are good, spring season review .

What will next season bring? I'm not really sure. I know I want to continue climbing as much trad as possible which means traveling away from the Ottawa region. I'm not the biggest fan of sitting in a car. Anyway, I should definitely get to Vlad David more and Montagne d'Argent still has lots of lines to try. Of course, a return to Weir is a must and the Dacks too. Perhaps, this year I should make a tick list of climbs to complete ... I'll have to think about that.

At the moment I have lots of time for making lists. I'm currently taking time off from the gym in hopes my shoulder heals. Yep, I was pulling too much, too long and too hard on the same plywood and plastic boulder problems. In the past, this time of year has been dangerous for my fingers: I over did it and That time of year; I had hoped this winter would be different. I guess it is my shoulder this year instead, which reminds me, I should be stretching it.

Guidebook bonanza

2011-11-26T18:15:00.001-05:00

I stopped by the M.E.C. clearance table today to find some awesome guidebook deals. All $5 bucks each!

Warm and sunny at Calabogie

2011-11-06T22:32:00.000-05:00

I met Hedy, Matt and Andrew at Calabogie this afternoon for a short but enjoyable climbing session. For November, Calabogie was remarkably warm with the late day sunshine. Perfect conditions really, awesome friction. Hopefully there will be a couple more days of climbing yet.

What will November bring?

2011-10-30T22:44:00.000-04:00

The climbing days are definitely limited now and winter is just around the corner. With the rain, life and other commitments, October slipped by without much climbing on the rock. As much as I enjoy pulling on plastic twice a week, I enjoy trad climbing that much more.

So, what will November bring? If the weather is good then a couple enjoyable days on the rock would be nice. Keep your fingers crossed.

Fall Classic

2011-10-17T23:48:00.009-04:00

When rain and life gets in the way of climbing there is aways the gym. I started in on the fall classic problems at Coyote tonight and managed to tick off all the easy stuff.

1-10 done
11-20 done
21-30 done (29 is a dyno and took three tries; not my cup of tea)
31-40 done
41-42 and 53 done

I suspect the rest of the 40's and 50's will take much longer to complete.

Update:

I only manage to tick off 44 and 47 on Thursday but 49, 51 and 57 seem do able with a little more work.

Update:

Only finished 59 tonight with 51 and 57 still needing work.

Update:

Ticking off the harder problems is definitely a slow process. After simplely using a lower foot chip, as suggested by Andrew, 51 went down last night. I repeated a number of climbs like 44, 59 and touched the last hold on 55. Problem 57 remains undone but 58 now seems reasonable if I can stick the start moves.

Update Oct 31st:

55 and 60 got ticked off tonight with 45 to be almost a sure send next time. I gave 64 and 62 a few tries as well.

Update Nov 3th:

Well 45 went down but not without a fight; I feel off the final hold three times before sticking it. After that, I work on some other problems like 48, 58 and 62 without much success. I believe 48 will go if I'm rested. It's strange, I felt like I had made real progress in bouldering this year only to be beat down by numerous so called "easy" problems (comp problems in the 40's) at the gym.

Done to date:

1-10 done
11-20 done
21-30 done
31-40 done
41,42,43,44, 45, 46, 47 done
51, 53, 55, 59 done
60 done

Fall weather climbing

2011-10-02T15:10:00.000-04:00

My friend Carla came to visit this past Saturday and get in some climbing before she leaves for Switzerland. It was great to see Carla again. Also, along for the trip was Dan and Mel.

Getting out climbing this time of year is hit or miss and you never know which outing will be the last, so you have to make the most of them. With that in mind I climbed nine routes (not all distinct) in the Western CWM.

We warmed up on North Wall since Carla had not touched real rock in awhile. I lead "Route B", "Route C" and "Still another Climb". Afterward it was off to Cave Wall I lead "Neruda" and followed that with a TR lap, after Carla ran up it, to move the anchors over to Security. My TR lap on Security felt relativity easy compared to past outings. Next up, "Al on the run" which went clean on TR also.

Feeling motivated I then sent "Security" on lead with the first bolt pre-clipped. The bolting on "Security" is from an era in climbing when being "bold" was important. Not only is there a ground fall potential at the beginning but there is also potential for a very serious fall between the second (last) bolt and the anchors. Security is not a sport route. Don't get me wrong though, I really enjoyed my lead. Anyway, we rounded out the day seconding up Mr. Toady's Dihedral after Dan lead it.

Weir, a first look

2011-09-21T09:59:00.003-04:00

OK, I'm way behind in posting this so I'll keep it short. Matt, Andrew, Hedy and I checked out Weir last Saturday. The main cliff is impressive and it is a must stop destination for anyone in the region. Looking at the 80m cliff definitely made any route that I have done at Montagne d'Argent, Calabogie and Gatineau feel insignificant.

Notes:
1) Watch out for poison ivy. If you get off the trail you may find yourself up to your waist in the stuff before you know it.
2) Weir is hot, crazy hot even in September so bring lots of water. I can see climbing there into November if it is sunny.
3) Weir's super fine gain granite is very smooth, almost slick, which can make a seemingly easy looking route into a tricky endeavor. For example, the 1st pitch of Black and White looked straight forward enough from the ground but it turned into a slow grind; a mental battle from the get go. I did manage to get the onsight but it was hard enough to scare me away from the upper pitches. Next time.

Me moving through the crux, P1 Black and White. Photo: Hedy Lau

La Petit folie, part deux

2011-09-13T12:57:00.001-04:00

Boxing or crack climbing during a flood?
Note I'm wearing a different colour shirt too!

I ended up making a spontaneous trip to Montagne d`Argent on Sunday after getting a call from Gen.

Colonel Kirtz, 5.10a, 10m, gear, Montagne d'Argent, La Petit folie

Sept 11th, 2nd lead attempt: I decided to tape my hands for this crack after the shredding I received last time. I climbed clean all the way to the top but I messed up the top out. It will go next time for sure.

Hannibal Lecter, 5.9+, 10m, gear, Montagne d'Argent, La Petit folie

Sept 11th, I cruised Hannibal on TR after Gen lead it.

Diedre Maboul, 5.5-, 17m, gear, Montagne d'Argent, La Petit folie

Sept 11th, onsight: This dirty crack was the warm up and I would not recommend it to anyone unless you like slinging roots for pro. Also there are no anchors so once you have belayed up your second there is a walk off to climbers right.

La paume de Bouddha, 5.10d, 10m, 4 bolts, Montagne d'Argent, La Petit folie

Sept 11th, I worked the moves on lead. It does not feel like a particularly hard climb and I could most likely redpoint it with a few more tries. The hard part is finding reasonable feet between the good holds.

Encore! mon lapin, 5.4+, 20m, gear, Montagne d'Argent, La Petit folie

Sept 11th, I seconded up after Gen lead it and tried the direct start (5.10?).

The Calabogie I know.

2011-09-05T21:16:00.002-04:00

Me leading an unnamed 5.8, 3 bolts + gear

I was at Calabogie today for the first time since Apirl 2nd with large group of Ottawa climbers. I did not lead much, I mostly worked the moves of the direct start to Vulcan Mind and another harder unnamed route. I sent Vulcan Mind clean on my second attempt but butchered the other route. The weather was chilly, windy at times and overcast; that's the Calabogie I know.

Photo by Andrew Pallek.

Looking for rock

2011-09-02T15:01:00.001-04:00

Now that I'm working it seems I have less time to write about climbing. Since my last post I've made a trip to Home Cliff and tomorrow we are going to look for rock in the Lanaudiere area. One possible stop is Paroi du Lac Clair. Hopefully I'm come back with a full report early next week.

edit: I did not end up going climbing but I did do an easy hike in Gatineau.

Raven Lunatics

2011-08-14T23:54:00.003-04:00

I visited Copa Saturday in Gatineau Park to checkout the first pitch of Raven Lunatics. The first pitch is supposedly 5.9 but it beat me fair and square. Here is a photo of me pulling on gear to get back to the horizontal crack after swinging out into space.

I'm not sure the last time someone climbed this route but that horizontal crack is sandbox. All that dirt and no feet pumped my arms out fast. If you find yourself up there, a #3 and #4 BD cam protect the first half of the horizontal. After that, the rock is irregular and I'm not sure it would take a cam so be prepared to climb it out.

There be Goblins, Paroi oblique

2011-07-31T12:53:00.001-04:00

Matt, Andrew and I loaded up Matt's car Saturday morning and headed to Montagne d'Argent. I really did not have plan on what I wanted to climb; I was just looking for a day on the rock. After some discussion we decide to checkout the L'hippocampe area which works with my Montagne d`Argent onsight policy.

(left) Andrew Chill'in at the base of Wunderbar. (right) Matt moving up the beginning of Gobelin

As per usual, the climb I was thinking of warming up on, L'hypothenuse 5.7+ trad, was being climbed so we continued over some boulders toward the next crag called Paroi Oblique to have a look at Gobelin 5.7 trad. While traversing over the rubble I lost my footing. I think Andrew slowed me down a bit by grabbing my backpack and I manage to grab the top of the rock as I slid off into the abyss. Not the greatest start to the day. A scuffed side, bleeding knee, shin and elbow and I had not even started climb yet. Anyway, The path up to Paroi Oblique was heavily vegetated and over grown with raspberry bushes. I'm not sure how many people visit this area but given the overgrowth it cannot be a lot.

Me leading up Gobelin

Gobelin, a 18m 5.7 gear route, is comprised of an awkward mix of chimneying, offwidth squirming, chalkstones and loose rock. You will need some big cams on this route, I put in a couple BD #3s and a #4. It would have be nice to have a second 4 instead of having to sling a chalkstone for pro. It was solid in the downward direction but I would not have wanted to test it. This is perhaps not a good route for a new 5.7 climber or a new trad climber. One plus of Gobelin is that it sees almost no sun which makes it a great for hot summer days.

(left) Me looking for holds. (right) Matt in the offwith section of Gobelin and Sevrage's bolt line.

Sevrage, 5.10b sport (5 bolts), runs up the slabby face beside Gobelin. The route is hard crimping with a tricky to read crux between the 3rd and 4th bolt. I downclimbed three or four times to a rest position at the third bolt while looking for holds and working out my sequence. After the 4th bolt the climbing eases on to the 5th bolt and then finishes on Gobelin's anchors. Note that it is a tad run out to the anchors after the 5th bolt.

Next up was Goglu, another 5.10b sport route. The guide shows 5 bolts but there are only 4 over this 15m climb which made it feel a bit spooky. Goglu is totally different than Sevrage. Sevrage is a cryptic slab with little moves on crimps and smears whereas Goglu has an obivous sequence of powerful moves on well spaced holds. Goglu is an easy onsight compared to Sevrage, a fun climb though.

After deciding Oreo, a 5.5 trad route, was too dirty to bother with we TRed Fudge 5.10c. I climbed it clean. I should have just lead it instead of letting doubt and tiredness convince me not too. All and all a good day.

Paroi Oblique turned out to be a fun area which we had to ourselves all day. That is certainly not something you would expect on a long weekend. Also, as I mentioned above, the area does not see much sun and we climbed in the shade all day.

Route finding at the Mills

2011-07-24T22:13:00.000-04:00

While Cynthia spent her Saturday racing keel-boats in a KYC regatta I had some time to kill in Kingston. I had my climbing gear with me so I headed out to the Mills to play on the rock. I had planned to lead solo up a gear route on the Lichen Wall which goes at about 5.7. However on scoping out the base of the climb I was not happy with the ground anchor options. Walking south along the base I found a spot that I believed to be a route and had a good sized tree to provide a solid ground anchor.

The Lichen Wall is 20m or so of featured granite with lots of hollow flakes, shallow cracks and semi detached blocks that would make one question their protection. To add to the fun, as the name suggests, there is a fair amount of vegetation and dirt on the wall.
I picked a line that seemed reasonably clean and started climbing up the wall looking for gear placements. I meandered left and right but did not find many options. What I did place where swallow cams, not a great start. The climbing was easy, 5.5 ish, so not a big deal but I find when I'm climbing alone I have lots of time to think about how bad a fall could be. At about 20 feet I placed a feel good BD #2 cam in a deep horizontal. Sweet this might be a climbable line after all I thought. At 30 feet I climbed above another solid cam only to be stopped. With no obvious protectable line above I decided to down climb and re-think my line. The climbing looked easy enough but I reminded myself that gravity is indifferent to the grade.

Back on ground, I took another look at the wall and decided to re-climb to where the #2 placement was and then traverse. The traverse followed a horizontal and then up to a grassy ledge. Looking up over a small bulge I scanned the wall for a place to top out and notice a nut with a trad draw on it. So I must have be on some route after all. Easy climbing lead up to the nut which looked well placed so I clipped it and topped out.

The nut came out with a small tap from my nut tool. I'm not sure why it was left there and with a draw on it too. I guess someone's second forgot to clean it.

A visit to Barkeater

2011-07-19T21:19:00.002-04:00

Matt and I travelled to the dacks last Saturday to checkout the Barkeater Cliff. I'm not really motivated to write a trip report at the moment so here is a point form version.

Self portrait while climbing Big Bertha

Notes:

We parked in the Rock and River guide service parking lot as in the guidebook.
Approach took about 40 to 50 minutes, 35 minutes on the way out -- guidebook states 25 minutes.
It was a super hot day, the base is mostly shaded but by afternoon we cooked on the wall.
The dacks version of G can vary.
Most hardware looked reasonable although there are a number of spinners

Route attempted:

Mr Clean, 5.9, 60 feet, gear : When we arrived there was a group on Big Bertha so I gave Mr. Clean a go as the warm up. It was pretty pumpy as a warm up and I ended up resting on a cam. For me the crack provided solid hand jams and good gear. I climbed straight in for the most part with a bit of liebacking to get over the crux.

Mr Clean runs up the corner

Big Bertha, 5.6, 60 feet, gear: An easy onsight with lots of good stances to place gear.

Matt on Big Bertha

Fun CiTy, 5.7, 100 feet, gear: Has some wide sections. You can jam straight in or milk the near by parallel crack for hands and feet near the bottom. I ended up doing a lieback near the top to finish.

Fun CiTy on the left | Fun Country on the right

Fun Country, 5.10, 100 feet, gear: We TRed this climb. A hard crux through a bulge with a flared out crack.
Yakapodu, 5.6, 90 feet, gear: I have a story that goes with climb but I'm too sleepy to write about it. It does involve down climbing to the ground from with 20 feet of the top.

Injured climber update

2011-07-13T10:14:00.000-04:00

I got word that the injured climber is still in the hospital but the hope is that he will be able to go home this weekend. His injuries from the fall include two damaged vertebrae, one or more broken ribs, one broken ankle, one sprained ankle and bruising to his lungs and liver.

Here to a speedy and full recovery.

Accident update

2011-07-10T18:09:00.004-04:00

Here is the newspaper article but I would dispute the 20 feet. His third piece, that may or may not have taken any force, was at least 25 feet or more up the wall and he pulled two pieces above that. Of course, this does not matter, what counts is that the article implies he is ok given the severity of his fall.

http://www.pointdevuesainteagathe.com/Actualites/Faits-divers/2011-07-05/article-2631878/Un-jeune-homme-fait-une-chute-au-Mont-Cesaire/1

A short day in Gatineau

2011-07-10T16:39:00.000-04:00

I met up with Hedy and some others for a short day in the CWM. I did the usual Neruda warm up, sent Security on TR and took 2 laps on Al on the Run on TR as well. Al on the run is by no means easy but it is starting to feel a lot less strenuous. Like any route or problem, once you have the beta wired, you can save energy by speeding through the hard parts. If I feel good then next time I'm in the CWM then maybe I'll make a red point attempt.

