Squamish

The coast of BC is an amazing landscape. Driving north on the Sea to Sky from Vancouver to Squamish is one of my favorite drives in North America. I made sure to time the drive during the daylight hours, which also works out with stopping in Vancouver for sushi... a must.

Sea to Sky highway in Squamish


The bouldering in Squamish is no less spectacular. Granite boulders fill the beautiful forest below the chief. Even on a hot day, the huge canopy blocks out most direct sunlight, creating a typically shady experience.

Baba Hari Dass v7/8

Photo Ben Nadler, 2009

Bouldering in Squamish is very movement oriented. Classic lines often have less to do with how they look, and more to do with how they climb. Often the climbing is very subtle, and at times involving something very unexpected or counter-intuitive.

Video still from Encore Une Fois


Squamish has strait-forward power climbing as well. No Troubles is a very good, and popular example of this. Lots of pinches and heal hooking out a steep roof on great rock. You can even lock in a perfect hand jam at the end.

No Troublems v9/10

Paul Nadler on No Troublems from Brock Jensen on Vimeo.

When I first arrived it was very hot (around 90F), but it is cooling off now. The colder temps will bring some great, and hopefully rain free days in the forest. I can't wait.

Small Arms

I left Colorado about a week ago, stopping in Salt Lake, and continuing on to Squamish. Before I left I managed to climb Small Arms, a nice problem put up recently at Lincoln Lake by Carlo Traversi.

I had basically one day left in CO, and it was 60% to rain up at Evans. The best option was to get a very early start to avoid the afternoon storms. John T. and I hiked in to Lincoln Lake at 6:30 that morning, climbed till about noon, and hiked out just before Evans started getting pummeled by storms. It was a very good last day in the Colorado Mountains.

Small Arms v11/12

Small Arms from Paul Nadler on Vimeo.

Mt. Evans

Weather hasn't been real cooperative, but I'v managed to get a up to Lincoln Lake at Mt. Evans quite a bit recently.

Lincoln Lake


There is a massive talus field at Lincoln, with many large boulders laying against each other. The feel is less like other areas I'v been to at Evans and more reminiscent of the jumbled talus of Chaos canyon. As you might expect, navigation around the boulders can be a bit involved, and the landings range from pretty good to horrific.

Here is a video of me falling off the end of the sit to Unshackled, v10/11.


A cool compression prow I put up on my first day at Lincoln. I called it Contact and its probably in the v6 range.

Photo by Brock Jensen

Refilling on water and soaking in the view down by the lake.


After a day of bouldering, we drove further up the road to have a look around and saw some goats hanging out near summit lake.


The goats running up to the ridge after seeing Karma


Look at the little ones! Aww.

Evans summit road


Driving back down the mountain after sunset

Laying in Wait

With all the new and exciting climbing at Lincoln Lake, there is little reason to go anywhere else. However, there is one boulder problem at Mt. Evans, which I have been wanting to try, ever since I first saw it in the classic Colorado bouldering film "Colorado Daydream".

Laying in Wait v8 - Excerpt from Colorado Daydream


So it turns out you don't need to do that crazy move, and I'm guessing not very many people do unless they have short arms.

Photo by Brock Jensen

But this is truly an amazing boulder problem. One of my favorites in Colorado, and certainly the best slab I have climbed to date. I would recommend it to anyone, specially those looking for something a little different.

Directions:

View Larger Map
You will come to a parking area and Laying in Wait is just uphill in the trees. It will be visible on your right as your drivng into the parking area.

Big Boulders

A lot has happened since I last blogged. I climbed a few boulders, I climbed two 14ers (big boulders), I tied into a rope (medium sized boulders), and my good friends Dusty & Kristy got married. Congratulations!


After the wedding, my friends Jon & Danielle stuck around and we planned an ambitious trip:

Day 1: Boulder at Mt. Evans
Day 2: Summit Mt. Evans
Day 3: Climb at the Monestary
Day 4: Climb at the Monestary

Which turned into a slightly less ambition trip:

Day 1: Boulder at Mt. Evans
Day 2: Summit Grays & Torreys (easier than Evans)
Day 3: Boulder at Rotary Park
Day 4: Climb at the Monestary

Hiking Grays and Torreys were my first and second 14ers. I should note though, the two peaks are separated by a saddle that drops just a thousand or two feet, making it not that hard to bag both in one hike. Still, no walk in the park if you ask me. Unless the park is RMNP...

