Jefferson's Birds and Climbing Journal

This summer I was invited to go to Hawaii with Emily and her family. This post will be a trip recap talking about what we did and all the cool plants and animals we saw on the Big Island.

Last week my friend Sam texted me photos of an area of cliffs he found. It was located downhill from Chuckanut Roof, along Chuckanut Drive. There were a few dihedrals that could make fun stemming or slabby arete boulder problems but the photo that drew my attention was a crack.

Last week I finally climbed a route to the summit of the Stawamus Chief in Squamish. I climbed it by arguably the easiest possible route, but it was still 12 pitches and 2000ft of climbing so it made for a great day trip to Squamish.

This past weekend I went to Washington Pass with Preston to do some climbing. Our main goal was the Southeast Rib of South Early Winter Spire, a classic 5.8 alpine route with a 5.10b fingercrack variation. 

I've been interested in ice climbing for a while, but it's a tricky thing to get started with. The gear is expensive, there's a lot of essential knowledge, and it's honestly kinda dangerous. So when my friend Spencer told me about the Lillooet Ice Fest and asked if I wanted to come, I didn't take much convincing.

This past summer, me and my climbing partner Forest had the itch to climb something big. We had both been trad climbing a lot lately and wanted to push ourselves in the alpine, so we settled on Mt. Stuart as a good objective. The complete north ridge is a sick line up the north face of the mountain. It's about 3000 feet of climbing with a 5.9+ crux low and another 5.9 on the gendarme close to the summit. It also holds a spot on the 50 Classic Climbs of North America, so with all that it felt like the obvious choice. We also wanted to do the direct start, which added about 800' of climbing to the abbreviated route. I thought it'd be cooler to climb the full ridge anyway.