Hedy send me a couple of photos of me on L'ecaille du dragon, 5.8, 25m, 3 bolts + gear, Montagne d'Argent, Antre du Dragon. Thanks Hedy!

Emergency Plan, do you have one?

2011-07-06T20:26:00.002-04:00

I was climbing with the Ottawa ACC section at Mont Cesaire at Val David this past Sunday. While we were packing up to leave Chico et Valse, a climber fell, pulling two pieces and decked about 20 feet from us. He had fallen about 60 feet onto a blocky ledge at the base of the climb. They were not part of our group. The climber was seriously injured but thankfully remained breathing and conscious through out his ordeal.

Accident notes:

1) Climber was not wearing a helmet.
2) Climb: La Premiere Valse 5.3. Although I believe the climber fell after getting off route; the climber traversed too high. I did not climb this particular route but I did climb La Valse 5.6 directly to the left while an ACC member climbed La Premiere Valse 5.3. I believe the gear on that route is not obvious and if you miss the right spot there may not be any good gear to be found.
3) Two pieces pulled. At least one was a smaller nut (similar to a #6 or #7 sized BD stopper). I'm not sure how much force was on the third piece down, if any.
4) The climber landed at the base of La Valse. Injuries from the impact were severe.
5) The elapse time from the first 911 call to the climber's extraction from the crag was about 1 to 1.5 hour. 6) Chico et Valse does have an access road which the park authorities used to drive the fire rescue team in on. The approach is about a 20 minute walk from the park office.

Do you have an emergency plan? Some stuff to think about:

1) The fewer people you are with the more tasks you will have to handle. This particular climber was lucky to have 10 people, in addition to his partner, on scene. It can take multiple people to help stabilize a seriously injured climber. I was very impressed on how members of the ACC took over and got the situation under control.

At the same time someone needs to call 911, someone else should be calling the park office if there is one and a runner should be sent to meet the rescue crew. If cell service is nil you definitely need a runner.

2) 911 will ask for an address to send paramedics and fire rescue to. The name of the crag/wall/area is not enough. Luckily an ACC member knew the address of the park office so I handed the phone to them.

3) As above, have the number of the parking/park office if there is one; they will be better at coordinating the rescue. This is something we did not have so I ran to the park office to report the accident. After showing them exactly in the guidebook where the accident happened they directed and met fire rescue at the closest access spot.

4) It takes a long time for the rescue to come even in areas with access roads.

Be safe out there.

Slow day in Gatineau

2011-06-11T20:16:00.000-04:00

It was an uneventful day of climbing in the Western CWM today. I grabbed a belay on Neruda from a group of climbers in exchange for Al on the run beta. Then I moved to North Wall and sent routes B and C on lead solo. Route C takes a lot of small gear, all of which felt finicky today.

Lists are good, spring season review

2011-06-08T15:05:00.023-04:00

It is now mid June, hard to believe really, and it feels like very little outdoor climbing has been done. Of course April was a wash with Ottawa setting a new rainfall record and there is a myriad of other reasons (excuses). Bugs and heat being the top two. So it is time to make a list to see where I stand in terms of this year's goals.

From my January 1st post, A new year for climbing:

Get more multi-pitch experience. Go to Weir (Yellow Line, Black and White), the Dacks (Endless list of climbs here) and the Whites Mountains (Moby Grape and may others).
Look for/climb new/old routes at Calabogie.
Climb more 5.10 gear routes at Montagne d'Argent.
Just get out and climb!

Note that I will continue to update the lists as I climb more stuff.
Last Update: Nov 6th

New routes: attempted or completed

Flakely flake, 5.4, gear, Calabogie

April 2nd, onsight

Poussinet / Le lapin au tambour linkup, 5.4, gear, Montagne d'Argent, La Petit folie

May 4th, onsight

Colonel Kirtz, 5.10a, 10m, gear, Montagne d'Argent, La Petit folie

May 4th, lead attempt, fell a couple times
Sept 11th, lead attempt, clean on all but top out

Hannibal Lecter, 5.9+, 10m, gear, Montagne d'Argent, La Petit folie

May 4th, flashed
Sept 11th, cruised on TR

Diedre Maboul, 5.5-, 17m, gear, Montagne d'Argent, La Petit folie

Sept 11th, onsight

La paume de Bouddha, 5.10d, 10m, 4 bolts, Montagne d'Argent, La Petit folie

Sept 11th, worked the moves on lead

Encore! mon lapin, 5.4+, 20m, gear, Montagne d'Argent, La Petit folie

Sept 11th, seconded and tried direct start (5.10?)

Coeur vaillant, 5.10b, 20m, gear, Montagne d'Argent, Le fou

May 13th, lead attempt, fell at crux a couple time, sent clean on TR after lead attempt

La Saint-Ambroise, 5.9, 20m, 6 bolts, 20m, Montagne d'Argent, Antre du Dragon

May 24th, onsigh

L'ecaille du dragon, 5.8, 25m, 3 bolts + gear, Montagne d'Argent, Antre du Dragon

May 24th, onsigh

La Gaillarde 5.8, 25m, gear, Montagne d'Argent, Antre du Dragon

May 24th, onsigh

Conjonction de cellulaires, 5.9, 14m, 5 bolts, Montagne d'Argent, Vertigineux

May 24th, onsight

La Valse, 5.6, 20m, gear, Val David, Chico et Valse - Mont Cesaire

July 3rd, onsight

La Brute, 5.8, 15m ?, gear, Val David, Chico et Valse - Mont Cesaire

July 3rd, onsight

Mr Clean, 5.9, 60 feet, gear, Adirondacks,Barkeater Cliff

July 19th, pumpy warm up; rested on a cam

Big Bertha, 5.6, 60 feet, gear, Adirondacks,Barkeater Cliff

July 19th, onsight

Fun CiTy, 5.7, 100 feet, gear, Adirondacks,Barkeater Cliff

July 19th, onsight

Fun Country, 5.10, 100 feet, gear, Adirondacks,Barkeater Cliff

July 19th, many attempts at the flared crack crux over the bulge

Yakapodu, 5.6, 90 feet, gear, Adirondacks,Barkeater Cliff

July 19th, down climbed to the ground from within 20 feet of the top; it got in my head too much

Gobelin, 5.7, 18m , gear, Montagne d'Argent,Paroi Oblique

July 31th, onsight

Sevrage, 5.10b, sport 5 bolts, Montagne d'Argent,Paroi Oblique

July 31th, onsight

Goglu, 5.10b, 15m sport 4 bolts, Montagne d'Argent,Paroi Oblique

July 31th, onsight

Fudge, 5.10c, 15m sport 4 bolts, Montagne d'Argent,Paroi Oblique

July 31th, clean on TR

P1 Balck and White, 5.9, gear, Weir, Black and White Wall

Sept 17th, onsight

Apportez votre vin, 5.10, sport 4 bolts,Weir, Club Sandwich Wall

Sept 17th, lead attempt, grabbed a draw to clip it - tricky for the grade

unknown, 5.6 ish, gear, Weir, ??? Wall

Sept 17th, onsight

Previously climbed routes: repeats and TRs

Route B, 5.4, gear, Gatineau North Wall

February 5th, lead solo
June 11th, lead solo
Oct 1st, lead

Retro bolted Calabogie Sunset direct, no grade (5.7), 3 bolts + gear, Calabogie

March 20, lead
April 2nd, lead
Nov 6th, lead

New line left of First Flight, no grade (5.8), 3 bolts + gear, Calabogie,

March 20, lead plus a repeat on TR
April 2nd, lead
Sept 5th, lead and TR
Nov 6th, lead

Vulcan mind direct, no grade (5.11+), 3 bolts +gear, Calabogie

March 20, TR
Sept 5th, TR clean
Nov 6th, TR clean, felt like I could lead it although the pro is thin at the top.

Noname between Phaser's on Kill and Beam me up Scotty (11d?), bolts and gear, Calabogie

Sept 5th, TR with many hangs

Left noname slab, no grade (5.6), bolts, Calabogie

April 2nd, lead

First Flight, 5.8, bolts, Calabogie

April 2nd, TR
Nov 6th, lead

Piton Highway, 5.7, 3 bolts + gear, Gatineau, Home Cliff

April 3rd, lead
Aug 20th, lead

Peggy, 5.7, 1 bolt + 1 pin + gear, Gatineau, Home Cliff

April 3rd, TR

Neruda, 5.6, gear, Gatineau Cave Wall

April 17th, lead solo
May 8th, lead
June 11th, lead
July 2nd, lead solo
July 9th, lead
Oct 1st, lead and TR lap

Al on the run, 5.11c, 4 bolts, Gatineau, Cave Wall

May 8th, 2 TR attempts, 2nd go was clean no hangs
July 9th, 2 laps on TR
Oct 1st, TR lap

Security, 5.10d, 2 bolts + gear, Gatineau, Cave Wall

May 8th, 2 lead attempts plus once clean on TR
July 9th, TR
Oct 1st, TR lap and clean lead (1st bolt pre-clipped)

P1 Lollypops, 5.9+, bolts, Montagne d'Argent, Le fou

May 13th, lead

P2 Maudit fou, 5.10b, bolts, Montagne d'Argent, Le fou

May 13th, lead

Krakatoa, 5.9+, bolts, Montagne d'Argent, Le fou

May 13th, TR

Sausages, 5.10c, 5 bolts, Gatineau, Downunder

June 1st, lead

El Ninjo, 5.12a, 4 bolts, Gatineau, Downunder

June 1st, 2 TR attempts, best attempt with one hang

Catwomen, 5.11b, 3 bolts, Gatineau, Downunder

June 1st, lead attempt, hang at 2nd bolt

Route C, 5.5, gear, Gatineau North Wall

June 11th, lead solo
Oct 1st, lead

Main corner, 5.3, gear, Home Cliff

Aug 20th, lead

One up, 5.7, gear, Home Cliff

Aug 20th, lead

"nameless" crack, 5.10b, gear, Home Cliff

Aug 20th, first lead attempt - lots of hanging

Mr Toady's Dihedral, 5.8, gear + 1 bolt, CWM, Reaper

Oct 1st, TR lap

Still another climb, 5.4, gear, CWM, North Wall

Oct 1st, lead

Canoe map

2011-06-07T12:51:00.000-04:00

A route in the Kawartha Highlands.

Being sporty at Downunder

2011-06-02T14:33:00.000-04:00

While trying to decided where there would be the least bugs in Gatineau the suggestion of Downunder was put forward. I'm never super keen on Downunder. I'm not even sure why this is the case. It might be that I really enjoy the challenge of gear climbs or that I like weird far off places but in all honesty it is most likely because the routes there are hard. I'll say it, the routes at Downunder are/can be intimidating. I just cannot get into a sport climbing go for it or pitch off at anytime mind set that is needed to work some of those routes. Anyway, mid conversation Pete mentions that he has never actual climbed at Downunder. Ok, that changes everything.

After a coffee run to Bridgehead, Pete and I head to Luskville. The sun is hot even for 10:30 am and the mosquitoes make themselves known on the approach as we follow the trail from the parking on Hotel de Ville. However, not long after we reach the cliff, the wind picked up and we were more or less bug free all day. Another plus is that the cliff is in the shade until 3 ish making it a great summer destination. It really was prefect conditions.

Being Pete's first time climbing at Downunder there was no question that he would get the first lead on the warm up, Sausages 5.10c. Everyone likes to talk about how easy Sausages is, and is, if you have it ruthlessly wired. It can be another story if you are not a Downunder regular. We are not. The longer you take the more the pump builds; Sausages is overhanging by a good ten feet top to bottom.

Pete cruises through the crux between the first and second bolt, and is clipping the third in good time. Moving onto the fourth the pump and not knowing where to go force him back down. Unable to find a rest spot the clock is ticking and he has to take. After resting and getting some beta from me, Pete clips the fourth bolt and moves to the no hand rest. The rest is a large flake/horn feature that you can mount like a saddle and with the appropriate position (toe hook). Unfortunately the pump is too much and Pete lowers off.

With the rope pulled, it is my turn. I have the advantage of having climbed Sausages a hand full of times so I moved at a good pace to the saddle feature. Relaxed, I can shake out and de-pump. I sort of forgot/messed up the end sequence but pulled it off none the less. With a toprope in place Pete gives it another shot.

After Sausages, I gave El Ninjo 5.12a two burns on TR. All the winter bouldering in gym has definitely payed off as the moves and the crux of El Ninjo seemed much easier than I remember. I one hanged it first go. The key for me, to get this clean, is getting the sequence right just after the third bolt. I like the idea of ground up efforts and this is how I operate when it comes to trad climbs. I lead them when I feel I'm ready. However, for sport climbs at my limit I tend to TR the line first if there is a potential fall hazard. In El Ninjo's case there is a ground fall potential it you try to high clip the fourth bolt during the crux. It is a real no-no. IN fact there are a number of climbs at Downunder where the guidebook states "Fro your safety, clip the ____ (third/fourth) bolt after having done the crux". I have seen people come quite close to the ground, scary. So you got to be able to climb through. If you blow the crux while climbing through there is a big fall that I'm just not willing to take.

I ended my day at Downunder by leading Catwoman 5.11b, although not clean. I put an orange metolius powercam in to protect the moves to the first bolt. On Catwoman, like a number of Downunder climbs, a fall before the first bolt has potential to be very, very, bad due to the landing. Everything went as planned until I got my hands reversed after the second bolt. All well, next time I'll get it right (hopefully). After working out my hands I finish the climb.

So will I return to Downunder this summer? Most likely, Pete needs to redpoint Sausages anyway. The end goal of course would be to climb the Downunder testpiece, Anti-Gravity 5.12c. It would take a lot of projecting work and that really is not my style.

Antre du Dragon

2011-05-24T19:44:00.001-04:00

I have been trying to write this trip report for a couple days but have stalled several times. I'm always debating how much info to included. Does anyone actually want to hear my exacted thoughts as I remember them for each climb? For the most part I write these trip reports so I can look back in a year's time and know what happened on each trip. So I guess it is a personal yet public account of the trip.

Matt, Hedy and I headed to Montagne d'Argent last Saturday with fantastic weather. It was a nice change from the previous week of rain and iffy weather predictions. Of course, nice weather brings more climbers and the parking area was overflowing with vechiles.

After a pit stop at the main hut I sent a text to some other Ottawa climbers who had come up for the day. Word from le Fou was that most of the dry lines where busy. It had rained the night before and many of the routes a Montagne d'Argent take a day or two to dry out this time of year. Cool, it was a good excuse to move on to one of the "out there" crags. I'm an obscurist at heart. It is really easy to climb the same routes over and over at Montagne d'Argent so I have a policy this year of onsight climbing when going there. Walk up to a new route, onsight it, down climb in retreat while removing my gear or climbing it with falls if I want to push it (I have a pretty strong no fall policy) but once it is done, it is done. Of course, locally, in Gatineau, this onsight policy breaks down quickly due to the availability of routes in my grade range. Anyway, this is getting way off topic.

Antre du Dragon is an "out there" crag for most people. The approach time from the main hut is around 30 minutes up the stairs to the Grand Canyon, through the Canyon and past Dame Nature. Antre du Dragon, situated on the left, is viewable from the main approach trail and is easily identified by this massive flake.

On arrival I was surprised to see eight other climbers at Antre du Dragon. Perhaps this was not really that "out there". They seemed to be regulars to the area and were most likely there avoid the crowds too. The wall has seven routes as listed below. Note, the numbering matches the guidebook.

