Betsy, Crystal E., and I drove up to Squamish on Labor Day for a few days of climbing away from the holiday crowds (we hoped). In the early afternoon we met Dan, relaxing in the parking lot after soloing Banana Peel, and quickly decided to get our climb on at the Smoke Bluffs. There was only one party on Flying Circus, a fun, polished, and popular finger crack, so we climbed it and The Edge, a face climb to the left. A friendly, partnerless guy named Evan who had just moved to Squamish asked us if he could join us, so we shared our TRs with him. Dan started up a stiff bolted climb around the corner and then it started to drizzle, so he backed off while the rest of us took a turn on Neat and Cool, which is both neat and cool, in case you were wondering, and somewhat sheltered from the damp.

I led Corner Crack, which was the first route I ever climbed in Squamish and one of my first trad leads (back in 2002). By now I've actually acquired some technique and some sense, so I didn't freak out this time and traverse off into the easy finishing moves of Flying Circus. It's actually a pretty fun climb and I placed a big hex—always satisfying.

The mist stopped falling, so we went to the Burgers and Fries area and had the place to ourselves. I led Peaches and Cream, a good slab climb with a tricky corner at the start and exciting runouts, and Crystal led Burgers and Fries. Betsy followed both and got a good dose of crack and slab training. Dan tried smearing up some ridiculous 11c slab but the light was fading, so he couldn't see the holds, nor stick to them for very long when he did find them.

At the brew pub in town, we ordered the large nachos, which is basically an entire bagful of tortilla chips covered in cheese. After stuffing ourselves silly, we played some foos.

The next day was sweet. Cool and sunny, perfect weather for climbing. Crystal and Betsy set off for Diedre while Dan and I hiked up to the Bottom Line, hoping to link its three pitches to Diedre, then via Boomstick Crack to the forest below the Squamish Buttress and thence to the Ultimate Everything. A party was just racking up below the Bottom Line, so we hiked up to Snake instead. We soloed the first pitch, simuled the next three, and I led off up the first 5.9 pitch in the corner. Everyone must have been on Diedre, because we didn't see anyone until we got up to Memorial Ledge. We had a quick snack and photo session on Broadway, then continued simuling up Boomstick Crack.

The trail up through the forest was straightforward, and the turn off into the gully is easy to spot. There are inexplicable fixed ropes in the gully. The first pitch of the Ultimate Everything starts off well, with some face climbing on nice clean white granite, but then you enter the Ultimate Watercourse. The next pitch and a half involves mud and water stemming on otherwise decent rock. At this point, a group of guides taking an exam came up on our tails, so we sped things up a bit. I got the good leads in this first half of the climb, including the next one, with more fun 5.9 face climbing. Dan's next pitch was more wetness and dirt to a shady, comfy ledge. Another snack and I did three handjams to a trail to start part two of the climb.

The next pitch brought us into the sunlight and was quite fun, with a steep crack move to some face climbing and manteling. After that, two cool pitches on a dike led to a scramble to the base of the final and crux pitch. Dan took the 10b left variation, which starts off in a steepening seam leading to a pumpy hand traverse with a nice wet spot for your feet at the crux. A great final pitch, for sure, and Dan's reward for leading the majority of the munge earlier in the route.

We got to the top around 3.30pm, for a time of about 6.5 hours on the route (19 guidebook pitches). I think we averaged 20 min. per pitch on the Ultimate Everything. UE was not as great as I thought it would be because of the wetness and hiking, but overall I had a fantastic time on the route.

We ran down the Chief trail only to find Dan's car had been broken into in the climbers' lot. Window smashed, laptop, guitar, pack, and sixer of beer all stolen. What a bummer! Dan called the RCMP and we took him out to dinner in sympathy. He drove back that night to get his affairs back in order.

My ambitions were in disarray after Dan left and the weather the next day wasn't in a good mood, either. Clouds greeted us at breakfast, so we made another cup of espresso and took our time. Murrin Park looked like it had a collection of easy trad pitches for Betsy to try for her first trad lead, so we drove back down 99. A huge group of schoolchildren was gang-roping the Sugarloaf wall, so we wandered up to Xodus and Crystal led a short slanting slabby crack.

Crystal dropped a cam halfway up and I went to dig through the salal in search of it. No luck. Betsy and I then climbed Handful, a short weird crack through a roof with somewhat fiddly pro and a top-out move pulling a pencil-thin root. Not recommended. Crystal hadn't found her cam yet, so we joined the search. I finally stumbled onto it sitting next to a social trail in the brush. Woohoo!

We saw a bunch of kids in the parking lot, so we hiked down to Sugarloaf in the hope that they were finished. Teachers and top-ropes still festooned the wall, however, and we were informed that another group of 18 was on the way. The teachers were quite accommodating, though, so Crystal led Little Spark, an enjoyable 5.4 on the right side of the crag. Betsy TRed it, the school group arrived, and it started to rain. Not just drizzle, but rain. Betsy was determined to do some gear-placin', so she mock-led with a top-rope belay (a great way to practice leading, IMHO). One of the newly-arrived teachers mumbled something about "etiquette", but we ignored her and her 18 students and five top-ropes.

Everything was soaked, so we drove home. All in all, a great trip that got me very excited to do longer rock routes and to go back for more of what Squamish has to offer.