Climbing adventures in BC - day 7 of 10, sport climbing at Skaha
Penticton is a much bigger city than Squamish, a tourist city. As such, we didn't like the feel of the city at all, so even after just staying here one night, we decided that we were going to pack up everything in the morning and leave Penticton after climbing at Skaha. The weather was hot, but at least the humidity was low, so climbing without melting was still possible for me. We got a late start in the morning, found a cliff at Skaha that was somewhat in the shade, and racked up to lead amid spray lords and gym bunnies. At least the gym bunnies knew they were gym bunnies and therefore eager to ask questions. The spray lords were just annoying.
We were in an area called Lower Red Tail, which has the highest concentration of easy sport climbs with the shortest approach. The routes here were mostly slabby to vertical, but with small crimpy holds, which were not great for Megan's fingers. The rock was hard and pretty smooth, reminded me a little of the rock at Great Falls. The rating felt really weird - like two 5.7s right next to each other weren't the same difficulty, and a 5.6 felt harder than a 5.7 right next to it. I guess it isn't a place I'd go back to BC specifically to visit.
We climbed a bunch of easy routes, but they all sort of blended together with one another. Mother Superior (5.7), Guilt Trip (5.7 - weird start), Second Balcony Jump (5.6), Black Friday (5.6), Freudian Slip (5.7), Sport Climbing is Neither (5.8), and Preface (5.9). I whined quite a bit trying to pull the crux on Preface, but somehow just didn't want to commit to the move pulling on two crimpers with no feet. I finally did it after standing there forever, but if I had so much trouble on a 5.9, I probably didn't want to get on anything harder. That was the end of climbing at Skaha for me.
Megan figuring out the crux on Preface (5.9)
Of course then there was the adventure of driving down a dirt road trying to find a campground that only existed on the map, back track for 15 minutes only to find the other campground was full, debating whether to go back to the dirt road and camp next to the car, and finally finding an mostly full RV park with a free tent site at 10 o'clock at night, and paying out of my nose for a little patch of grass in between big RVs. Next time, we locate a place to spend the night before going spending a day climbing. The trouble and stress at the end of the day was just not worth the sense of adventure.
Lake Skaha
We were in an area called Lower Red Tail, which has the highest concentration of easy sport climbs with the shortest approach. The routes here were mostly slabby to vertical, but with small crimpy holds, which were not great for Megan's fingers. The rock was hard and pretty smooth, reminded me a little of the rock at Great Falls. The rating felt really weird - like two 5.7s right next to each other weren't the same difficulty, and a 5.6 felt harder than a 5.7 right next to it. I guess it isn't a place I'd go back to BC specifically to visit.
We climbed a bunch of easy routes, but they all sort of blended together with one another. Mother Superior (5.7), Guilt Trip (5.7 - weird start), Second Balcony Jump (5.6), Black Friday (5.6), Freudian Slip (5.7), Sport Climbing is Neither (5.8), and Preface (5.9). I whined quite a bit trying to pull the crux on Preface, but somehow just didn't want to commit to the move pulling on two crimpers with no feet. I finally did it after standing there forever, but if I had so much trouble on a 5.9, I probably didn't want to get on anything harder. That was the end of climbing at Skaha for me.
Of course then there was the adventure of driving down a dirt road trying to find a campground that only existed on the map, back track for 15 minutes only to find the other campground was full, debating whether to go back to the dirt road and camp next to the car, and finally finding an mostly full RV park with a free tent site at 10 o'clock at night, and paying out of my nose for a little patch of grass in between big RVs. Next time, we locate a place to spend the night before going spending a day climbing. The trouble and stress at the end of the day was just not worth the sense of adventure.
posted by Boer @ 7/07/2005
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