1) La Saint-Georges 5.10b, gear, 20m

This is one of the climbs I came for but unfortunately it was soaked from the rain the night before. Based on how it looked when we left I suspect it would need a few days or more to dry out. The climb is a beauty of a hand crack, #2 and #3 camalots by the look of it.

2) La Saint Arnould 5.13a, 3 bolts and gear, 20m

Did not bother to look at this one so not much to say here.

3) La Saint-Ambroise 5.9 , 6 bolts, 20m

This was the warm up climb. The first bolt is high and the bottom is covered in a green moss rug up over a slabby ramp. To reach the first bolt requires a hand foot match mantle to a sloped ledge. Given the wetness of the moss I place a #1 C4 in a shallow horizontal crack, after digging the mud out with a nut tool, before moving to the first bolt. With the uglyness out of the way the climb becomes a fun climb on flakes. Basically the wall is devoid of holds between flakes which means lots of mantling and hand foot matching up the wall. Just commit to standing up each time and you will be fine. That said, be sure of clipping the 3rd bolt; there is a big ledge below you.

4) La Griffon 5.9-, 3 bolts, 25m

Despite what the guidebook shows this route shares its first bolt with La Gaillarde. You will understand if you take a look at the actual wall. Since there was a group on La Gaillarde I decided to avoid there intersection at the first bolt and try to traverse by following a diagonal crack onto a slab and then to the second bolt. It seemed reasonable at first.

I replaced the #1 cam as for La Saint-Ambroise and start the traverse. The crack quickly becomes a shallow and flared tips crack out onto the slab. I tried C3s, small metolius pieces, small C4s and small nuts but nothing would take. I climbed further on smears to find no protection again. Although my #1 is bomber, it is the only piece in and I'm looking at nasty pendulum with a potential grounder at this point. The bolt is only 3 moves away. I down/back climb to the #1 and rest. I climb out again and find a #00 C3 placement which is marginal and I'm not going to bet the farm on it. I was now starting to understand why this crack was not part of an route in the guide. I down climbed again, pulled the number one and climbed to the ground. I must have wasted 45 minutes with my shenanigans. After coming down L'ecaille du dragon, the awesome flake pictured above, became open. In fact all but two of the other climbers had left the area. I offered the lead to the others since I had wasted so much time. No takers, I was elected to lead it.

7) L'ecaille du dragon, 3 bolts and gear 25m

After the Griffon fiasco L'ecaille du dragon climbed like a dream. The hand/arm crack formed by the flake provides solid jams for feet and hands with bomber gear wherever you want or need it. You can sew up the bottom with a #2 and three #3 camalots before traversing out to a bolt. Pulling around the corner to mantle on to the flake is the crux and super fun. Once on top you can place a #4 or run it out to a bolt on the slab above the flake. It is a little freaky walking up the six inch wide flake so I was happy to have a #4, just sling it long to prevent rope drag. The upper slab is protected by two bolts about 20 feet apart on easy climbing. The final moves to the anchor are on a short vertical wall with a shallow hand crack, it takes a bomber #.75 C4. One last mantle to top out and you are at the anchors. A fantastic climb.

5) La Gaillarde 5.8, gear, 25m

Next up, La Gaillarde. I was feeling a little tired by this point and perhaps that lead to this climb being troublesome. The first bolt is guarded by some delicate slab moves and is dangerously high. The route traverses from the left on a ramp onto the slab whereas the fall is down the slab and over a 12 foot vertical drop. From the ground the climbing looks straight forward but I quickly down climbed. I seem to do a lot of that.

I fashioned a 20 foot stick clip from some recently cut brush, climbed up on the ramp and clipped the bolt. The crack that defines the line is again shallow and irregular. The bottom half protects with small gear; I remember placing a #00 C3, #2 C3, #.3 C4, a small nut. The top half is #2 and #3 camalots. For a 5.8, I found this climb tricky and the small gear down low finicky. Of course your mileage may vary but this was much harder than the 5.9 sport route I warmed up. While climbing I do not remember hearing the birds, Matt or Hedy talking; it was just me and the rock, nothing else.

6) La Joyeuse 5.12d, 3 bolts and gear, 25m

Did not bother to look at this one so not much to say here.

Antre du Dragon is a small crag where each route has a distinct character from the next. If you have not been there it is well worth the walk. I'm not sure these are good routes if the grades are at your limit. However, the top of the cliff can be accessed by the trail to climber's left as we found out while retrieving an anchor.

After Antre du Dragon we proceeded toward Paroi du lac. Paroi du Lac is the second farthest crag from the hut. We past Mousquetaries which has three cracks named after the Three Musketeers and got to the area in the following picture.

We thought this was Paroi du lac based on the signs; we were wrong. It is in fact Vertigineux that we had thought we had missed somehow during the hike. With the black flies biting a decision was made to climb the nearest sport route and once again I was handed the sharp end. After consulting the guidebook later at home this climb turned out to be Conjonction de cellulaires 5.9, a short 14m sport route.

The crux is a crimpy match on a half pad edge with varied climbing above and below. An average route, nothing note worthy.

Humbled at the gym

2011-05-24T13:39:00.001-04:00

So I was at the gym last night and wow did I suck. I could not commit to any move, zero strength, zero motivation and the list goes on. To top it off one of my wrists is beginning to bother me enough to be annoying. Ugh.

In other news I was at Montagne d'Argent over the weekend so check back for a trip report in the near future. Also, coming soon is a post on reslinging cams with Maxim Techcord.

Camalot trigger wire replacement

2011-05-16T18:52:00.002-04:00

I picked up a used #4 Black Diamond pre-thumb loop camalot off the Mountain Project used gear forum. The price was right but the trigger wires had seen better days. I did not actually notice this in the seller's photo nor did the seller mention it when I bought. Although not a big deal I was a little annoyed when it arrived.

On MEC's website the replacement wires for Black Diamond C4 cams are $7.50 for two. Since I had an older model I measured the current wires to make sure I got a set that would work; about 21 cm for the #4. In the end this did not matter as the Ottawa store had all sorts of trigger wires dating back the original duel stem model. We managed to find a trigger wire for my original #4 marked at $6. The pre-C4 wires were actually on clearance so the final cost was $4.50. Not bad at all.

The kit comes with installation instructions for the various types of cams and trigger bars. Step 1 is to cut the tigger wire above the swage and step 2 is to remove the wire from the bar's cleat. The cutters shown had a hard time cutting the solid wire. It was in fact easier to uncleat and then cut.

Step 3 calls for the trigger wire to be straightened and removed from the cam lobes. As you can see in the following pic that the wire itself was rather brittle and came out in pieces.

Installation is straight forward. The only thing to account for, is that both trigger wires terminate on the outside of the cam for an older style #4 (also #3.5); other sizes face in and out. Note that the trigger wires should not be crimped tight to allow smooth motion of the lobes. After an initial bend with needle nose pliers, a pair of vice-grips, set to the desired width, makes the final bend easy.

Al on the run, sequence

2011-05-14T22:36:00.000-04:00

A number of images taken by Iris Bujold; best watched full screen.

Mid week at Montagne d'Argent

2011-05-13T17:22:00.000-04:00

Pete and I took advantage of the nice weather and made a mid week trip to Montagne d'Argent. As expected the place was more or less deserted. We started in Le Fou to warm up on a couple sport routes before finding a gear climb to work on. Since Pete had not been up the multi-pitch routes yet it seemed like a good choice. We climbed the usual linkup: P1 5.9+ of Lollypops, P2 5.10b Maudit fou and P3 5.9+ Krakatoa. I lead the first two pitches and Pete took the third. P2 was damp which made the moves a little more thought provoking as I moved up the thin slab. The second half of P3 was quite wet. After topping out we walked off as it is much faster than rapping.

Back on the ground we ate lunch and enjoyed the weather. I did notice the Black flies are starting to make an appearance but not biting yet. Once fed and watered, Pete and I eyed up Coeur vaillant 5.10b.

Coeur vaillant is a very aesthetic finger crack with a pumpy crux about 15 feet of the ground. The tricky part about the climb is placing the gear, small cams and weird nuts. Off the ground you are faced with surmounting a bulge using an arcing thin crack to a short horizontal traverse into the main splitter.The hands are ok but the feet are pure friction in sloped dishes at the crux. I took a good fall onto a green 00 C3 here. Once though the crux there is fantastic ledge to rest on and gather yourself for the remainder of the climb. At this point the climbing is easier but sustained and the gear continues to be tricky in the irregular crack. This is a must do climb.

Yeah I toprope, so what?

2011-05-08T17:51:00.000-04:00

Matt, Andrew, Jeff, Pete, Iris and I headed to the Western CWM on Saturday for a bit of local climbing. The CWM was busy with what might have been an ACC group on North Wall. We started at Cave Wall and ended up staying there for the day.

I warmed up by doing my usual lap on Neruda. Then I gave Security my first lead attempt since last year and after falling at the crux I couple times I decided to put a toprope on Al on the run. Once I worked out the moves again I sent Al on the run clean on toprope. This is the first time I have got it clean. On anthoer note the black flies are starting to appear in Gatineau.

Thrashed by Colonel Kirtz

2011-05-04T13:29:00.000-04:00

I started this post on Monday. However, my motivation to write just was not there. It was, of course, raining again in Ottawa and to top it off I knocked my coffee, off my desk, onto the floor. I'm still trying to scrub the coffee out of the carpet. It is still raining but today I managed to drink my coffee so I'm take another shot at this trip report.

Piling into Pete and Iris' white Buick Century we hit the road for Montagne d'Argent after picking up Jeff in Alymer. The weather was fantastic; blue sky, a gentle breeze and 17 degrees Celsius. It was perhaps the best day, weather wise, this spring. A perfect climbing day. It was smooth sailing in our white boat until, well, we thought that we may actually needed a boat.

The Riviere Rouge had crested its banks and covered a section of Rang des Vents. After some inspection we decided it was only about a foot deep in the middle and definitely passable. The boat jokes aside, the roomy Buick makes for a comfy road trip car.

Walking along the Cliff we passed lots of wet climbs and ended up at La Petite Folie. We figured we would start here and then move later in the afternoon once the sun dried up the other areas.

Jeff was the quickest to get ready so he started off up a 5.4 crack on the slab called "Encore! mon lapin" with Pete providing a belay. This meant I was left with the wet and moss covered "Poussinet" 5.4 crack. It was an easy but muddy climb to the first set of anchors. From there I linked into "Le lapin au tambour", another 5.4 crack/slab route. With some climbing through the rather wet and mossy bit at the beginning I was now on dry rock. In the next photo you can see my rope trailing back through the slop.

Since Pete and Jeff where still messing about on their linkup into "Arretez-le quelgu'un!" I lowered to the top of the first pitch so Iris could climb "Poussinet".

I had come to La Petite Folie, a little madness, to try two crack lines called "Colonel Kirtz" 5.10a and "Hannibal Lecter" 5.9+. Both lines are short 10m hand cracks and I'm sure a walk for anyone with crack skills.

Colonel Kirtz starts under a small roof spilt by a finger crack which protects well with a BD .5 C4. Once around the roof and standing up I found secure jams as the crack widened. I placed a high BD .75 C4 and cautiously moved up. Grabbing an edge where the crack juts right I worked my feet up to find a soaking wet crack. As I thrashed around in the wet crack my hands started to bleed as my arms pumped out. I tried to put in a BD #1 C4 higher but the flaring crack and irregular crystals made for a less than inspiring placement. My pumped arms and wet hands were definitely wearing on my mind. I reached for another cam, a black Metolius, and thankfully it placed well around waist level. Not wanting to pull out rope to high clip a bad placement I opted to leave it and down climbed to find a rest position. This just pumped me out more and I came off.

Round two, was a waste as I was still too pumped. Round three, I climbed back up, fixed my #1 cam and tried to top out. Unfortunately I still had tunnel vision due to the pump and missed the obvious jug, grabbed a sloper and came off again. Round four, I grabbed the jug and ended it. Humbled by a 10m hand crack.

After being thrashed by the Colonel I managed to regain my confidence by flashing Hannibal Lecter. Hannibal is a fun route with a cool move to pull the small roof at the top. Having a bit of beta from watching Jeff and Pete's attempts certainly helped.

Later we toured the Petite Canyon which was total wet and dirty. I'm not sure I'll bother going back there; a long walk for nothing special.

Au revoir Oiseau , je me souviendrai ...

2011-04-29T15:22:00.000-04:00

"It is with regret that I announce our negotiations to secure access for climbing at Oiseau Rock cliff have resulted in a clear refusal from the council of the elders of the Algonquian community. Although the MRC, to whom we owe the new trail to access the cliff, has supported our efforts, this has not convinced the council to let us climb on the sacred cliff, with or without fixed anchors. Their refusal puts an end to our negotiations to develop this cliff.

Cindy Doyle, Chair Outaouais section, ACC"

New Harness

2011-04-29T13:01:00.003-04:00

The leg loop on my Petzl Harness is pretty much done and has been for awhile so it was time to get a new harness. I thought about getting another Petzl Adjama. My current Adjama is a medium which is really too big unless I crank the waist down to the smallest it can go. However, when I tried on the small today the waist was too small for my liking; the waist buckle did not overlap on to the padding. So I looked to other brands. After trying on several others and hanging in them on MEC's climbing wall I went with the Camp Air CR.

The Camp Air CR is about 2/3 the weight of the Adjama. That is, there is less padding and the webbing is narrower. Time will tell if this will be a comfort issue with the first test run being tomorrow at Montagne d'Argent.

Wild weather in Gatineau

2011-04-17T23:38:00.009-04:00

I woke up late, after taking in the Habs game at a local pub, to pockets of blue sky and a strong wind. To avoid vacuuming the house I grab my gear and was off to Gatineau. I was interested in checking out a climb called Bitter Fingers 5.6. It is a first generation CWM climb put up by the usual suspects: Halka, Cotter, Adcock and Prokaopiak. Being 5.6 I figured it would be OK for lead soloing, if it was dry.

After getting to Bitter Fingers I decided it was too wet and the beginning looked kinda friction dependent. A fall would have been ugly given the landing. A no go this time. So to salvage the trip I walked up to Cave Wall to run a quick lap on Neruda.

A small snow storm delayed my ascent by 50 minutes or so until I got a window of sunshine. All and all a good day. Some video from the day:

Rain ahead

2011-04-14T23:18:00.003-04:00

The weekend looks extra wet so I doubt any outdoor climbing will get done. On the gym front I'm still working at ticking off the TdB routes. Tonight's new problem are 25, 65 and 51 at the very end of the night. I spent most of the session working on 65.

So the list is now:
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20
21,22,23,24,25,26,27,29,30
31,32,33,34,35,37,38,39,40,
42,44,49
51,53,54,59
61,65

Lac Richard, in a yurt.

2011-04-10T15:32:00.029-04:00

So this past weekend Cynthia, Amanda, Mike and I suited up for a 13km hike into Gatineau Park. The objective was the yurt at Lac Richard.

To get there I knew that I would need a pair of good boots. My old pair of hikers had long since given up and I have been getting by with my approach shoes. They are great shoes but not appropriate for this trip. Typically people ski into Lac Richard but being mid April the trails varied from pavement, to hard ice, to slushy, to mud and gravel.

So keeping dry feet was on my mind. Off to MEC. After taking back a pair of Soloman Quests that were too small and trying on half dozen others I settled on the Zamberlan Vioz GT GORE-TEX Backpacking Boots. The only trouble was it was Thursday and at this point I would have to break them on the trip.

