The popularity of Squamish within the #vanlife community has increased to the point that there is great concern about the group’s collective environmental impact. “Wild” or “Freedom” camping has become unmanageable environmentally because of the high numbers of campers. This is a serious issue that causes conflict between locals, home owners, and climbers!
VAN CAMPING / WILD CAMPING
Within District Boundaries
The
District of Squamish PROHIBITS camping within the municipal boundary. This includes sleeping in a vehicle anywhere within District boundaries. A
bylaw gives the District the power to issue tickets for contraventions.
Camping on urban / residential streets is prohibited under pre-existing bylaws.
The “hot spots” that have been of most concern are below.
· The whole of the Mamquam Forest Service Road under the North Walls of the Chief between the junction with the 99 and junction with the Stawamus/Indian Arm Forest Service Road (as a salmon run and sensitive riparian area, camping close to the Stawamus River is especially inappropriate)
· The Powerhouse Springs Road including the parking area for the Fern Hill cliff
· The dirt road to the kitesurfing “Spit.”
Outside of District Boundaries
If you explore forest roads in crown land outside the municipal boundaries, it may be possible to find discreet roadside sites suitable for tents or van camping. However, the provincial authorities do have
some restrictions ;
· Stays are limited to 14 days.
· Campers should follow
Leave No Trace principles. HUMAN WASTE is a major issue.
· Strictly observe any
current fire bans.
DESIGNATED CAMPGROUNDS
Please see the
District of Squamish website for a comprehensive list of designated campgrounds.
Recommended affordable camping:
- At the Chief:
Stawamus Chief Provincial Park Campground BC parks site, spots start at $10.00 CAD/person. No reservations.
- 7 minutes north:
Mamquam River Campground A non-profit site, spots start at $15.00cad/night for a drive-in site. Reservations recommended, not required.
- 20 minutes north:
Chek Canyon Recreation Site A public site; no fees, no reservations and world class sport-climbing. No running water. The road is steep and rough but 4x4 not required
Access Issue: SIGNIFICANT ROCK FALL CLOSURES - UPDATED Feb 29th 2024
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Yosemite
Squamish, BC
Squamish
P2 - Odd pitch... Different kind of climbing but enjoyable
P3 - Nice corner crack with great locks and feet
P4 - Long, long, long corner crack. Some rests to be found but definitely need to punch it sometimes.
P5 - OK climbing in a corner to OK climbing on a face to OK climbing in a corner
P6 - Dirty climbing up a ramp, not very nice
P7 - Enjoyable up a chimney to some cracks and face holds. Pretty fun. Maybe hard for 10a given the length and tricky traverse.
P8 - Tricky traverse, not that much fun
P9 - Super easy slab to finish it up
All in all Milk Road has some fun pitches and some not so fun pitches. Worth doing, but it wouldn't be near the top of my list. Jul 1, 2015
Vancouver, BC
Squamish, BC
Vancouver, BC
Rack (for the crux pitch, but you'd be bringing it all for the whole climb anyway): I'd say minimum triples up to 0.75. Quadruples would stich it up if you got the energy for that. Nuts are also good and can practically place anywhere but who has the energy for that. You'd also be screwing over the 2nd. I brought 2x #2 and #1 and was happy I did so for the 40m crux pitch. Bring 10 draws. No need for 12.
P1: Start at the vgroove and run it out until you get to the high first bolt. Get to the anchor with a semi hanging belay. The free is not too hard, however, if you blow the move you're belayer will end up in the spikey bushes. Something to consider before making the move. The free is a thin slab, not pure friction It's also not just the first 3 bolts, but the last 2 which goes free at 11b. Both parts aidable.
P2: Climb up the obvious arch and follow it left. There's a delicate move halfway through. Once you reach the end and start to contemplate where to go, step down a couple of steps and make your way over left. If you look around you will find good enough hands and feet. I didn't spend long enough time to take a look at the free, but from what I gathered it's more face climbing than pure slab. When I looked around there seemed to be pretty good features for feet. Don't quote me on that as I didn't look for that long.
P3: Straight forward corner to a huge ledge that you can have a picnic on. Dirty, though.
P4: Took some whippers here. A majority of the moves go at 10b/c at the most, the moves are extremely straight forward. You stick your fingers in and jam. Not special technique here. But the bottom part where it buldges out goes at 10d. It's hard because it's pumpy. Every 5-10 metres there's a decent hold to shake it out. Beta: Stem out to get good rests, but it's hard to move while stemming. I'm not sure what the best way to climb this is. I did a series of laybacking, finger jams, foot purchase, foot jam. Everything. You will find here a hand jam area midway up that is practically painted red in blood. Never seen so much blood in a crack before. You'll catch something bad if you got open wounds! You can't miss it.
P5: Very awkward pitch. A series of everything. Not a fan. There's a dangerous boulder on the right that I almost pulled off. Becareful!!
P6: Dirt ramp. Not lots of gear. Generally it's fine to runout some 5.8s but there's a few sections where it's extremely exposed, the "fine position" as the topo reads. The issue with this is that there's so much sand on your feet and you're doing extremely exposed stuff with no gear, made it very sketchy for me.
P7: The everything pitch. This was the hardest pitch for me, but my partner cruised through it. Start with some hard medium offwidth thats 3 bolts. I found getting from 1st to second the hardest. Then go around the tree up left to an even wider chimney. Face out, butt on wall, and do whatever you can to push yourself up. The bolts were a bit far, and a fall could hurt. But if you're good in chimneys you should feel secure. Follower will almost have to hang their bag from their crotch. If you come around to the face, you can def climb it instead othe chimney. That's what I did. Probably goes at 10d/11a face? Not sure, hard to judge. Once you're done the chimney you move left onto the crack and up for a couple of metres. Move left again on a hand traverse (flashbacks of karen's math PG13). Yea I shit myself a bit as I did not expect a thin hand traverse. You can fiddle 1 gear in there but it really caught me off guard. Do high octane variation if you hate chimneys. Doesn't look too hard. Mean for a 10a grade pitch.
P8: Dyke traverse is EXPOSED. Link it with the final P9 only IF YOU HAVE A SOLID FOLLOWER. If your follower blows the part after the last quickdraw when cleaning he or she is F*Cked. That was the hardest part for me. The dyke traverse turns into a dish of emptiness with no hand or feet holds and is glassy. I honestly thought I was about to blow it and started praying. I think the route devs actually seperated these 2 pitches for that exact reason, because otherwise it's extremely easy to link. If you've done interstellar (10d/11a) dyke traverse, this is a walk in the park.
I found that some of the crux moves on the 10's and the free attempts extremely stretchy. I don't think it's height dependent if you can find good feet but it feels like you need to stretch out far. I guess it would be a bit harder if you're short (under 5'9 lol).
Descent: Up a few metres and left, then right. Shortly, you will look left with plain rock and a nice view. Before you enter that area there is a trail marker. That is the trail you want to take. If you look around you will find a ROPE THAT LEADS DOWNWARDS. Don't go anywhere else. Look for the ROPE THAT LEADS DOWNWARDS and that joins with the chief trail. If you mess up and somehow cannot find the rope, you can continue down the sketchy slabby moss for a very long time till you join a faint trail that leads to the base of the chief.
All belays are bolted, there are some pitches with 2 anchors, 1 on top and 1 on bottom. Feel free to just go to the top one.
Do this climb before the sun peaks over (1pm), you don't want to be baking on this.
Have fun, expect it to be dirtier than you may think. The exposure was great for a 10d/11d. A good first hard climb on the tantulus wall. :D Aug 18, 2022