鈥淲hat matters most are the brothers and sisters you choose to walk with 鈥� and to laugh with 鈥� through the fire.鈥�听
听听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 鈥� Alpinist Kyle Dempster, who听disappeared while climbing in Pakistan last month.听
听
This month has been a quiet one for climbing, hot topics, its controversies and its headlines.听
Why? The school year has begun. The weather has remained fickle to all except the truly footloose and fast acting, including, for instance, the van loads of unemployed travelling climbers who are departing the Mamquam FSR for home or other locales.听
And, finally, fall is upon us.听
Thank god for fall, the season of bittersweet remembrances, the end of our collective summer rut and the start of new, exciting, cold unknowns.听
Fall leads us to dark beers and hard slab climbing, quiet belays up on the travelled classics, rain-washed and chalk-streaked boulder problems getting cleansed of their summer coats of human grease and chalk, puffy jackets at belays and plain old magic as shoe rubber relentlessly adheres to every crystal on your line.听
For those reading this who don鈥檛 actively climb, here鈥檚 a few of the peaks and valleys that have appeared this season.听
Alex Megos visits Squamish听
Alex Megos is a young German climber at the absolute top of the game, currently climbing the world鈥檚 hardest sport climbs in few tries with appalling ease.听
Megos didn鈥檛 have a huge window in Canada but he 鈥済ot 鈥檈r done,鈥� as the bumper sticker says.听
While in Canmore, among a slew of incredibly quick ascents, he established Canada鈥檚 hardest sport climb with 鈥淔ight Club鈥� 5.15b. He then came to 麻豆社国产and climbed Dream Catcher, Canada鈥檚 most difficult sport climb pre-Fight Club, in one day! Check out 麻豆社国产Climbing Magazine online for a video of the ascent. Shocking, to say the least. In his wake, Megos is changing what is considered truly difficult.听
Down the Mamquam FSR
This summer 麻豆社国产saw, yet again, a huge bump up in crowding, busy crags, teeming boulders and line-ups on popular multi-pitches on the Chief.
The crowding was nowhere more evident than in the camping scene down the Mamquam Forest Service Road and in the Stawamus Chief Provincial Park day use lots. The former resembled some kind of dusty beater van street market punctuated by cars, trucks, tents, bikes and many people milling around at all times of the day.听
I can鈥檛 speak to the garbage level, human waste issues or animal encounters but rest assured if campers don鈥檛 start using the legal sites available through out the Sea to Sky Corridor, heavy regulation will appear in either a provincial park or municipal form.听
The Chief day use lots, usually frequented by hikers and climbers recreating that very day, became vast lines of tricked out Sprinters, Eurovans, Trucks, RVs and everything in between.听
I wonder what the tenters in the campground itself thought of the vehicles staying for free while they paid top dollar? Several mornings I arrived at 7 a.m. to work as a guide for the day and couldn鈥檛 find parking at all.听
Here too, I think we鈥檒l start to see heavier BC Parks regulation to move people through the campgrounds quicker and at higher rates and maybe electing fees for overnight vehicle camping. Little Yosemite here we come.听
Climbers disappear on Ogre II听
It is with sad regret that I end on this tragic note. Climbing is not all buffed gym psych and honed rad sending on boulders and sport climbs. Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson, two of the most accomplished alpinists of our time and hailing from the U.S., disappeared at the end of August while trying to climb the undone North Face of The Ogre II peak in Pakistan.听
On Sept. 3 the two men鈥檚 families called off the search mission led by climbers of many nations and made possible by the Pakistani government鈥檚 military helicopters and pilots.听
Why give just these disparate examples of a season鈥檚 climbing? I think Dempster鈥檚 comment at the article鈥檚 opening cuts to the heart of what we need out of climbing, no matter what form we pursue. Despite standards rising and ballooning听 popularity, the climbing community must self-manage itself and its resource in such a way as to not lose their way, away from the fire.听
