After drinking his "bulk SAQ Depot gin" all night, Andre was feeling a litte rough and looked like something the dog dragged in from the lake. But, he was still up for climbing! Hard core, dude!
On with the climbing story...
On sunday, Josee and I climbed "Boris' Route" (5.5, 3 pitch, trad) while Clive and Andre climbed "The Pinnacle".
After Gerald canoed us over to the base of the climb, we proceeded to start the climb from a small ledge 2m above the water. We could see that there was another party of 3 climbers ahead of us. They were at the 2nd belay station when we were setting up. I lead up the first pitch and found that they were still there when I got to about 20 feet below them. Not wanting to just hangout on the rock until they were gone, I setup an anchor and belayed Josee up. We waited for over 2 hours for the party above to get off the second pitch. Not wanting for them to feel any presure what so ever, we simply asked if everything was ok and then relaxed in the sun. Finnally they were done the 2nd pitch and we could start our climb after Josee and I exchanged life stories. The second pitch was fun, but had much of the same "challenges" with respect to quality of protection go as "the pinnacle". Josee, who was eager to lead all weekend, lead the 3rd pitch up and over the overhang at the very top of the climb. She decided to set a new 3a variation with a route over the right hand side of the overhang (name of new 3a variation tbd...email me with suggestions!). When I seconded the 3rd pitch and went over the overhang at the top, we were appauded by clapping and cheering from 2 canoes of spectators some 350ft directly below.
After rappelling down, we found Gerald swimming in the water by his canoe waiting very patiently for us. I thought it would be cool to jump off of the cliff and into the lake after listening to kids doing it all day. Thinking, if those little punks can do it, so can I! After Ger pointed out where they were jumping from, I climbed up a long ways up and after much coaxing...jumped. It was pretty damn freaky. Then Ger tells me after I jumped "those kids didn't go nearly that high..."
Gerald also has some excellent pics on his site.