As for Karma, apparently someone forgot to tell her that 14ers are suppose to be difficult, since she kept getting bored during the ordeal. This was evident by comments like, "is that your dog running back over to Grays!?" while I was trying to take pictures from atop Torreys.

Despite Karma's no big deal attitude, and my this is a really big deal attitude, we managed to summit both peaks and return to camp by around noon. It was a great time, and I expect there will be more such hikes in my future.

Starting off:


Torreys from grays:


On the summit of Torreys:


Karma finding some snow to play in:

Back to Both Sides

Monday evening I went back to Moraine Park to finish off Both Sides of the Spectrum. It was hot and humid and there was a long section of flooded trail from mountain runoff. John T. and I eventually made it out there after navigating all the water. I set to work right away.

The slopers were feeling slick but the temps were getting better as the sun began to set. Progress was slower than expected and the moves up top felt desperate. Finally, I stuck the sloper up high and managed to stay on, finishing the problem just before sunset. We hiked back in the dark with my small headlamp. We managed to avoid most of the water and stay pretty dry, at least until the rain started. Thanks for sticking it out John!

Both Sides of the Spectrum v12

Both Sides of the Spectrum from Paul Nadler on Vimeo.

Getting Carried Away

My camera is working again! I bought a new LCD screen off of Ebay for $30 plus I had to a buy a soldering iron which I got from Wal-mart for about $5. Things didn't go very smoothly though. After swapping out the screens, which was a bit difficult, I was surprised to find that the backlight wasn't working. I could see the screen if there was light shinning on it, but it emitted no light of its own. I contacted the seller to find out that there are actually 2 versions of the Nikon d50, both of which use the same LCD, but not the same backlight which is inside of the LCD.

His recommendation:
Take the backlight out of my broken LCD screen, and swap it with the incompatible backlight from the new LCD screen.

My recommendation:
Give me a fucking LCD that will actually work with my camera.

Realizing the compromise was probably to send my camera to this seller, where he would likely/hopefully switch the backlights and send it back to me (apparently they do offer this service if you want to pay shipping, and wait for who knows how long, etc...), I decided to give his suggestion a try. If it failed and I broke everything, then I could start complaining again. Lucky for me, and him, it worked! But why stop there?

Having a new soldering iron, a number of broken electronics, and a new found confidence in my electrical competency, I decided the only course of action was to fix everything in sight.

First up, Kill-A-Watt meter.



This is a device that you can plug other electronics into and it tells you how much power they are using. Very useful, but abruptly stopped working one day. I proceeded to open up the device to have a look around. After a brief moment of thinking what the hell is all this shit, my eyes made contact with a small fuse. Of course! The fuse must have blown, so simple. I checked if electricity would pass threw the fuse using my multi-meter.



It didn't, which means the fuse is in fact blow. Turns out there are still a few problems though.

1) The fuse is soldered to the board (ie. won't just pop out)
2) I don't have a replacement fuse.
3) I'm in the mood for instant gratification.

Luckily, there is one solution for all these problems. The soldering iron!



I proceed to un-solder the old fuse, and using more solder, solder a strip of solder where the fuse use to be. Essentially bypassing the fuse with a strip a solder, and Voilà, it worked! Not particularly safe, but it worked.




24 Watts. Not too bad. Will run off the car no problem.

Feeling unstoppable, I move on to the next project.

As some may know, I have a solar panel which I use to charge a battery, which in turn can power various small electronics. This winter I attempted to extended the waning life of my battery by running some long recharge cycles that are suppose to help with this. Long story short, I overcharged the battery causing it to vent gas and turn into a paper weight. This type of battery is called a sealed lead acid battery, much like the non-sealed lead acid battery you have in your car. Sealed as in not suppose to vent toxic gas...

Back to the task at hand. I happen to have and old broken laptop my friend Tiffany gave to me. Laptops use lithium-ion batteries, which are superior to lead acid for this kind of application. Soldering iron in hand, I set to work on my replacement battery for my solar setup. I removed the lithium ion batteries from their protective case and attached them to the solar charger and plugged in the panel. Success again!





Well, the multi-meter is reading about 11.5 volts compared to the 12.5 or so I was expecting. Not surprising though since one of the things wrong with the laptop was the battery wouldn't charge. You may be wondering at this point, what the hell am I doing if the battery won't charge anyways? This is a good point, but it's also possible that the battery wouldn't charge due to a problem with the laptop rather than the battery. Preliminary tests suggest that this is the case. Time will tell.

Well, 3 for 3. Camera, Kill-A-Watt meter, and solar setup. Whats next?

Lets not get carried away.