Author: Peter Michaux

Beat the Heat with the O2 Cool Fan

Summer and its high temps are coming. If escape to cooler high altitude or the wintery southern hemisphere is not possible, we’ll soon be sliding around together on warm granite with wet skin. While we moan about the conditions and await grippy September’s arrival, we’ll need to make it through the summer sessions without butchering a bloody mess at the end of our fingers.

o2-cool

I’ve already pulled out my little portable fan a few times during this year’s hot spring season. While I loaf around between attempts, the fan’s luxurious breeze keeps my tips cooler and drier. If I can find a cave or vent of cold air to blow on my tips, even better.

The fan doesn’t solve all my problems. Each attempt still ends with pink tips but spending most of the day with dry skin still makes a big difference. The softer and wetter skin gets, the easier it is for granite to shred it. The fan means less wear and less pain as the session progresses.

The O2 Cool is a 5 inch fan. Loaded up with 4 AA batteries, it weighs just under 300 grams. It is compact and easily slips into a bag with shoes and chalk bag.

The only complaint I’ve heard is that some folks have had trouble with the power switch being bumped to the on position while they are hiking. Since the fan is so quite, they don’t even notice and arrive to their project with drained batteries. Removing the batteries or placing a piece of tape over the switch helps.

o2-cool-5-inch-box

I ordered my fan from Amazon a while ago but just the other day I saw them for sale in Squamish at Shoppers Drug Mart for only $14.99. Shoppers even has a 10 inch beast that runs on 6 D batteries for $29.99. The fans are in the seasonal section near the cash register.

Squamish Bouldering 3rd Edition Graded Index

A graded index is an essential part of every guidebook for planning bouldering days, finding projects in just the difficult range, and for use as a tick list. Unfortunately, Squamish Bouldering 3rd Edition doesn’t contain a graded index. Problem solved…

squamish-bouldering-3rd-edition-graded-index.pdf

The goal was to create the graded index that would have been in the book if the author had included it. No errata has been corrected to make the index so that the index is compatible with the rest of the book.

Instants 1


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Squamish Bouldering 3rd Edition Errata

While bouldering may be an individual sport, our collective story enriches each individual’s experience. An area’s guidebook is the primary reference for our story and should be as accurate as possible.

Squamish Bouldering 3rd Edition contains errors. Collecting tens of thousands of facts without making any mistakes is an almost impossible task. Some errors are surely accidental. Others errors, like the renaming of some problems, are intentional.

One goal of this website is to provide a venue to set the record straight and preserve our story as accurately as possible. If you know of any errors in the book, please submit a comment or email petermichaux@hotmail.com. This page will be updated as accurate information arrives.

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The Mamquam 1 Up Project

On a recent exploration, starting from Corner Relief and continuing east along the hillside, I stumbled upon an strikingly impressive line in the relatively boulder-free stretch of forest between The Lost World and The Magic Kingdom.

The line commands attention at about 6 meters tall and 20° overhanging. It looks like there will be all sorts of technical granite funk starting with compression and transitioning into mini dihedral climbing. Other than one big sloping hold at about 3 meters, there won’t be much help from many horizontal holds. The top out is a mantle onto a 35° slab. As scary as that may seem, there are probably enough features up there so that topping out won’t be the crux.

mamquam-1-up-project

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Peter and the Wolf

In the middle of May 2016, Tim Doyle made the first ascent of a fantastic new problem he called Peter and the Wolf. On a beautiful boulder with comfortable holds and burly moves which lead the climber naturally towards the boulder’s highest point, this problem is bound to become a destination even at its somewhat obscure location. Best guesses at the moment put the problem somewhere in the V8-V10 range.

Marek Gomolka worked the problem with Tim on the day of the first ascent. Marek returned on June 3, 2016 for the second ascent which I caught on video.

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The First Squamish Boulders Guidebook

Scattered throughout this month are the 20th anniversaries of Gibbs Cave, The Hulkster’s Humpfest, Heartbreak Hotel, and more. There were a few problems established earlier in Squamish but the four areas Nick Gibbs developed in March 1996 made Squamish a bouldering destination. (He’d discovered Gibbs Cave in early 1995 after a winter in Hueco.)

When Nick returned to Victoria, he called me and excitedly explained that “It’s going to be bigger than Camp 4!” The next time I saw him, he lent me his hand drawn originals of Squamish’s first bouldering guide book. I was psyched and spent many weekends during the summer of 1996 and beyond visiting Squamish with Stu Worrall.

Conspicuously missing from Nick’s drawings is The Black Dyke Boulders area. He didn’t climb there because it looked like someone else (later learned to be Adam Diamond) had already pulled off some moss in that part of the forest and Nick wanted to be sure he was getting first ascents.

Nick’s originals are long gone but I made copies. I doubt more than about four people have ever even seen these. They have been in a box in my parent’s attic since I finished referencing them while writing Squamish Boulder Problems in 2000.

For you bouldering history buffs out there, enjoy!

If there is a dry day this month, I’m going for some anniversary sends and I’ve been trying to convince Nick to join me. 🙂

squamish-march-1996.pdf

20 x V5 Circuit

Inspired by Tim Schaufele’s 25 x V4 circuit in the forest under The Grand Wall, I set out to create another 100 point circuit. After a bunch of research and a few re-cleans of good but forgotten problems, today I sent the 20 x V5 circuit.

  1. Very French
  2. A Kind of Magic
  3. The Twist (called Twisted in Squamish Bouldering 3rd Edition)
  4. The Squeeze
  5. Smut Traverse
  6. Legitimate Eliminate
  7. Class Dismissed
  8. Fire in the Disco
  9. Busted
  10. Jack’s Baby
  11. Monkey Lunch
  12. The Hoop Wrangler
  13. Wafer Thin
  14. Sloppy Poppy Traverse
  15. Doubt
  16. Viper
  17. Gastonomical
  18. Tim’s Sloper Problem
  19. Gas Arete
  20. It’s About Time

Alternates:

  • Plan: Insanity
  • Swank Stretch
  • Anne of Green Gable
  • Phat Slab

25 x V4 Circuit

Tim Schaufele created an excellent 100 point circuit comprising 25 problems he considers V4. Climbing the whole circuit makes for a big but fun day.

  1. Pocket Problem
  2. Atlas
  3. Trad Killer
  4. Star Fish
  5. The Golden Bowl (stand start)
  6. Mantle Madness
  7. Fish Food
  8. Charge (stand start to Autobody)
  9. The Rail Thing
  10. Child Abuse
  11. Lipsmack Traverse
  12. Superfly
  13. Easy in an Easy Chair
  14. Palminator
  15. Practical Horseman
  16. Propagandi
  17. Chicken Burger and the Devil
  18. Skin Graft
  19. Sloppy Poppy
  20. Hmmm
  21. Pulling Teeth
  22. Thighmaster
  23. Black Mark
  24. Mantis
  25. Timeless

Alternates:

  • Squamish Jump Start
  • Tea Bag Undies
  • Tim’s Sloper Problem

Tim Schaufele published this circuit in the first issue of Squamish Climbing Magazine in August 2009. The PDF is still available on his site and contains maps and descriptions of the problems.

If you are looking for full value, be warned. Tim Doyle made it clear that “alternates are for pussies.”

If you like this circuit, you may also like the 20 x V5 circuit.