Squeaky Beach has a small collection of granite boulders with a range of angles and different-sized holds. There are crack problems, mantling problems, juggy problems, crimpy problems and slabby problems.  There isn’t so much that is is worth a dedicated trip, but there are enough lines, ranging from warm-up to hard, to pass an afternoon if you are in the area. Almost all have a flat sandy landing and, of course, the scenery is stunning and you can cool down by playing in the surf.

It’s late autumn now, with perfect temperatures (warm enough to climb, cool enough to keep the hordes of tourists away). If the rain stays away it is a great time to visit. I only wish I’d taken my shoes. Instead I was limited to lines easy enough for my runners.

On Sunday we went for a walk around the You Yangs Regional Park and climbing area. I have never been there before. It’s a granite area – most of the climbing in this part of Australia is sandstone – and relatively close to the city. It is also a bit less busy than the more famous areas and while it doesn’t have either the quality or the quantity of routes and boulders of the Arapiles or the Grampians, it is good to test yourself on different rock from time to time.

There is a popular walking path so we followed this around for the exercise and views and took a few side trips to look at crags and boulders that I’d like to try climbing on when my shoulder does heal …

The picture above was taken April 2004, the picture below was taken August 2005… see the effects of climate change? … heh, not really… I first did this hike with Ross Easter w/e last year. We arrived and the trailhead and carpark was under at least a metre of snow. We had a somewhat epic 3-4 hour hour trip in deep, soft snow and icy switchbacks to the last of three lakes and snow-camped on, what we hoped, was the shore of the lake.

This weekend I hiked the same trail with Alex.  It was more than 30C in Pemberton (the nearest town to the trailhead) and the car-park was packed full of day-trippers. It took less that 2.5 hours to make the 5.5km long 0.5km elevation to the end of the third lake. We set up camp and then made a further 0.4km elevation to the base of the glacier at 1950m.

Back at camp we battled swarms of mosquitoes, ate, slept and hiked out in the morning. On the way out we stopped at the location that I had camped in last year to take the above photo… I’m now not sure that we didn’t camp on the frozen lake last year!

We stopped at a cute little eatery called Pamela’s CookShack in Pemberton for a sweet $10 beer (well Kokanee anyways), burger & salad deal (with a large portion of 80′s metal at top volume on the side), then headed into the forest just south of the town for some very hot and sweaty bouldering. The rock there is really beautiful and the landings so flat but it really was hot… still, that didn’t prevent Alex from sending the slopy classic V3 ‘Pop-Tart’ or the V4 highball ‘Little Tree’. When we’d run out of water we got back in the car and headed back down the Sea-to-Sky to Alice Lake for a quick cool-off swim and then into Squamish for yet more food (yummy barbecued Coho salmon ) at The Brew where we saw, as always, a few familiar (climbers) faces (but I’m having a bad name day).

I needed a break Friday and so took the day off and ended up spending the afternoon at the Squamish Smoke Bluffs with Lukas, Megan and Jazzy. We climbed the classic crack Penny Lane and then climbed some featureless slabs… Lukas sent a sweet 5.10c (trad) at Ronin’s Corner. Dinner at The Brew in Squamish and back to Vancouver.

Saturday, I met up with Alex, Jeremy, Nikki and Patrick at the Edge and went up to Squamish again. Dave and Nicole  met us there, which was good as I have not seen them for ages and ages. Jackie and Doug were also climbing there. Dinner at The Shady Tree then back to Vancouver  to my place to watch the Celebration of Light finals (Sweden won… with Abba, yay!) and drink Rum and Cokes with Marc and Catherine.

Up early(ish) Sunday to hike up the Lions (1525m) with Alex, Damon and Leah (and a well wrapped left knee!).  Well at least I drove there in the car with them, but they went (WAY) ahead so I went up on my own.  The trail was stupidly busy but the views were really good.

1 Proximity to Squamish
2 Having an 8th floor apartment overlooking English Bay, which, for four nights a year, hosts the Vancouver Celebration of Light tri-nation firework competition
3 Cheap and excellent sushi.

The weekend has been relaxing so far…. Friday night barbecue on Nicole and Richard’s deck in North Van (to celebrate Richard’s 35th (!))… Matt brought a walking frame to the party and Jordan started to shake when it was pointed out that Rich is now closer to 40 than 30… It was SO good to see everyone , including Yoda Matt, “Fuck your shit up, I will”.

Saturday, after contemplating bouldering in Pemberton with Matt and Meghan and deciding we were making too late a start, Alex and I met up with Jeremy, Nikki and Patrick at the Edge and went climbing at the Sport Temple and Pleasure Dome areas north of Squamish where we met up with Terry McColl. Patrick made an epic ascent of ‘Just Glue It’ at the temple (video)before rushng ack to Vancouver to iron a shirt and go to a wedding and Nikki made her first 5.12 red-point in two years. Alex and I climbed  ‘Phantom Menace’ and Alex had an epic and tangled rappel from the top of the second pitch on Patrick’s 80m rope.

After climbing we whizzed back to the city in a hour (plus half an hour to park the cars in the hordes of firework traffic), picked up trays of great sushi from the Kishi Sky place on 1st and Nikki, Jeremy, Alex, Dryw, Marc and myself ate and watched the fireworks in my apartment. The performing nation was Sweden and we listened up the music via the simulcast on Classic Rock FM (8th floor in Kits is bit too far to hear it live from the barge). I didn’t see Canada’s performance on Wednesday, but heard they set their fireworks to jazz and it was excellent. Sweden chose to set theirs to what Marc and I decided must have been the soundtrack to an 80s movie, starring either Rob Lowe or Patrick Swayze (Pat just having the edge). Just when I was thinking it was way too Eurovision, they wove in some of Abba’s greatest hits…

-Wednesday at Cliffhanger with Rachel. So nice to see old friends again.
-Thursday at the Edge with Alex.
-Friday at the Senior Centre (a crag near Deep Cove) at the end of  private road that you have to dodge the residents to get along… Nice vertical climbing and you can see the water at Indian Arm from the road.
-Saturday was Nordic at Whistler with Nikki, Jeremy, Scott and Alex. On the way home we stopped at the Shady Tree in Squamish and, inevitably, bumped into familiar faces: Dale, who has been climbing in Squamish with a bunch of people and then, taking their table after they had left, Mike Doyle and  Audrey who had been hiking in Garabaldi provincial park.