The Banana Split: A Family Climb on the Squamish Apron

Every family has its negotiations. Some are about screen time, some are about vegetables. One of ours this summer, was about whether our family belonged on Banana Peel, the long, runout slab classic that wanders up the Apron of the Stawamus Chief. I've climbed this route in the past and have done dozens of moderate routes up the Chief in my climbing days - but these aren't my climbing days Marcy was firmly in the "I don't think its a good Idea" camp. She was also fully aware that that I was determined. What followed wasn't really a yes, it was more of a quiet acceptance of my stubbornness. So when the day arrived and there was a potential for rain in the forecast, Marcy was relieved when I came to my senses and decided we should stick to single pitch.

Theo climbing at the Smoke Bluffs

Marcy hadn't realized that I was already scheming a back-up trip on our travel day!

This wasn't our first multi-pitch. We've done a few over the past couple years and learned that the 2 rope approach works best. I lead trailing two ropes, then bring Marcy and Theo up at the same time, each on their own line. This provides a higher margin of safety for both followers though adds to the rats nest at each belay.

Pitch 1: The slip. What I hadn't planned for was me. Banana Peel is 5.7, which on paper sounds like a Sunday stroll. On the Apron, 5.7 slab means friction, faith, polished rock, and long stretches of granite between gear. About 30 feet up the first pitch, with no pro between me and the ground, my foot skated off a polished hold. I stayed on, but that little squeak of rubber on glassy granite climbed into my head and was along for the ride.

Pitches 1 and 2: Cruiser Terrain Once you reach the horizontal slab, the remainder of pitch 1 and pitch 2 if cruiser.

Pitch 3: The Head Game Pitch 3 was a different conversation. The moves weren't much harder, but it's the kind of runout slab where the climbing happens in your head, and my head was not a pace ot be. Every smear felt like an audition. The only other time I'd been on this route was about 15 years ago, back when my biggest responsibility at a belay was not dropping the snacks. It felt like ages, but I just went move by move and eventually got to the corner system where it was cruiser back to the belay.

Pitch 4-7. The top several pitches were cruiser, quickly dispatching the run-out 5.7 on pitch 5. We saw the follower before us, who was struggling on the initial 5.7 move, use a lower and rope swing to avoid a potential pendulum fall and decided to follow suit with Theo. He was then able to scramble directly up low angle slab with a solid belauy.

In the end it ended up being an amazing family adventure, checking all the boxes for high adventure score, Amazing setting, quality rock, and good clean fun by all!

We've got our eyes on a few more moderate muti-pitches we hope to tackle in the coming years.

The Beta (Lightly Peeled)

• Where: The Apron, Stawamus Chief, Squamish, BC. It starts near Diedre, so expect company.

• Grade and length: 5.7 R, about 7 pitches of mostly slab (roughly 600 feet).

• Gear: A standard rack to about 2" and plenty of long slings. Bolts are few and far between.

• The spicy bits: Several pitches have unprotected slab, and some holds are polished smooth. The leader should be solid and current at the grade.

• Family setup: Lead on two ropes and bring both followers up at once so an adult climbs next to the kiddo.

• Descent: A short scramble down to the woods and an easy to follow climbers trail.