Packing for the trip was tricky as Cynthia and I usually do canoe trips. Unlike hiking over a long distance you can drag an enormous load over a 1 km portage with out too much trouble. So on canoe trips I bring easily 10 kilos in camera gear alone. Cutting weight for this trip was a necessity. First to go was the excess camera gear. I held myself to one camera, one lens, two batteries and a small Joby tripod. With only one lens I took my 15mm fisheye f/2.8 so I could shoot in the yurt but this meant no wildlife photos and no framing of specific parts of the landscape. I really wanted to take my 70-200 f2.8 L but it is 1.3 kilos of glass. Anyway, the following is a list of animals we saw but I did not photograph: a beaver, a quail or some other large ground bird, a white rabbit and a few chipmunks.

Since the yurt had bunk beds with foam pads we could eliminate our sleeping pads. That was an easy decision. The yurt is advertised with wood stove for heating and cooking but I figured it would be nice to have my small Colman single burner stove anyway. After all you can boil water faster on the camp stove then by making a fire. This turned out to be a good decision as we could not get the wood stove hot enough to get a rolling boil. I was surprised by this fact. Even if we had got it that hot it would have made the yurt unbearably hot. So in my mind a stove was a must for our menu.

I like to eat well while I'm camping and I'll suffer more weight to do so.

Friday:

Dinner: Stir fry chicken with carrots, broccoli, rice, onions and cashews. I pre-bbq the chicken and precooked the rice.

Saturday

Breakfast: Eggs, bacon (precooked) and cheese on a English muffin with a side of oranges.

Lunch: Apples. We ate such a big breakfast we mostly skipped lunch which we ate on Sunday instead.

Dinner: Spaghetti with meat sauce. The meat sauce was packed frozen.

Sunday

Breakfast: Cucumber with cheese and bacon on an English muffin with a side of oatmeal.

Lunch: Peanut butter on rye with a side of oranges.

Total weight ... hmm ... 6 kilos maybe, it doesn't matter because it was worth it. We did all our cooking on the camp stove with a single tank of fuel and warmed things on the wood stove. We also took tea and coffee. Our packs weighted in at (with our camel packs) 44 lbs for me and 29lbs for Cynthia. This includes our pots, dishes, sleeping bags, one change of clothes, coats, candles, headlamps, other stuff and a card game called Dominion-Intrigue. At 44 lbs, my pack seemed on the heavy side. Although we were going to eat well.

The plan was to meet at Mike and Amanda's and depart for Gatineau Park for 2:30 pm. With a one hour drive to P19 that gave us just under 5 hours of daylight to make the 13 km to Lac Richard. This seemed reasonable. Unfortunately Mike was delayed by work so we make the decision to continued as planned and Mike will hike out on Saturday. As it turned out Mike manages to get out off work and by making good time on the highway leaves P19 only one hour after us.

Leaving P19, Amanda, Cynthia and I marched down trail 50, a snow covered road with some bare spots, along Lac Philippe. The snow is hard packed and the hills are gentle. By the time we hit trail 55 onto Lac Taylor we have hit our stride and we shave off the kilometers a good clip. Trail 55 was snow covered gravel road that was mostly bare and rather soft as it rounds Lac Renaud. There is a nice bench on Lac Renaud but there is no time to stop here.

Once we hit Lac Taylor, 6 kms in, our packs are definitely noticeable. On the upside, my feet are fine and still happy in my new boots. We opt for a 10 min break at a picnic table before moving onto trail 56, an intermediate trail. Trail 56 out of Lac Taylor was softer snow so Cynthia and I dawned our poles to make the hills easier. As you leave Lac Taylor and its campsites behind the trail starts a long climb for almost 1.5 km up past Lac de la Vase. Most of the trail is snow and ice with a mud section here and there.

At the top of the climb we are rewarded with a sign post that marks Lac Richard's Yurt at 5 km. Here trail 56 turns from intermediate (blue square) to advance (black diamond). This means bigger hills ahead. At the top of the first hill I look back to catch my breath and wait for Amanda and Cynthia and what do I see? Wow it's Mike, head down and pushing it up the hill, he had made up the 1 hour difference! With the four of us together there was a new sense of energy and relief that if we got stuck in the dark at least we were together. The rest of the black diamond section descends down to Lac Kidder.

The end of Lac Kidder is marked by a sign post which states the Lac Richard yurt is 2 kms ahead. It did not look like 2 km on the map and we told ourselves it must be more like 1.6 km. I'm sure the distance on the sign is rounded up, maybe not. I think this is the longest 2 kms I have ever walked. With the sunsetting and constant climbing it seemed like the yurt should be just over the next hill but it wasn't. Then there was a bridge and another hill that went on forever until you hit Lac Richard. The finally obstacle is a beaver dam at the end of Lac Richard.

With our light gone we entered the yurt and got down to business. The first priority was to remove damp clothes and get the wood stove going. As the sun drop below the trees, the temperature quickly drop as well. Next up was a late dinner, it was now around 8 pm. Cynthia and I started our meal on the wood stove but quickly revered to the camp stove to speed up the process. To keep warm I restocked the wood stove twice after going to sleep. The first time was around 3:40 am and the second about three hours later. For the most part we were toasty warm.

Saturday was a late morning and I don't thing we ate breakfast before 10 am. We lounged about for awhile and actually had some surprise visitors who did not realize this yurt was by permit only. I guess the big sign that says "No Entry" without a valid permit needs to be bigger. Anyway, it was all forgotten with a few rounds of Dominion and a hike to explore the surrounding hillsides.

Our spaghetti dinner that night hit the spot. Again, well worth the weight of the meal sauce. With the dishes done it was an epic evening of Dominion with Cynthia dominating almost every game.

Morning came early on Sunday. By 9:30 am, breakfast was eaten, dishes were washed, gear was packed, coffee drank and we had hit the trails. With a lighter load (39 lbs and Cynthia's pack at 21 lbs , weight them later at home) I felt good going into the hike. A little Advil helped too. That hard 2 km uphill was now a nice 2km downhill; a good way to start off the day.

I felt strong on the climb from Lac Kidder to Lac de la Vase and after that is it all down hill to Lac Taylor. When you know where you are going and see the landmarks go by, it really helps you stay motivated. We ate lunch at Lac Taylor and departed at 12:30 pm. With easy hiking ahead I packed my poles for the final walk to P19. The final 6 km took about an hour.

NCC pamphlet

2011-04-04T15:37:00.002-04:00

Tropical at Home Cliff

2011-04-03T17:47:00.003-04:00

I headed out to Home Cliff today in the early afternoon. I figured that someone had to be there given the beautiful weather and sure enough I ran into MC, Bojan and Phil. They had been there awhile but were kind enough to lend a belay so I could lead Piton Highway and also run a lap of Peggy on TR. With the sun shining down it felt tropical compared to yesterday at Calabogie.

Piton Highway, as always, felt a bit tricky. Still, it was enjoyable as I took my time to figure out the moves again. Despite its moderate grade of 5.7 it is not a climb to be rushed.

Calabogie, low key

2011-04-02T19:56:00.003-04:00

I had a low key day out at Calabogie with Jeff, Victoria, Kyla and Matt. We approach from the top since I figured the bottom would be too wet. Although this turned out to be false. So after wondering around longer then I would have liked (i.e. I lead us too far) we rapped down and found the climbs. I mostly climbed the same old stuff but I lead flakely flake 5.4 before we left. A fun onsight. Just be aware of the microwave sized death block about three quarters of the way up.

All is not lost

2011-03-28T23:50:00.003-04:00

I went to the gym tonight with low expectations and walked out feeling great. The lumbrical injury behaved as the literature suggested it would. This means as long as I avoid pockets and curling my baby finger with my ring finger stretched out I can almost climb whatever I want. Crimps and pinches seemed good to go as long as I don't spilt my fingers. I also choose to avoid any dyno situations for fear of latching a hold in the wrong way.

Tonight was also great since Coyote just hosted the TdB and had 78 new problems to try. I managed to flash 3,4,5,7,8,11,14,16,17,20,23,30,31,32,33,40,42,44,53 and 59. I worked on 61 and gave 57 a few goes too. There are number of problems in the upper 40s and 50s that look like good projects for me.

Suck it up princess

2011-03-27T22:40:00.002-04:00

After some reading I believe I have a lumbrical injury but to what extent is unclear. What is clear, is that I need to get on with climbing. Time to get over the self pity, not worry about my projects and just figure out what is possible in the short term.

Over before it started

2011-03-25T10:20:00.004-04:00

My high hopes for a season of ticking off projects is most likely over. Last night at the gym I was pulling on a swallow two finger pocket with my index and ring finger when a nasty pain shot through my palm. My grimp was open handed and my feet did not cut. I'm not sure what to do ... I'm still in the self pity stage.

Calabogie is climbable

2011-03-20T21:29:00.007-04:00

I hit up Calabogie today with Bojan, Matt and Rachel. As we piled into the car, with the morning chill still in the air, I wasn't sure what to expect. The main climbing area does not see much ice so I figured there must be something climbable.

Rachel, Matt and Bojan

There is still plenty of snow and ice on the ground at Calabogie and crampons would have made the approach easier. It was still quite manageable thought. If the weather stays warm the lower approach will be under water shortly. There is already a significant amount of water to walk around. Add to this the loads of ice still on the cliff and you have a flood of biblical proportions to come.

The main area was for the most part dry with very little ice on the climbs. We started on the revamped (bolts now protect the bottom half of the climb) Calabogie Sunset. My fingers numbed out by the time I clipped the first bolt which made the little roof feel harder then usual. As I passed the third bolt, above the tree line, the rock felt warmer and my fingers recovered by the time I hit the anchors. The cliff faces west so it takes time for the sun to get onto it.

Rachel on TR

After a bit of coffee I sent the new line left of Free Flight. The ice on my usual foot holds near the top added a little spice to the otherwise familiar climb. It was no big deal really as there are other feet but just not as big. Once back on the ground I took a walk along the cliff to look for older guidebook climbs but I'm not sure I found any. I could not say for certain I found the landmarks the guide was talking about. It was a nice walk in the sun though.

At this point I decided to toprope the direct start of Vulcan Mind to see if I could remember the beta. To set up the toprope I re-climbed the previous climb (we left a rope up for this propose) and topped it out. After slinging a tree I lowered to the direct start's anchors on the left. I climbed the direct start twice but it was not pretty. I have completely forgot the beta between the second and third bolt. I worked out two options but neither feel quite right. I really like this climb; it is just so good.

Skiing in Gatineau

2011-03-13T19:03:00.005-04:00

Still too wet to climb so I got some skiing in today. Cynthia has been/still is pretty sick and busy working too. So I went on a solo mission to Gatineau Park today and skied from P3 up the parkway to trail 5, along 5 to 15, 15 to 35, around Pink Lake and back to the car via the parkway. Not bad I thought for a beginner's 4th time out. (I ski a few times as a kid but it is like I'm skiing again for the first time.)

The round trip took just over three hours, about 15km. Man was I tired when I got back to the car. I was totally over dressed and I should have taken some water; I ate some snow at one point. Trail 5(green) is a nice trail and was easy going. Trail 15 (blue) was a winding 3.5 km climb up to Pink Lake although I was glad to be going up since I would have most likely kill myself going down this one. Trail 35 is short, like 600m, but steep going into Pink and I had to take my skis off to walk a hill (going down). The reward of all this hard work is coming down the parkway from Pink to P3. The hills are long but gentle; at least they seem this way after 15 and 35. All in all I learned lots and had a great day.

Rain and more rain

2011-03-10T12:40:00.003-05:00

March is shaping up to be a total wash. The snow, rain and freeze cycle not only puts a damper on outdoor climbing but makes cross country skiing difficult as well. I'm a total beginner on skis so the ice is not helping. The best day yet was making my own trail along the river last weekend. Hopefully the weekend weather allows some outdoor fun.

Postscript: It has now been three months since I first hurt my finger and finally I'm starting to see progress in healing. I'm still icing, taping and not climbing as hard ... I just need to remain patient so not to have a setback.

New dogbones

2011-02-28T15:13:00.002-05:00

I decided to replace the dogbones on my oldest draws since the webbing has started to get stiff and show its age. I think these draws are around 10 years old. I found last year I was favouring my new draws even though I know these ones will hold falls. Even at half strength they would hold 11 KN which is more that most stoppers are rated too. However, at $2.50 each from MEC the new ones offer peace of mind for less than $15. It is a no-brainer; not worrying about gear is priceless.

In other news I plan to return to the gym tonight after about two weeks off. Cynthia and I got married in Quebec City February 19th. We had a wonderful time. The time off has hopefully helped my finger heal a bit too.

Aiders on the cheap

2011-02-09T16:24:00.003-05:00

A short video about making aiders from webbing.

http://www.climbing.com/print/techtips/ttaid216/

Gear porn

2011-02-07T16:26:00.001-05:00

On the rock in February!

2011-02-05T18:07:00.002-05:00

Fingers, cams and books

2011-02-03T20:48:00.006-05:00

So it has been almost a month since I injured my finger and I think there are finally some signs of improvement. For the most part it is just not as sore in the morning when I wake up and the recovery time after climbing is going down. In an effort to continue in this direction, I decided not to go to the gym Thursday. The key now is not to do something stupid in the next two months and have a setback. That is, I need to keep focused on the long term and not the short term enjoyment of working a hard problem. Given that we were on the rock in March last year, outdoor climbing is not that far away.

To pass the time I've read two books,

9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes, by Dave MacLeod; and
Climbing Anchors 2nd ed. , by John Long and Bob Gaines.

Both are great books and are worth picking up if you don't already own them.

In other news I picked up some used Metolius cams off Mountain Project to complement my BD C4s and C3s. My rack now has 19 cams and a set of nuts weighting in at about 6 pounds. Crazy, I know.

Calabogie, ice climbing

2011-01-29T16:32:00.005-05:00

I head out to Calabogie on Friday to try my hand at ice climbing. It was a mild -3 degrees C which meant soft ice and no freezing while belaying. Perfect conditions for a first timer like me.

Me pumped out

We started on a easy ground with a 15m (guessing here) WI2 that Pete led. Ok, now my turn but on TR, of course. Stepping up to the base I set my axes and started up. I found the biggest issue was getting reasonable feet so I did not over work my arms. Part of the problem was, at first, my secondary points were not making contact because of my gummie ice climbing style. The other issue was that my boots are not made for climbing or crampons for that matter. Anyway, I thrashed my way to the top without coming off. I was happy with my first ice climb. We each TR this route a couple more time.

Next up was a 20m WI3 which made things more interesting. On my first attempt I try to just power my way up but I got so pumped at the top I had to take for fear of dropping my tools. After the first climb of the day we dropped the leashes, so much better. Without leashes you can shakeout the pump, match on tools, switch hands and in general just have more options when climbing. Anyway, I learned my lesson. I took my time during my other climbs and managed my pump by resting at good stances. I think we climbed this WI3 three more times.

Other lessons learned include: bulky gloves lead to over gripping and pump, hooking on featured ice can be beneficial and look for natural foot holds before just kicking away at the ice.

2011-01-20T16:18:00.002-05:00

So I returned to the gym yesterday since I could not stay away any longer. I worked on the the new comp problem which went up this past Monday. There are 22 new problems in all. I did the first 10 back-to-back with some discomfort in my finger. After some rest I dispatched 11,12,15, 16 and 17. I tried 13 and 14 but my finger was not going to allow me to these problems so I let them be. The big difference here was static vs dynamic movement. Both 13 and 14 have dynamic movements which I knew would hurt my finger and I just could not commit to the move. As for the other problems they are definite no goes with a hurt finger and it was hard not to get on them.

I woke up to a swollen finger this morning; a sure sign I over did it. Perhaps I should climb routes at gym until my finger is better although I would rather boulder. It might be time to suck up the -10 degree C weather and do some clean aid climbing, I don't know. Maybe tonight's snowboarding with help me not think about climbing.

