Warriors of the Wasteland

A fantastic route that is just left of the uber-classic route, Freeway. The fourth pitch ("Crackis Smackis") is one of the best finger cracks in town! A photo of Jesse Huey leading this pitch is on the cover of the 2012 edition of the Squamish Select guidebook.

With the exception of P7, all pitches end with beefy bolted anchors and rap rings.

The route begins in the left-facing corner system just left of Freeway.

P1: Start up the huge arching ramp, which eventually steepens and turns into a vertical left facing corner. This ramp can be dirty and it collects pine needles after a rain. Gear is also sparse, but not too bad. There are three bolts you can clip, but I personally find the path of least resistance skips the first one. I’ve also seen it climbed skipping all the bolts and climbing the features further to the right. 5.10 (30m)

P2: Continue up the corner and make some committing moves well above a bolt to a stem corner/groove. The moves after this bolt before you can get solid gear are exciting, but safe. The gear before the crux stem corner/groove is good. Make some true stem moves to some great holds on the left. Take a breather and continue up the short left-facing corner to the anchor. 5.11- (30m)

P3: Follow the bolts up into the cracks, which is when the climbing eases into hero climbing. Follow the cracks to the anchor. 5.11- (35m)

P4: (“Crackis Smakis”) This is what you came for! Climb up and right past two bolts and enter the thin-finger crack. The hardest moves are earlier, so hang in there because it gets easier as you get higher. Look for features to use outside the crack to aid you in linking the reachy finger locks. The gear is solid, but can be finicky and strenuous to place. After ~ 10m you get a pretty good rest; place a couple pieces of gear (small) and make the final cruxy moves to better holds above. Follow the splitter and hero finger crack for ~ 15m to the anchor, which has a few rests along the way. 5.12- (30m)

P5: The crux pitch. This pitch is entirely bolted (~ 10 bolts I think?). Follow the bolts up and left and then back right again. The moves between the first and second bolt are 5.11+ and a fall here could result in a fall right onto your belayer; be careful and attentive! (Edit: You can apparently get in a solid green alien between the first and second bolts to mitigate this risk) After the second bolt, there are bolts more-or-less in your face for the cruxy moves. The crux of this pitch are the final moves pulling over the little roof.

P6: Climb up past three bolts before entering the left-facing and left-leaning corner. His corner eats up gear and generally the gear widens from small to large as you progress. There are no cruxy moves in the corner, but rather it is a pitch of endurance. Although there are several restful positions en route. The final moves involve you making some committing and exciting moves out of the corner to the right. Be careful not to the follow the corner too far. Most parties rappel the route from here, but the next two pitches are well worth the effort.

P7: Climb straight up, passing one bolt. Once you reach the small ledge, traverse left and clip two more bolts as you make your way to the right-facing corner. The final moves before the corner require to down climb a bit on slabby feet and poor holds for your hands. Once in the corner, climb straight up and belay at the tree. This anchor is gear and as of June 2015 there is one bolt you can also use. This bolt has no hanger though, but it does have a washer and nut.

P8: Climb straight up the left-trending groove with a hand crack in the back. Towards the end of this groove are two ancient bolts (perhaps an old anchor?). Just past these bolts is a short splitter fist crack. Climb this to its end and get an OK rest before making some strenuous traversing moves left with poor feet. The traverse is ~ three metres and ends at a splitter hand crack. Take this splitter hand crack for a few more metres to the anchors.

Doubles to 3".