Squamish
Description: I heart Squamish! Squamish has some of the best granite you will find anywhere and its all within very close proximity. Here you will find great beginner crags to multi-pitch link-ups over 20 pitches. There is plenty of beta our there, but I will highlight some of my favorite climbs:
Smoke Bluffs:
Mosquito Connection ( mostly 5.8/9) - wonderful 4 pitch link-up, each pitch has a very unique characteristic to it. Can feel a bit difficult because of that, and its a bit greasy in spots.
Neat and Cool (10a)- fun jungle gym style trad route - can be hard to protect and has fall potential, so worth working that out before gunning for it. Crux actually happens higher than originally expected.
Flying Circus (10a)- good intro to finger cracks - enough on the face to keep the feet moving.
Octopuss's Garden (5.8): Splitter 5.8 hands crack with a few other great hands cracks nearby.
Penny Lane (5.9) : solid route that changes characteristics a few times
Quarry Man (5.8) - steller5.8 corner system
Pop Goes the Raven(10c) fun stemming problem. Mostly bolted but a cam downlow helps
Laughing Crack and Cat Crack (5.7s) - Great intro routes to hand jamming
The Zip ( 10a) - Steep small-hands crack that stays sustained throughout, unclear if the area is now closed for climbing as the recent guidebook states, but no signs exist.
Apron: All the routes on the apron are slabs in nature but the rock quality is fantastic
Diedre - 6 pitches with the highlight being 2 pitches in this corner system. Good pin scars provide excellent finger liebacking on smearing feet.
Banana Peel - Really fun slab climbing, and excellent intro to multi-pitch, though there are some traverses that may make a follower nervous as well as some long slab run-outs.
Snake - Step up from Diedre in difficult but similar in nature.
Calculus Crack - mostly moderate climbing with a 5.8 move here and there, long crack is only 5.6.
St. Vitus - Step up from Calculus crack with more difficult crack climbing.
Rock On - Another classic with varying styles of climbing on each pitch.
Chief
Ultimate Everything - Route that just keeps giving, adding this to a route up the apron makes for an upwards of 20 pitch day that keeps you climbing, but never gets too diffcult at 5.9, with a short 10b or 5.9 A0 finish.
Exasporator (10c)- Might be one of the best routes anywhere, with a perfect 10a finger crack P1 and then a thin 10c Pitch 2 that eases after 30' or so, but never truly lets off.
Seasoned in the sun (10b)- another great splitter finger crack not to be missed.
Fern Gully
Good Times (11a) - Sport route that has long balancy moves throughout, but maintain just enough pump to keep it really interesting, and then an overhanging boulder moves gaurds the chains.