25 meters short

2011-01-16T20:38:00.005-05:00

A big part of healing finger injuries is to find other stuff to do; so thinking about not climbing does not drive you crazy. Today I headed out to Gatineau Park to find a geocache near Castle Wall. Note that the cache is just outside the park boundary and thus out of NCC jurisdiction. Unfortunately, geocaching.com has been removing caches from the park at the request of the NCC.

http://gordon.dewis.ca/2010/05/30/300-geocaches-in-gatineau-park-poised-to-disappear/

Is any one really surprised? Didn't think so. Anyway the plan, after getting the cache, was to climb up above Castle Wall to The Cirque and top out the Escarpment.

The Objective:

The climbing was slow going and tricky in places even with the grippy teeth on the bottom of my snowshoes. My poles also helped moving up the terrain and over snow covered granite outcroppings.

Above Castle Wall:

View Larger Map

After coming to the top of Castle Wall I looked up toward The Cirque. Now a quote from the "Climbing around Ottawa" guidebook:

"If you stay on the high ground immediately above Castle Wall, then you can look across the gully to The Cirque, and pick out the various features, before you commit yourself to a final, brutal bushwhack up to the base."

Between me and the base of the Cirque is a boulder field inter mixed with trees, logs, vines, shrubs ... well you get the picture. At first it seemed reasonable as I navigated through the snow covered boulders and rubble on my snowshoes. Then it seemed unreasonable. In all directions, even the way I had come, looked impassable on my snowshoes. The terrain had steepened and the boulders, more importantly the drops between them, had got bigger. I'm not going back now, I thought. After a few minutes of thinking, down and climbers right seemed like the path of least resistance. Although not easy going I made it to the base of the Cirque.

End of the road:

Now about 25 m from the top I got stopped by the this icy wall. I could have worked around it but time was starting to become an issue. There was no way I wanted to be descending in the dark given what I had climbed over to this point. So, time for a quick photo and a cliff bar.

Getting down I followed the Cirque rock face to avoid the boulder field as much as possible. It was a mix of controlled sliding and tree grabbing until I met backup with my original path on the granite slabby bits right of Castle Wall. Also on the way down I believe I found the Throne area as well.

With the sun setting I packed up the car and got ready for the drive home. The route was not very friendly to my snowshoes and my one knee is a little sore from the descent but it was a good adventure none the less.

Finger injuries suck

2011-01-14T00:58:00.002-05:00

It is now clear that my finger is definitely injured to the point that climbing harder boulder problems is not a good idea. Base on my last finger injury it will be a month or two on easy climbing followed by a slow build up back to hard crimps and the like. Of course, the trick is to stick to this plan. It is easy to get bored and try something too hard.

That time of year?

2011-01-07T13:22:00.002-05:00

Well I may have messed up one of my fingers during yesterday's session at the gym. Just when I thought I was getting stronger, typical.

A new year for climbing

2011-01-01T09:49:00.004-05:00

There is nothing like the excess of Christmas and New Years' to make you feel weak and out of climbing shape. I have only climbed once in the last 20 days. Although, this is most likely a good thing as my shoulders and tendons needed rest anyway.

Of course no New Years' Day post would not be complete without a list of goals for 2011.

Get more multi-pitch experience. Go to Weir (Yellow Line, Black and White), the Dacks (Endless list of climbs here) and the Whites Mountains (Moby Grape and may others).
Look for/climb new/old routes at Calabogie.
Climb more 5.10 gear routes at Montagne d'Argent.
Just get out and climb!

Gatineau season is over

2010-12-04T12:22:00.001-05:00

The totally BS dates chosen by the NCC for climbing. Now my choices are face an undefined fine or drive an extra 45 mins to Calabogie. Given the sensitive access issues I guess it is Calabogie.

Take your time, enjoy it.

2010-11-28T20:49:00.013-05:00

Winter's weather has come to Ottawa in the last week or so. The freezing rain, snow and below zero temperatures have put a damper on climbing. So when today's temperature rose to a balmy +1 degree Celsius I packed my gear and headed for Gatineau. The approach into the Western CWM was an enjoyable walk; crisp air and snow crunching under foot.

The Spindriff Wall was covered in ice which continually showered down with the Sun's heat. The rock on Cave Wall was dry and reasonably warm making Neruda the obvious choice to climb. The CWM has been deserted since the NCC closures as climbers moved outside the park for climbing. I almost never run into another climber there. Well everyone missed out today. The sound of running water and cracking ice on the Spindriff Wall was something special. I took my time and enjoyed it.

Sewing up Neruda on lead solo:

Saturday at Calabogie

2010-11-14T13:02:00.003-05:00

With nice weather I headed out to Calabogie on Saturday. I figured if no one was out there then I would lead rope solo some easy routes. I ended up meeting Alice, Ken, Jeff, Jorge and several others. I did rope solo a 5.8 route but then mostly toprope the hard stuff. I managed to send the direct start of Vulcan Mind clean on toprope and I one hanged the other 12-ish route. A good day, hopefully there will be few more yet.

Shut down at Eastern Block

2010-11-11T18:16:00.003-05:00

When out to Eastern Block in the late afternoon today to clip bolts. I warmed up on the unnamed 5.8 and then tried to lead Temptation. The first bolt is hard to clip but can be marginally protected by two C3 placements, #0 and #1 side by side. The moves felt awkward and I took a couple falls at the crux. Since day light was not at a premium I decide to try Death by Maboola instead.

After a sketchy first clip and a small fall above that it was time to let others climb. Matt led up Mr Clean and put TRs on Temptation and Death. I did Death on TR. Now I remember why I dislike that climb; painful sustained crimping. F to Death.

Time to refuel with dinner and hit the gym. Hopefully I have enough finger tip skin left.

Neruda lead solo

2010-11-06T17:20:00.011-04:00

The weather is definitely getting colder and wetter but you can still get out and climb. Today was overcast with the temperature hovering between 3 to 5 degrees Celsius. I originally thought about going out to Calabogie to lead solo some of the easy mixed lines there. There are plenty of trees for ground anchors at Calabogie. However, without a belay partner to meet and uncertain weather I dragged my feet around the house for too long so I went to Gatineau instead.

I thought about going out to Ron & Jon but ultimately decided against it given the time. The approach is about 50 minutes if you don't get lost. So the Western CWM it was. As I topped out the approach slab I could hear the water running in the small stream that separates the Bird's Nest Buttress and Cave Wall. Given the last two days of rain I knew that it was going to wet. As I got closer, Spindrift Wall was a waterfall and the Reaper Buttress was very damp. Not that I really wanted to climb there but my choices where now reduced to Cave Wall or North Wall. I have done a bunch of lead solo on North Wall so I'm kinda bored with that. The only reasonable, in the lead solo sense, climb left is Neruda 5.6. Neruda is a bit of sandbag but I have never fallen off it so "sure why not" I thought. The only difficultly is getting a bomber ground anchor. I decided to use the large tree that sits about eight feet back from the wall. I put two cams in, a #1 C3 and #0.3 C4, as a directional down low to prevent the possibility of zippering. I could have used these cams as an anchor but trees give me more peace of mind.

The rock, surprisingly, was not that cold to the touch and it was more my toes that were unhappy in cold shoes. I put in #1 and #2 C4 in the usual spots as I climbed. Once you place the #3 it is showtime. I paid out some extra slack for the crux. The messy cluster that comes with a grigri on lead solo seemed extra annoying today. There is nothing like shorting yourself when trying to mantle onto a ledge after the crux. Once on the ledge I put in a two cams for the exit moves. The ending layback moves felt a little spooky for some reason and I was happy to clip the anchors.

After I cleaned my gear I decided to look at the placement options on Probation 5.8+ PG. This climb deserves an R or X and the guidebook rightfully describes the gear as "scarce, scary and scabrous". You should bring a boulder pad for this one.

So I did not get much climbing in but it still beat kicking around the house.

A windy day at Calabogie

2010-10-28T20:19:00.002-04:00

I hit up Calabogie today with Richard and ran into a crew from MEC as well. The weather was gray and windy which made for some chilly climbing at times. We warmed up by leading a few moderate mixed climbs and then went to work on the direct start of Vulcan Mind. Off the block it is very much a boulder problem. There is a dyno off crimps out to the arete on bad feet, V4 or V5. I was pretty happy, even though I was just toproping, to get this on my first try. The climbing is then sustained 11-ish to a rest where if on lead you would place a cam. After that, muscle up the crack and arete to mantle onto a big ledge, rest, and finish on good holds. We also work on a technical 12a-ish route that climbs over a series of roofs. A good day of climbing.

FA for another day

2010-10-23T23:21:00.020-04:00

Post removed due to access issues.

"It is with regret that I announce our negotiations to secure access for climbing at Oiseau Rock cliff have resulted in a clear refusal from the council of the elders of the Algonquian community. Although the MRC, to whom we owe the new trail to access the cliff, has supported our efforts, this has not convinced the council to let us climb on the sacred cliff, with or without fixed anchors. Their refusal puts an end to our negotiations to develop this cliff.

Cindy Doyle, Chair Outaouais section, ACC"

Will the NCC chop bolts?

2010-10-17T18:03:00.006-04:00

With the NCC pressing ahead on their climbing site closures the ugly thought of bolt chopping comes to mind. Why do I bring this up? Well, while climbing yesterday at Eastern Block a group made up of NCC and Access Coalition representative came by on a tour with a NCC hired biologist. It was cordial at first. Then a very heated debate started about chopping bolts in the Park. Of course, we stayed out of it.

The NCC point of view was that removing bolts would ensure no one would climb in the closed area. Clearly, this NCC representative has no idea that a large number of those bolts are top anchors on trad climbs so the climber does not have to top out and rap off trees. These anchors were in fact placed to comply with the first agreement to keep climbers off the cliff tops. Sure it will destroy the sport routes but how can they expect to stop a determined climber with gear?

The Access Coalition representative pointed out that the bolts pose no environmental impact on their own and should left for future access considerations. It was also pointed out that chopping bolts will not foster good will among the park climbers and just lead to "I'll do what I want" attitude.

This continued to get heated with the NCC refusing to admit that no good would come from chopping and in fact would most likely lead to more impact as climbers will walk away from the discussions. Unfortunately, I have already observed this. There was clear frustration on both sides. Anyway it put a bit of a damper on our climbing day.

Saturday report, Eastern Block

2010-10-17T14:18:00.005-04:00

A group of us headed up to Eastern Block on Saturday to get in some local climbing. It had rained the day before and overnight so as expected it was rather wet. Temptation 5.11b was dry but I had never climbed more than the first couple moves on toprope so it was out. Mr. Clean 5.8+ was wet but looked do able. After clipping the first bolt I started to wonder if I had bitten off more than I could chew. Most of the good hold were dripping and trusting my feet became troublesome. After a tricky second bolt on a sketch wet foot I final got onto some dry rock for a easy 3rd bolt. Now it was time to weigh my options. Climb a sopping wet slabbly crux or traverse and climb the last slabbly half of Temptation. Despite not having climbed the upper half of the 11 it was dry and looked reasonable.

The top of Temptation was no gimme but I worked it out after down climbing twice to rest after figuring out the moves. So since the top of Temptation can go clean on lead I decided it was time to work the bottom sequence out. After 8 or so goes at the crux I final climbed the route clean on toprope. Redpoint in the future? Maybe, the first two clips will be hard and will definitely need to be worked into the sequence of the climb. Once past the second bolt you get a good rest and the climb eases to mid 5.10 climbing.

McKenzie Pond Bouldering

2010-10-05T11:47:00.007-04:00

I headed to McKenzie Pond in the Daks with a group of Ottawa boulders on Saturday. I was not sure what to expect. As you know I'm a roped climber and in particular I've been climbing mostly trad this year so a bouldering trip is not my usual thing. On the other hand I boulder twice a week at the gym for strength training so I'm not a total gumby. The nice thing was that the people on the trip are easy going and I was not really concerned about feeling pressure to sending anything.

After a 3 hour drive we parked on the side of the road and started the grueling 2 minute approach to the boulders. We warmed up one the V0 slab and a couple V1/V2 problems in area 1. The granite is super textured and can be hard on the finger tips if you are not used to it. However, the texture in combination with the cool temps made for some awesome friction which comes in handy on a number of problems.

V0 slab with crack

Kyla on a V2

Also in area 1 is a V5 called Slobadon which looked do able to me so I gave it a burn. I surprised myself on the first go by doing most of the problem so I knew it would go. I think it took about 5 try to top out. The top is a tad scary but with lots of Montagne d'Argent slabbiness under my belt I just took my time and worked it out.

Photo: Andrew Pallek

Rebar V4 is an interesting problem that is very different from the hard crimps of Slobadon. Like most lip traverses this is about contact strength and body position under the sloppy lip. I used slightly different beta by going low at the start. Rebar is also a long problem that can get pumpy by the end as you round the corner to top it out.

Me on Rebar
Photo: Andrew Pallek

Matt chillin' after his burn. Once you hit the end of the traverse you top it out.

Slot machine V5 is a classic for sure with a difficult start off the corner up to the slot. In the photo below my right hand is in the slot and by slot I mean a half pad three finger crimp. The next move is the high foot, lock off on the slot, hit the crack at the top, muscle up and top out.

Photo: Andrew Pallek

Thrust Fault, although only V3 this is a must do problem. I got it on my second attempt and would have flashed it if I had not mucked up my feet on the first go. The top out is not gimme so stay focused after hitting the lip jug.

Photo: Andrew Pallek

Oiseau Rock

2010-10-05T00:10:00.010-04:00

The view after topping out

2010-10-02T21:49:00.004-04:00

The view after topping out on North Wall in Gatineau Park.

I also noticed a new sign on the way into the Western CWM.

Escaping the belay

2010-09-29T22:41:00.002-04:00

Don't trust the info provided in this video. Attempting the following in a real climbing situation without adequate practice, experience and training may lead to serious injuries or death.

A video about practicing escaping the belay.

September in Ottawa = Rain

2010-09-28T12:10:00.003-04:00

Ugh ... and I thought last September was depressingly wet. I can only hope that October and November are as awesome as they were last year.

There is also word on the street that Weir is climbable on warm winter days. I have not been there and the guidebook is of course out of print. However, I did find the follow images which I believe are enough to get some idea of where the climbs start.

For more images checkout:
http://www.lesitebrun.com/roche/weir/adagio10/home.htm
http://www.lesitebrun.com/roche/weir/090505/weir05bhome.htm

Then there is winter aid which could be fun but I suspect that I'll have to twist arms or go solo. Does anyone like belaying in the cold? I'm not much of an aid climber; I've only try a couple times solo and I used slings in place of aiders. I find the solo aspect narrows options as getting a good ground anchor can be problematic.

Of course, when it is raining there is always plywood and plastic. Speaking of which I climbed TR routes at Coyote last night for the first time in a year. It was a fun change from bouldering. While bouldering has definitely increased my strength I have noticed a drop off in endurance while climbing routes outside. For my ego and being the grade whore that I am here is a list in the order climbed.

5.9 onsight
5.9 onsight
5.11d worked but DNF
5.10d flashed
5.10b flashed
5.10c onsight
5.11d completed but not clean
5.12a completed but not clean

It is nice to list them. Then I remind myself that these grades translate poorly to real rock. Gyms are good for numbers and outside ... there are climbs that I have done and those that I need to work on.

Calabogie, take two

2010-09-18T22:13:00.010-04:00

I headed back out to Calabogie today for some more climbing. I'm still getting use to the face climbing on gear aspect of Calabogie. For the most part gear goes in shallow horizontal cracks where I'm use to deep vertical finger/hand cracks. On the faces I ended up using my #00 through #2 C3s quite a few times because nothing else would fit. I found using all this small gear in conjunction with the unknowns of onsight climbing mentally taxing.

In the top photo a climber is on "Cool but Concerned" and on the bottom is a climb that I lead that is not in the guidebook. I'm not sure who did it in the past but there is a set of new anchors at the top.

For my last climb of the day I jumped on "Phasers on Kill" which is a 5.7 vertical crack into some face climbing on horizontals which leads to a roof. At the roof you enter a chimney on the right and climb to the anchors. The climb is around 25 meters in height. Everything was going fine until below the chimney where I did not have any useful sized pro left to put in the last horizontal crack. I made the mistake of using my two #1 C4s too early in the hand crack and nothing I had would protect the moves into the chimney. I felt stupid. I should have know better then to place two cams of the same size when I may have been able to use a large nut instead.

"Ok, a #.75 might do it", I thought. Unfortunately that cam, my last piece, was already a foot below me and two feet to the side. Besides being a little annoyed at this, I was beginning to feel pressed by the weather. The day's blue sky was gone and the winds had picked up. Also, despite being in a good position I had been standing there way too long fooling with gear; I needed to move.

Up? Down? Nope, I traversed left under the roof as it looked like I could get some gear in. The roof ended about 5 meters to the left and I knew there was another set of anchors just up from the end. I managed to place a #0.4 C4 in a shallow horizontal after digging the dirt out of it with a nut-tool and then a couple meters later a solid #2 and #00 C3. I was pretty happy to clip the anchors.

A summer in review

2010-09-13T14:25:00.009-04:00

It is hard to believe that the summer climbing is over and fall is here. There are lots of climbers who welcome fall over the summer sweat fests. Yes, the cooler temperatures are more conducive to sending your hard projects and the bugs are gone but I miss summer. Once September comes, so does the rain and the climbing days are limited. I also find fall climbing has a certain anxiety that centers around unfinished goals and self evaluation. Did I improve this season? Did I meet any of my goals?

While recovering from a finger injury back in February I decided that this year I was going to focus on learning to place gear and send some trad lines in Gatineau. Here is the rather vague goal declaration I made on the Ottawa climbing form.

"2010 goals
by drtyner » Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:20 pm

I would like to learn to place gear and send some trad lines in the area."

Thanks to a long list of people I believe I have built some gear placement skills and I did manage to climb some of the Gatineau "Classics". That said, I need to work on placing gear faster. This means choosing the right cam or stopper on the first go and not taking five minutes to get a bomber placement.

One thing I left out of my goal was a 5.X grade. Just because I did not write it does not mean it was not in the back of my mind. Like it or not grades are part of measuring improvement. So I set the lofty goal (for me) of sending a 5.10 on gear by the end of the season. To date I have two mixed 5.10's under my belt.

Psychokrak 5.10a Trad + 1 bolt, 25m Montagne d'Argent, redpoint, Aug 1/10 (TRed it once back in 2009)
Pop Corn 5.10a Trad + 5 bolts, 25m Montagne d'Argent, onsight, Aug 1/10

I am definitely proud of these two routes. Does this mean I can climb 5.10 routes on gear? Defintely not. I have down climbed, cursed like a sailor and struggled on my share of 5.6 through 5.9 routes. It is all very humbling and sometimes discouraging given I have redpointed the odd 5.11 sport route. On my trip to Calabogie it bacame clear that I climb gear routes at a turtles pace. When I am above gear I spend a long time making every move perfect which means wasting too much energy. I could claim this is onsight verses redpoint but at the end of the day it is really bolt verses gear.

All in all, it was a summer of mileage and learning. Below is a time line of this year's climbing on new routes.

2010
------------------------------------
Sport:
Al on the Run 5.11c (Notes: 2 goes on TR May 24/10, June 1st more work on TR, July 17th one hanged it on TR)
The Reaper 5.9 -redpoint April 24th (Notes: send it on TR first)
Martha Steward 5.8 -onsight May 10th (Notes: Short 2 bolt warm-up)
Catwoman 5.11b (Notes: One burn on May 17th. After the second bolt move out right not left)
La Cha-Cha des Felins 5.9- -onsight, July 10th, Montagne d'Argent
Unnamed sport line 5.6? Calabogie, onsight Sept 11/10
Second unnamed sport line 5.6?, Calabogie, onsight Sept 11/10 (Notes: take a 0.3 BD C4 to avoid the runout)

Trad or mixed with bolts:
---> lot's of moderates as this my first year climbing on gear.
Security 5.10d Gear + 2 bolts (Notes: couple tries on March 17/10, attempt on April 20th http://scalingrock.blogspot.com/2010/04/cams-work.html)
Joy of Life 11a gear + bolts (Notes: two tries on March 20/10)
Original route 5.10c gear + bolts (Notes: two tries on March 20/10, just the roof that causes trouble)
Route A 5.5, gear -redpoint March 17th/10 (Notes: TR'ed in the past)
Route B 5.4, gear-onsight March 8th/10 (Notes: my first trad lead)
Route C 5.5, gear-redpoint March 17th/10 (Notes: TR'ed in the past)
Mr. Toady's Dihedral 5.8, Gear + 1 bolt - onsight March 17/10
One up 5.7, Gear - onsight April 2/10
Piton Highway 5.7 Gear + 3 bolts - redpoint April 2/10 (Notes: one previous go on TR)
Lavander 5.9 Gear + 5 bolts - redpoint April 2/10 (Notes: I had lead the bottom part before while traversing the cliff)
Peggy 5.7+ Gear + 1 bolt - onsight April 14th/10
Cotter crack 5.10b (Notes: One attempt on April 14th/10, the beginning is hard and the top is pumpy!)
Neruda 5.6, Gear- onsight April 20th/10 (Notes: sandbagged for sure)
Fruit tart 5.8, Gear + 1 bolt- April 24/10 (Notes: backed off 1st try, sent on second go)
Raikush 5.10c 5 bolts + Gear (Notes: One go on TR April 24th/10)
Pitch 2 of Sev's Route 5.5, Gear onsight April 29/10 (Notes: sandbagged, more like 5.7,slightly overhanging, tiny gear off the belay #4,#5 BD stoppers)
One Pine Variation C 5.6 onsight April 29/10 (Notes: linked the two pitches)
Corruption 5.9, 1 bolt + Gear, (Notes: hard (for 5.9) crux well protected by a bolt but I back off because of sketchy gear higher up. Toproped it May 10th; found better placements and holds, bring the RPs or Micro Nuts. Next time it will go)

Cracker Joe 5.9+ Gear, Montagne d'Argent, onsight June 27th (Notes: A fantastic climb)
Hiroshima 5.5, Gear Montagne d'Argent, onsight June 27th (Notes: Not worth the time to climb it)
Super Crackpot 5.8, Gear + 5 bolts, Montagne d'Argent, onsight July 10th (Notes: 5 bolts lead into a finger crack, 35 meters.)
Madame la Marquise 5.6-, Gear, Montagne d'Argent, onsight July 10th (Notes: dirty)
Invitation Mixte 5.10b, Montagne d'Argent, TR'ed (one hang) July 10th, on the to lead list
Titanicomanie 5.8, Gear + 3 bolts, Montagne d'Argent, onsight July 10th (Notes: 3 bolts into a never ending crack, 38 meters)
Chute Libre 5.8 Trad + 1 bolt, 20m Montagne d'Argent, onsight, July 31/10
M&M 5.8, Trad 23m, Montagne d'Argent, redpoint (TR'ed in the past), July 31/10
Krakabra 5.7+, Trad 25m, Montagne d'Argent, redpoint (TR'ed in the past), July 31/10
Psychokrak 5.10a Trad + 1 bolt, 25m Montagne d'Argent, onsight, Aug 1/10
Pop Corn 5.10a Trad + 5 bolts, 25m Montagne d'Argent, onsight, Aug 1/10

Cool but concerned 5.8, Trad + 1 bolt, 18m Calabogie, onsight(*) , Sept 11/10 (Notes: * clipped a near by bolt near the top as my nerves crumbled on small crimps)
Unnamed mixed line 5.8?, Trad + 2 bolt, Calabogie, onsight, Sept 11/10 (Notes: Variation of Calabogie Sunset 5.5, pull the roof for full value)
Unnamed mixed line 5.9?, Trad + 2 bolt, Calabogie, onsight, Sept 11/10 (Notes: left of First Flight)

Other: X/R rated routes on TR
Probation 5.8+ PG - TR onsight April 20th (Notes: I toproped this with the FA Bob Milko and the gear is R (if not X) not PG)
Little Yellow Fucker 5.9 X - TR April 12th (4 or so tries)

Calabogie, a first look

2010-09-11T18:56:00.009-04:00

For a change in scenery I ventured out to Main Cliff at Calabogie today. We park as per the map below and followed the top of the cliff line until a "Second easy way down". The 5.0 down climb is reasonable (short) and there is a knotted rope to assist if you need it.

View Larger Map

With the NCC closing a large portion of the climbing in Gatineau Park there has been a resurgence in development at Calabogie. This develop appears to be lead by Peter Slivka. Peter was actually out there today working routes and cleaning when I showed up. In fact, there was more people there then I would have ever expected. A couple locals, Peter and a VR group, a group from the ACC, some randoms and us for around 25 climbers or so. I'm not really one for an over crowded crag.

The over crowding aside there are some cool routes at Calabogie. Besides the hard stuff, like a direct start to Vulcan Mind, Peter et al. have bolted a number of moderate mixed routes and also a couple easy sport routes. The mixed routes appear to be variations of Calabogie Sunset 5.5 and First Flight 5.8 plus a newer route left of First Flight which might be 5.9+. I found the beginning pumpy as I looked desperately for holds. I think the Calabogie grades in the guidebook are on the stiff side even compared to some of the older Gatineau routes. In other words take a good look at the route first and don't expect a cake walk even if it is only 5.8. A good example of this is the top section of "Cool but Concerned". All in all, I think Peter is doing some good work out there and may just provide the momentum needed to create a viable alternate to Gatineau.

The rock at Calabogie is granite but unlike Gatineau its features are defined by horizontal cracks. So tri-cams and spring loaded cams seem to be the protection of choice. Note that stoppers are still useful, so don't leave them on the ground. For example, just below the crux of "Cool but Concerned" there is a bomber nut placement in one of the few vertical cracks that I saw.

My last note on Calabogie is to be aware of loose rock. This is a crag under development and there are death blocks out there. While we were there I saw a skull crusher get ripped off the wall by a climber. Wear your helmet.

Hornets on North Wall

2010-08-29T21:37:00.001-04:00

I went out yesterday to get more mileage and to work some of the kinks out of my lead solo system. Although, when I got to the wall it was covered in hornets. Since I got my share of stings a little while ago I decided to walk away. Luckily I ran into some climbers at a near by wall in need of a rope gun. After putting up some TRs for them it turned out to be a nice day.

My first lead solo and bootied cam

2010-08-25T18:19:00.011-04:00

So I have been hemming and hawing about doing some solo aid climbing since it is hard to get a belay partner during the week. Heck, it is hard to get a partner for the weekend since I hangout with boulders. Anyway, last night I decided today was a good day to give it a shot.

Of course, I got started late and the morning's blue sky was turning gray as I parked in the parkinglot for the Western CWM in Gatineau. "All well, at least I'll get a hike out of it if it starts to rain" I thought as I started down the trail. I arrived by Cave Wall and did a walk of the cliff to see how wet it was from the last rain and to scout for spots that would make for a solid ground anchor. As I passed the Reaper Buttress I saw a rigid stemmed friend near the crux on Mr. Toady's Dihedral. I don't think it was a bail piece since the anchors can be accessed if you are careful. Anyway, I rapped down and wow was this puppy over cammed. Using a nut tool and just the right persuasion I got the cam out after about 30 minutes of work.

After rescuing the cam I decided to forgo aiding and do a lead solo on the North Wall instead. I picked Route B 5.4. Route B is a fingers to hands crack that eats gear. For a ground anchor I used two slings around a tree with locking biners and attached the rope with a figure-8 on a bight. To self belay I used a (unmodded) gri-gri backed up with overhand knots every 6 feet or so. I kept two knots clipped to my harness at a time. With everything good to go I climbed up, set a cam, clipped and tested the system with my feet a few feet off the ground. I know this did not represent a true lead fall but I was able to check that the anchor and gri-gri loaded up as expected. .

I climbed slow and deliberately while placing lots of gear. I found myself, surprisingly, very calm as I climbed. With the rain holding off, a couple drops fell while finishing the route, I took some time to admire the view before rapping.

I found feeding the gri-gri to be annoying a points but manageable on this climb. Certainly a device designed for soloing would have been better. Perhaps carrying the rope in a backpack might help too. All in all a good day of firsts. My first solo lead and my first bootied cam.

Buying climbing shoes

2010-08-21T16:24:00.010-04:00

Finding climbing shoes that fits and suit your climbing style is no easy task. I'm currently in a shoe buying dilemma. The crux is that I tend to enjoy a mixed bag of climbing activities and I want a shoe that covers it all. I climb 5.7 to 5.10 trad routes, up to 5.11 sport and boulder in the gym on overhanging problems.

My current and past shoes are the 5.10 anasazi verde. I wear them tight with a hammer toe fit which works for me in the gym and on face/slab outside. Trad is another story. A hammer toe fit is just too painful for crack climbing. So, what I want is flat fit performance trad shoe if it exists.

I went to MEC on a shoe finding mission and tried on 5.10 Blanco, La Sportiva Muria Lace, Katana lace, Nago, Scarpa Techno Rock Shoes and the Instinct. Of course, most of these are down turned or require curled toes which are not going to be great for cracks. If I was looking for just a bouldering shoe I would have got the Katana lace. Note that, La Sportiva and 5.10 sizing vary by about two euro sizes. My old 5.10 verde shoes come in at 42.5 where I got a 41 Katana lace on and maybe even a 40.5. Anyway, I left MEC empty handed and returned home to glue both pairs of verdes back together for the fifth time.

Enter, the La Sportiva TC Pro. Now MEC carries this shoe but not at their Ottawa store which makes trying them on annoying. After looking at various form posts and reviews I decided to order the 42 and 41.5 sizes via the MEC website. The 42 was too big and I'm on the fence about the 41.5 pair. They are snug but with stretch I'm worried they will become too sloppy for thin edging. I took the 42's back and ordered the 40.5 and the 41's to compare to what I've got now. Hopefully in the end I'll find something that I'm happy with and not just become an importer of TC Pro's for the Ottawa store.

If money were no object then I would definitely buy both Katana lace and a pair of TC Pro's. Although, it is difficult to buy more cams after spending so much money on shoes.

Climbing access in Gatineau Park update

2010-08-18T17:02:00.003-04:00

In March 2010, the National Capital Commission (NCC) released a land management plan for Gatineau Park which restricts climbing to the Western CWM west (North wall to Cave wall), Home Cliff west, Twin Ribs and Eastern Block. The NCC moved forward by installing no access signs, in late May, at the majority of the climbing sites recognized in the previous access agreement. In addition, access to the ``Shrine parkinglot`` on Chemin de la Montagne was removed.

To address the closures the Ottawa-Gatineau Climbers' Access Coalition (OGCAC) submitted a climbing management plan to the NCC. The scope of the plan was created to meet the ecological concerns raised by the NCC in an effort to maintain access to climbing on the Eardley escarpment. This plan was endorsed by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. Unfortunately, the NCC largely rejected the plan.

On August 17th, the OGCAC members gathered to vote on how to move forward. It was decided not to endorse the NCC response and that the OGCAC will maintain its position outlined in the management plan. Sadly, the limited success in securing climbing access in the park puts 60 years of Gatineau climbing at a crossroads.

All documentation regarding the management plan and the NCC response is available at http://gatineauclimbingaccess.ca/documents.html

A weekend climbing

2010-08-01T20:45:00.004-04:00

I spent two days at Montagne d'Argent this past weekend climbing with lots of different people. Saturday was a bit of a slow day though; I think I was still sore from the gym. A list of Saturdays efforts:

La petite biere area:

Deuxieme biere 5.3 sport 7 bolts 35m
-This is a nice way to get the grand canyon area. An easy climb which can be done with packs in approach shoes.

Grand Canyon area:

Chute Libre 5.8 Trad + 1 bolt 20m
- This is a straight forward climb with one or two 5.8 moves on the slab at the top.

Les Petits Chiens <> 5.11c Trad + 4 bolts 20m
- The gear portion is easy 5.8 climbing and the real business is protected by bolts. I took a few falls between the first and second bolt which is most likely the crux. After the second bolt the climbing is strenuous into a very thin upper slab. It would take some more work to get this clean.

Le Sacre du Printemps 5.9 Trad 25m
-I got just above the halfway mark but I got spooked by the gear and downclimbed. I pulling my gear as I went.

M&M area:

M&M 5.8 Trad 23m
-This is a must do lead with lots of gear options.

Krakabra 5.7+ Trad 25m
-Similar to M&M but the feet and rests are much better. The gear is larger on this one, #2 and #3 BD camolots. There is a thread through about 3/4 of the way up it you are short on gear.

Sundays efforts:

M&M area:

M&M
-on TR as a warm-up after Dan lead it.

Psychokrak 5.10a Trad + 1 bolt 25m
-The tricky part is traversing from the main crack, as it thins out on to the slab, to the second hand crack to the right. This is my first 10 on gear.

Pop Corn 5.10a Trad + 5 bolts 25m
-The trad portion is a fantastic finger crack that protects well. The upper section which is protected by bolts is mentally demanding with big moves between the bolts. A much harder climb then Psychokrak.

Sonatine 5.12a sport 8a 23m
-Worked this on toprope for awhile, figured out some beta, but I did not get too far.

The Mills

2010-07-25T21:08:00.003-04:00

While passing through Kingston this past weekend I hooked up with Gen for some climbing at the Mills. I used to toprope at the Mills when I lived in Ktown since there are so few sport routes and I did not have trad gear at the time. So, I thought it would be fun to lead a number of the climbs on the main face. To warm up I lead the right corner which is 5.4. It was a little damp from the rain the night before so I took it slow. The gear was interesting too. This is not a climb for cams and it took some looking to get a quality nut placement. Next up, was a 5.5 face climb with a gear rating of "fair". Perhaps "fair" = "no fall" because I found the first 12 m difficult to protect. The climbing was not hard but it was a head game for sure.

A couple photos

2010-07-22T17:40:00.003-04:00

Photos, from Guillaume, of climbing back in April.

P2 of Sev's Route

Traversing on One Pine

Gearing up

Al's sequence

2010-07-18T13:59:00.002-04:00

I was in the CWM yesterday for the first time in about a month and a half. I lead Neruda and some easy stuff on the Spindrift wall before giving "Al on the run" another go on toprope. With the beta I worked out in June I was able to climb straight through to the roof which puts me in a good spot to get it on lead. Time to start the redpoint attempts.

Mileage: 188 meters ~ 617 feet

2010-07-10T21:50:00.011-04:00

Saturday was another great day in the Grand Canyon at Montagne d'Argent with Iris, Pete and Jeff. It could have been the heat, or the wine from the night before but it was not a day for big numbers. Just a day to gain more mileage placing gear.

To warm-up I jumped on a 28 meter sport climb, La Cha-Cha des Felins 5.9-. In classic Grand Canyon style we were unsure of which route I was on at first. Was it mixed or pure sport? In fact the bolts are there, they are just hard to see over the bulges. Also, there is some liberal bolt spacing at the top so keep your focus on the upper slabs. A committing onsight for the grade.

Climb number two was Super Crackpot 5.8 mixed. This climb has 5 bolts that lead into a finger crack for a total of 35 meters. The crack protects well with nuts and camalots up to #1. At one point, I had a fight with an over cammed #1 which took both hands to get it out. A tricky maneuver for sure. The hassle to get it out while on lead was worth it though when I place it later on.

While sitting around munching I got roped into belaying another climber on Souris Chauve, a 34 meter 5.10b sport route. I have climbed this in the past so there were no surprises when I ran up it on TR. This is a soft ten with little commitment. Just climb it, have fun.

After some more munching I walked down to a 26 meter 5.6- called Madame la Marquise.
It would be a nice climb if someone cleaned it. There is lots of moss, lichen and dirt.

At the end of the Grand Canyon is a 22 meter mixed 5.10b called Invitation Mixte. The first two thirds is crack followed by bolts up a slab to the anchors. Pete worked his way up the climb but despite a solid effort came off at what we determined later to be the crux. A short clean fall onto a #.3 camalot. Once past the crux, Pete dispatched the upper slab with ease. Up next, I TR'ed and cleaned the gear but came off at the crux as well. This is definitely on the lead list.

For my last climb of the day I hmm'ed and hawed about Titanicomanie. A 5.8 mixed route with 3 bolts into a never ending crack. Ok, it does end but not for 38 meters. After whining about how tired I was I suited up with lots of extra gear. I remember placing four #2's, two #1's, one #3 and a #.75 camalot. I found the jamming at the crux difficult. With sweat running down my arms the wide hand crack put up a battle and was hard on the feet as I cammed them in. I was so happy once I broke through the hard climbing that I ran it out for a little while. This was not for my ego, it just happened. With the easier climbing I just relaxed and made up a bunch of ground without realizing it. At the top there is a blueberry bush and a sweet belay ledge to bring up a second and in our case a third.

Hey Joe, what d'ya know

2010-06-28T12:20:00.007-04:00

On Sunday, Pete and I returned to Montagne d'Argent with Jeff and Iris. We walked to L'hippocampe but decided to move on to Le fou instead. I started on Cracker Joe. A clean 5.9+ trad route which follows a 12m left leaning hand crack. This would be my hardest trad route yet and it looked like a route I could do. The climb has a small ledge about six feet off the deck from which I placed my first pieces. I put in a #1 BD cam and just above it a mega bomber #13 BD stopper. I always like to have two solid pieces for peace of mind near the start of a route. Climbing up I then placed a #1 BD cam and then later a #2. Although the #2 did not sit right so quickly put jammed in another above it. I was pumped at this point and there was no way I wanted to come off while fooling with a piece of gear. Somewhere near the end of the crack I used a #3 BD cam. I was near losing it at this point because of exhaustion. Despite the solid hand jams I found the climbing strenuous as I cammed my right foot in the crack and smeared with the left. When the going gets tough I tend to talk to myself and there may have been some Sharma like grunts. Anyway, when the crack ends you get to rest on a couple jugs before climbing easy terrain to the anchors. Being tired, I was so focused on climbing that I actually climbed past the anchors on the blocky terrain. This was certainly my hardest trad onsight.

Been both physically and mentally fatigued from Joe Cracker I climbed a sport route called Boeing which is a 12m 5.9+ sport route. 5.9+ sport is a walk in the park compared to 5.9+ trad. A fun redpoint, I have done it in the past and I even clipped the second bolt this time. The lockoff on the flake did not seem that bad this time.

Next we moved to Controverse for some 5.8-ish slab climbing. I lead Controverse, a 25m 5.8-sport, since it is such a fun route. There are a couple delicate moves on this climb and it deserves some respect. After this I climbed Hiroshima. Hiroshima is a 30m 5.5 trad route that really is not worth leading. If you do lead it then take passive gear as cams are not very useful past the first 15 feet. Also, I could not find the anchors.

The last climb of the day was M&M. M&M is a 23m 5.8 eye catching splitter in the middle of the M&M wall. Pete wanted to lead it and being short on time I decided just to second it. Pete crushed it and even placed some hexs along the way.

Fly on the wall

2010-06-01T20:17:00.002-04:00

Matthew and I had a late start to the CWM today; due to overnight and morning rain. The walk in was scenic as always but the 100% humidity was less than pleasant. Also, the flies were crazy thick. Some deer flies and lots of non-biting horse(?) flies. While leading Neruda there were at least 20 flies crawling on my arms and back. There must has been twice as many just circling around my head. Super annoying while leading. After Neruda I worked "Al on the run" on TR and figured out some more beta to link the upper and lower sections. I'm excited to get back to try a clean ascent on TR. I feel this definitely could go on lead with some more work.

L'argent pour un jour

2010-05-30T21:54:00.005-04:00

Jason, Pete, Andrew and I took a day trip to climb the solid granite lines at Montagne d'Argent. On arrivial we decided to hit up the Grand Canyon which can be accessed by either climbing the stairs or 35 meter 5.3 slab. The slab is actually pretty fun and it was interesting to see what climbing with a pack full of gear was like.

I started my day in the Grand Canyon on a 22 meter 5.7 trad climb called Triplets. The guide shows two bolts but they don't exist. Anyway, I got most of the way up when I ran out of large gear. I really needed another #1 or #2 camlot. After deciding against putting myself in a position to take a 30 footer I downclimbed and traversed to a sport route. So with a less than stellar performance under my belt I decided to lead Mauvaise Herbe. This is a 5.10d with 6 bolts which is one more than the guidebook states. I climbed it but not well or clean. Although, after resting I sent it clean on TR. Now at this point in the day I was looking for redemption so I picked, the familar, Pathfinder 5.10c. Finally, a redpoint. All in all a good day.

Cave Wall

2010-05-25T12:39:00.003-04:00

Rachel, MC (a.k.a. stonecrusher) and I headed out to the north side of the Western CWM in yesterday's crazy heat. We spent most of our time on Cave Wall. I warmed up by leading Neruda and sent Security on TR. Security felt good so maybe it is time for another lead attempt. I spent the rest of my energy working on "Al on the Run 5.11c". This climb has a hard lower section followed by 5.7 climbing once you pull the roof on good holds. The crux (for me) is getting to the side pull pocket, marked with green, just below the roof and between the second and third bolt. Once I get that with my right I can pull the roof and finish. At the moment I get stuck on the two good holds, marked with red, just below the second bolt.

Eastern Block

2010-05-20T10:43:00.002-04:00

Bob and I hit up the steep slabs of Eastern block yesterday. We climbed the usual stuff: Ethics Police 5.8, Mr. Clean 5.8+, Coda 5.10a and two that are not in the guidebook. I put a TR on The Slide 5.10c as well. Not much to report, just a day of climbing.

It is the nature of the beast

2010-05-17T21:29:00.002-04:00

It was back to Downunder with Mike today for some sport climbing. I warmed up by leading Sausages 5.10c and Mike did a couple laps as well. Then I decided to give Catwoman 5.11b a go on lead. I climbed through to the second bolt before heading out left but got lost while looking for holds and I had to take. On Mike's advice I moved out right and found the climbing more straight foward. I had to take again near the top as I got pumped looking for a hold to clip the anchors on. Now that I know where the holds are it should go next time. Next up I TR'ed El Ninjo 5.12a after Mike ran a couple laps on it. I found it really hard today. Catwoman took more out of me than I had thought. Mike has been working the Beast 5.13b this spring and the last time he had linked the upper and lower sections. So, today was game day (in mine mind anyway). On the first burn Mike push through the lower section to the no hands rest before the second crux. Mike looked strong but got shut down by a wicked barn door after releasing his toe hook. It was clear this beta was not going to work so he worked out a new approach and returned to the ground. It was again my turn to get pumped out on El Ninjo again and I did as expected. Mike looked a bit tried on the lower section of his next burn on the Beast but pull through to the rest. After sticking the second crux; I knew he was going to do it. Nice send Mike! After resting I thrashed around on the Beast on TR to clean it. I was mostly aiding on draws. It is clear that I had no business on a 5.13. The holds are heinous.

Anti-Gravity, a first glance

2010-05-11T23:38:00.003-04:00

This afternoon I went to Downunder for the first time this year. I have been climbing moderate routes on gear for about 1.5 months so I was worried about getting crushed by the Downunder routes. For us mere morals Downunder can be an intimidating place. So after Mike ran laps on Pita de Roma 5.11a to warm up I decide to give it shot on TR. Lame, I know. In my defense, Pita was at my lead limit last year. Anyway I was surprised that I sent it clean. Next up, El Ninjo 5.12a and again Mike runs a couple laps. I jump on TR, fail at the crux, rest and finish the climb. I gave it two more goes before the day was done but I just could not get it clean. In the mean time Mike works the Beast 5.13b and sends Exodus 5.12d. Just to see how hard it is, I gave the lower crux on the Beast a couple tries for fun. Mike was also kind enough to run up Anti-Gravity 5.12c so I could try it on TR. It is a fantastic route but super hard from both a technical and power stand point.

Corruption Buttress

2010-05-10T23:31:00.004-04:00

Hit up the Corruption Buttress with Rachel, Bob and Haley today. It was a cold morning at 5 C with a 15 km/hr wind so we opted for cover in the Western Cwm. I warmed up on Martha Steward 5.8, a 2 bolt near-vertical climb. It is a fairly easy onsight with the crux at the top. Next, it was onto Corruption 5.9, 1 bolt and gear. The crux, which is hard for 5.9, is well protected by a bolt but gear is sketchy higher up. There are small and I mean small cracks for micro stoppers and RPs (I did not have any with me). The Black diamond #4 and #5 stoppers are too big because their cables are too fat and get in the way. However, working higher you can get them in. Away, this is a no fall zone because if the gear goes you are hitting a big ledge. So in the end I, pulled my 2 crappy nut placements, down climbed to the bolt and retreated to the ledge. After some "Gatineau Mountaineering" up a dirty 5.1 (?) I put a toprope on Corruption. With a clean send on TR I found some better placements and holds so next time I think it will go.

As a side note:

The galvanized steel mallions that connect the sport clips to anchors on the Corruption Buttress (specifically Enron and Corruption) are reacting with the hangers and are rusting. The anchors on Corruption are the most affected. The anchors are certianly sound at this point but perhaps the mallions should be removed and/or replaced.

Gear decisions on longer climbs

2010-04-30T16:05:00.007-04:00

Guillaume, Bob and I hiked out to Farm Rock to take in some moderate trad climbing on some of Gatineau's longer pitches. I started up One Pine 5.4 as a warmup. The climb follow up a corner for a about 10m and then traverses left about 6m to another crack. I found placing gear in the broken rock a tad troublesome. I placed a #3 BD cam in the corner on a double sling before traversing to cut down on rope drag. The traverse itself is not protected so I wanted to get a piece in once I hit the new crack system. However the gear here is questionable. I put in two piece and continue to look for a solid placement. I found a good spot for a #0.3 BD cam about 2.5m higher. I then down climbed and removed the questionable placements because the rope drag was brutal. I continued to climb, putting in gear as I went and at some point I believe I started in on the 5.6 variation. I find the guide book some what confusing. Anyway, I definitely linked the two pitches and near the end I was short on gear. The last bit of climbing is a hand crack which was way to big for the cams and nuts I had left. After what seemed like a long time I found some "hidden" placements for smaller gear and I finished the climb. Note that a 60m rope will get you to the ground on rope stretch only. A 70m rope is much nicer for Farm Rock.

Next up was Wall Climb a two pitch 5.5 PG route. The PGness has been removed by bolts which protect the traverse. Bob lead the first pitch. For the second pitch I did the second pitch of Sev's Route which is listed at 5.5. Although, this is a 1960's 5.5 and is sandbagged by today's standards. This is a solid 5.7. It starts as a thin slightly overhung crack on tiny gear; I put in a #5 and #4 BD stopper off the belay and I did not get bomber placement for a few meters. While climbing it I would have suggested 5.8 but there a number of jugs after the half way mark so maybe it is a 5.7. Anyway, go climb it and decide for yourself. Also, it you are going to bring up two more it is best to top out and skip the hanging belay.

Climb in the CWM while you can

2010-04-26T11:10:00.003-04:00

I was back in the CWM, with Matt and Bob, last Friday climbing more trad and some sport while the area is still open to climbing. I warmed up by leading bolt line #1 on the Spindrift wall and sending Jugness on TR after Bob lead it. Next up, was The Reaper a short 5.9 2 bolt climb on a slightly overhanging wall. I sent it once on TR and then lead it. I should have just lead it to begin with but I was worried about clipping the second bolt. As it turns out the bolts can be clipped from solid positions and protect the crux well.

After a snack, it was off the Shpinava Wall on the south side of the CWM. I decided to lead Fruit Tart. A 5.8 three star Gatineau route that moves up a large corner into a roof and finishes on a slab. I started into the climb placing a #0.3 BD cam, #6 BD stopper and a #0.4 BD cam as I went. As I approached the roof I had trouble placing gear that I could trust which lead to wasting a lot of time and second guessing. In the end I down climbed and lowered off my #0.4 cam. The sun had not come around the corner yet so I was also cold. After sitting in the sun it was time for round two. I also put my coat on to keep warm while climbing. This time I slotted a nut above the #0.4 cam and moved up into the roof. I put in a #0.5 BD cam to protect me while I spent, what seemed like forever, fiddling to get a #3 BD cam in. I put 60cm runners on both the #0.5 and #3 to prevent rope drag. Getting over the roof bit was a battle as I felt over the lip for good holds. Once on the outter face I put in a #2 BD cam before rocking over onto my right foot to stand up and finally clip a bolt. The rest of the climbing from here is easy to the anchors.

The last climb of the day was Raikush 5.10c 5 bolts + gear on TR. This climb is beside Fruit tart so it also has a roof to pull. The roof move is not the crux. The crux is on the very thin slab near the second bolt. After working out the slab I sent it clean on TR so I can see a lead attempt in the future. I should also say that between the last bolt and the anchors is tricky too.

Cams work!

2010-04-21T14:22:00.006-04:00

Bob, Guillaume and I climbed in the Western CWM yesterday with warm temps and mostly clear skies. Bob has climbed in the area for quite some time and has a few first ascents to his name along the escarpment. We actually toproped one of them, Probation 5.8+ PG. The gear on this route is X not PG and hence the toprope. Next to Probation is Neruda 5.6 which I used as my warm up. Naruda is a sandbagged hand/arm crack that runs more like 5.8 so it made for a fun onsight warmup. Having two #3 BD cams is a good idea but not necessary.

My main reason for going to the Cave Wall was to get another try at Security 5.10d with 2 bolts on the upper slab and gear on the overhanging bottom half. About half way to the 1st bolt you get a #10 BD stopper nut placement and 6 inches above that a #0.4 BD cam. That's it. There are other small nut placements but they are tricky and their fall holding ability is questionable. So, after placing the .4 cam I continue to climb. If I blow the clip on the 1st bolt from too far below then I'll have enough rope out for a ground fall so I climb to a higher position. Using a side pull out to the left I clip the draw. At this point, I need to pull up about 1.5 feet of rope for a total of 3 extra feet added to the rope length. While trying to clip I start to "barn door" so I drop the rope. Unfortunately my belayer does not have enough time to pull that back in before I peel off. The fall is a blur. Before I know it my left heel hits the ground and I fall backward but get stopped before completely decking by my cam. The cam had already stopped the fall and it was rope stretch that let me touch the ground with my heel. The rope had slowed me down enough by that point that my heel is fine. After resting a minute or two I try again but I'm to pumped and physced out that I have to down climb and take on my cam. Of course, before climbing past the cam I check it to make sure it was still ok. Not willing to give up I aid up to the 1st bolt on a #5 BD stopper and clip it. From here I climb above this first bolt but mess up the sequence for another lead fall. I lowered and send the others off to climb while I walk up to setup a toprope and rap to clean. With a toprope on I found a better clipping position for the first bolt although I still managed to come off once. I decided to rest. After some food and water I sent it clean on toprope. With lessons learned I hope to get it on lead next time.

After packing up we hiked over to the Corruption Buttress and I lead the bottom half of Corruption 5.9 which is the easy part. The bottom part has a pretty cool roof traverse that is a must climb. I'll leave the upper half for when I'm rested.

Cotter Crack, first attempt

2010-04-14T19:47:00.008-04:00

I went climbing with Guillaume today at the Home Cliff area. I did one-up as the usual warm up and then onsighted Peggy 5.7+. Peggy is a great climb with a real exposed feel to it and is definitely worth doing. Just bring lots of runners or suffer some ugly rope drag. After Peggy, we moved to Cotter Crack. Cotter Crack at 5.10b doesn't look too bad until you realize it definitely overhanging and you've fought with the bottom section. It is a tricky finger crack at this point with not the greatest feet. After fingers, it opens into hands where the climbing is burly but more strange forward. The last 5 feet or so is offwidth. I started this climb on gear but backed off and worked it on toprope. I know, lame.

An uneventful day

2010-04-12T00:12:00.005-04:00

Home Cliff was fairly uneventful on Saturday as I spent time on know terrain plugging gear. I did walk over to Cotter Crack and it looks like an awesome line. However, I'm not sure I have enough gear to climb it.

Scorcher at Home Cliff

2010-04-03T15:49:00.004-04:00

Sunshine and 25 C made the base of Home Cliff into an oven on Friday. I headed out with David, Kate and Bob. My 3 liters of water did not last long. Amusingly, David managed to forget his harness in Ottawa so with Bob's advice he constructed one out of webbing.

To warm up, I lead piton highway, a 5.7 classic, on gear and 3 bolts. It was a bit tricky in the dihedral and for some reason nothing seemed to place the way I wanted. Next up, I started in on Lavender 5.9 gear and 5 bolts. The bottom is gear (3 cams) and the upper half is bolts. I think the crux is between the 1st and 2nd bolt. However, the top bit, just before the anchors was tricky too but maybe because it was a little wet. Also, a some point I missed a bolt and had a 15 foot runout going. After getting down I felt exhausted from the sun beating down.

After some rest I worked on the roof on the Original route. I worked out some beta but it will need some more tries. To escape the heat we moved up toward the waterfall on the left of main corner. I onsighted One Up 5.7 on gear. This climb requires some thought and small gear; I made sure my sequence was good before doing the crux bit.

I never did get over to the Cotter Crack, maybe next time.

Rest and rain

2010-03-28T22:34:00.006-04:00

This weekend's climbing was a wash due to my wimpiness. On Friday I woke up to, after being at the gym Thursday, a nasty shoulder ache, stiff fingers and a cold weather report for the weekend. It was not so much the 3 degrees C forecast but the wind that made me wimp out. Now, Sunday night, it is raining. So what is one to do ... other than looking a new gear on the MEC website? ... You look at guidebooks and watch climbing movies, of course. So I popped in the First Ascent video and pulled out the Montagne d'Argent guidebook.

For some reason I really like climbing at Montagne d'Argent; I've been there three times [1,2,3]. On my next trip I would like to get some trad in, as well as, some harder sport. After looking through the guidebook there are several climbs in the M&M, L'hippocampe, Amphitheatre and Le Fou areas that are high on the list to attempt.

A return to M&M: I've climbed here before on TR but now it is time to send some of this stuff on gear. In particular, route #5 M&M 5.8 and if I'm feeling really adventurous #12 Psychokrak 5.10a with 1 bolt. I flashed Psychokrak on TR feeling really tired after two days of climbing so I know I can do it. Yeah yeah, I know, everyone is a hero on toprope.

L'hippocampe: I have not climbing in this area before so this is a must on the next trip. It is all too easy to climb stuff you have done because it is familiar. Anyway, I think a #9 L'hypothenuse 5.7+ trad into #10 L'arete des urubus 5.10b sport looks like a pretty cool 36m linkup. Route #13, Tally-Ho 5.11b looks interesting too.

Amphitheatre and Le Fou: Again, lots of stuff here to attempt. I can see doing Dad's 5.10b sport and maybe try Cracker Joe 5.9+ trad.

So much to climb ... never enough time.

Long day at Home Cliff

2010-03-20T17:34:00.005-04:00

What a day ... it start out cold and grey on the Ottawa side as we piled into the car at far to early in the morning. We decided on Home Cliff over the Western Cwm because the walk out would be shorter if the rain came in but it didn't. By the time we had finished the approach the sun was shining. Mr. Gibbs lead an easy trad route for a warmup which I walked up on TR. Then I started in on a ground up adventure of the Joy of life 5.11a mixed route. Pulling on to this proved harder than it looked so it was nice to find a couple jugs around the second bolt. I placed a #1 BD cam (red) and a backup metolius orange TCU in between the second and third bolt. This proved overkilled as the third bolt turned out to be easier to clip then I thought. I climbed to the 4th bolt but pumped I had to take here. It didn't matter as I had messed up and sat on the 1st bolt anyway. I found the moves to the 5th bolt tricky as the slightly overhanging face changed to slab. At this point there is one more vertical bit then more slab. The climbing becomes much easier but there is another 10 to 15m of climbing on little pro. I placed two pieces on big runouts. I felt very exposed. Anyway I did not see any anchors so I traversed to Peggy's anchors at the top. Some good work put in but it needs more before it will go clean.

After some more vertical mileage on the piton highway which is a fantastic route I decided to climb Lavender a mixed 5.9 with 5 bolts + gear. However, I read the topo wrong and ended up starting in on the Original Route, a mixed 5.10c bolts + gear. The first 10m is on gear into a roof. I had three cams in but the roof turned out to be too much of a head game with only gear to protect me. I know, a solid cam is like a bolt but hey this like only my 9th route climbing on gear. So I lowered off the cams to the ground to rest. Round two and the rock wins again. We now realize this is not Lavender after reading the topo again. Now the fun starts. How to get my gear back? I climb and traverse on Lavender, clip a pin, place a nut, crush over its smaller roof and clip its first bolt. By the way, the 1st bolt is 10 or so meters up so I'm horizontally in line with my pieces on the other climb, just 5m over. The rope drag is brutal. I lower and then climb the 5.10 to get my cams on a huge pendulum. With the cam rescued I traverse back to Lavender. At this point, I'm tired after all the attempts and traversing but it is a 5.9 and I should be able to pull it. The climb moves into a thin finger crack which requires careful finger locks. I used a ring lock too which I had never done before and manager rip a hole in my shoe with a toe cam. Anyway, I climbed the rest although its anchors were being used by other climbers so I continued on and left back on to the Original Route to finish. Rap and clean. I'm exhausted at this point after the gong show to recover my gear. We pack up. Dam, look at that ... I left a nut three meters up. Putting my shoes back on was the worst feeling ever ... back on the rock ... boulder to nut ... clean ... down climb. What a day ...

Spring time climbing

2010-03-17T20:09:00.009-04:00

It was a balmy 15 C in Ottawa today so I headed out to Gateneau with David Gibbs. We went out to the Wesrtern Cwm area to practice placing gear and checkout the Reaper Buttress along with the Cave Wall. To warm up we each lead and followed, the cleverly named climbs, Route A 5.5, B 5.4 and C 5.5 on the North Wall before moving to the Reaper Buttress. I onsighted Mr. Toady's Dihedral 5.8 which is a 1 bolt plus gear route. The bottom was a little damp but nice and dry where the business happens. After that, I made a ground up assault on Security 5.10d which is gear on the lower sections with bolts protecting the upper slab. The real climbing happens on gear. I climbed above my pro to the first bolt but was not in a good clipping position so I down climbed to my cam and weighted it to rest. This was a bit freaky as it was the first time I have hung on a piece of gear. On my second attempt above my gear I pushed a hold higher but again I could not get solid so down I climbed again. Being tired, I came down and David lead the crack beside us called Neruda 5.6. Once done, I TR'ed Security before having to get packed up. I'll get it ground up next time.

On another note the NCC (national capital commission or now perhaps the 'no climbing commission') is bringing the hammer down on climbing within Gatineau Park. The NCC is planning to heavily restrict climbing. Their main arguments against climbing are flawed. There is a coalition to fight this but I'm not convinced the NCC will listen ...

Here are some documents that give you some insight as to where rock
climbing sits in the NCC's park plan for Gatineau. Each document talks
of the coming "conservation plan" without mention of a specific date.
Note, the conservation plan is now available as of today (see near the
end of the list).

Consultation Report - Gatineau Park Master Plan Review (2005)
http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/data/2/rec_docs/1779_pcr_e.pdf

Strategic Environmental Assessment (2005)
http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/data/2/rec_docs/1780_sea_e.pdf

Gatineau Park Master Plan (2005)
http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/data/2/rec_docs/1768_Master_Plan_e.pdf

More documents:

http://cdn1.libsyn.com/p2peak/MikeAbraham-EmilyKeogh.pdf?nvb=20100210123625&nva=20100211124625&t=0d55183bda2ca19f75660

http://cdn3.libsyn.com/p2peak/2009-E10e-Park-Conservation-Plan.pdf?nvb=20100210124936&nva=20100211125936&t=0859b3eed4c728c733a8a

Comments:

I was a little shocked to see that climbing has the same cumulative
impact as hunting/poaching and Motor vehicle traffic with in the park.
There are several lines that strike me as concerning:

"Hang-gliding
The infrastructure associated with this sport (parking area, a
1-kilometre access pathway and a departure zone) are all situated in
the integral conservation zone, which is a variance to the Master Plan
zoning. Modifying zoning in this sector to accommodate this sport is
not justified, since this is an exceptional high-value ecosystem. The
hang-gliding site in Gatineau Park was not used in 2008 and 2009. This
sport was replaced by paragliding, which is much more popular and
undertaken outside the Park. It is proposed that the parking lot and
access pathway to the hang-gliding departure site be eliminated."

----> This does not sound good for the Shrine area. In fact the
parkinglot elimation has started already.

"Currently, there is climbing throughout the Eardley Escarpment
(except for four sites) located in the integral conservation zone of
Gatineau Park. Recent studies have described this ecosystem as
exceptional, fragile and vulnerable. It is recommended that the number
of sites where climbing may take place be reduced to only two or three
sites."

----> The wording of the first sentence is misleading and false.

"Concerning habitat rehabilitation, projects such as the
rehabilitation of climbing rock faces and shoreline protection are
being considered under the multi-year investment program for the next
five years."

---> Rehabilitation of climbing rock faces?? The current face are
clean of vegitation ... are they going to chop bolts? Scrub the chalk
off the sport routes?

The Conservation Plan: Posted on March 17 2010:

http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/data/2/rec_docs/24134_GP_eco_plan_e.pdf

----> It's pretty ugly. The word "wall" vs "area" is even more
concerning since losing more of the Western Cwm area would be a real
shame. Also, this document does not provide infomation on how and
based on what sciencific fact these decision were made.

A voice of reason:

http://centretownnewsonline.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1475&Itemid=140

http://www.gatineauparc.ca/

If you have got this far and care to follow this issue, there is the
Ottawa Climbing Forum http://www.ottawaclimbing.com/index.php and as
mentioned above the climbing coalition's blog
http://gatineauclimbingaccess.ca/blog