July 2016
My 2nd Annual Roadtrip to Squamish.
Met up with amazing old friends. I know I’ve said it before, and I’ll continue to say it again and again, but I am constantly amazed by the fact that I am able to still hang out with and see my climbing friends from Korea. Even though I left Korea over 3 years ago, I’m still running into these hooligans everywhere!
Is it something about Korea, or was it something just innate in us to keeps pulling us together?
We become dirtbags and get jobbed. We leave jobs and enter schools and the workforce, and then we leave them again. Our lives are dynamic as we keep chasing dream after dream, adventure after adventure.
This tiny pony has been slowly making his way down this sidewalk in Portland for weeks. Locals tell me he’s made it some 3 or 4 blocks in the past month.
Fucking Portland, you’re great.
It was raining in Squamish for the first few days of my two-week trip, so we opted to stop in Index for a few days instead.
A fantastic choice.
The climbing (bouldering and trad) was great and the location was extremely convenient with respect to groceries and camping, while still being very remote from the cities.
I was also blown away by how amazingly beautiful it was. So lush and so green.
I absolutely fell in love with Index.
Not just a little bit, but a lot.
Not slowly, but immediately.
The climbing in Index was really amazing-- and to think it's only an hour away from Seattle! How is it not the most crowded crag in the world? I'd come out every weekend if I could!
This is a photo of Princely Ambitions, a classic climb with some tough face climbing, a few delicate moves, and a wild traverse!
Also had the opportunity to do Park Ranger while at Index which was (mostly) amazing! First 3 pitches were a ton of fun! It's graded 5.9, but definitely one of the hardest 5.9's I've ever done, even harder than most Yosemite 5.9 classics!
The 3rd pitch is absolutely money. Amazing hand crack turns into this fun flaring crack that you just shove your knees, bum, whatever you can in. For sure can feel harder if you're not used to the style!
The 4th pitch however was pure garbage. The first 20 meters are dirty and covered in moss, and every crack is filled with spider webs. The last 10 meters involve straight up pulling on vegetation.
10/10 would do the first 3 pitches again, 0/10 would never touch the 4th pitch unless you paid me lots of money or unless someone covered it in Agent Orange to kill off all the vegetation.
Van had told me about the General Store before we arrived in Index. He mentioned it was owned by a Korean couple. When I'd heard this, I assumed they'd be fairly Americanized, given that Index has a population of just 186 and I was pretty sure they were the only two Asians out of that 186.
So imagine my surprise when I walked in and saw the owner sitting behind the counter, watching Korean dramas, just as any shopkeeper in the Los Angeles Koreatown would! They even sold homemade kimchi in the shop.
And at that moment, my mind immediately was inundated with questions.
How much kimchi do they actually sell per week? Do people in this town even know what kimchi is? What are they doing out here in Index? They don't even speak English that well. How did they end up here? Why did they end up here?
Over the course of the 4 days we spent staying in Index, we bought 3 jars of kimchi, and each time we visited the General Store, I'd find out a little bit more about this couple.
Evidently the man and his wife had indeed come from the Los Angeles Koreatown. However, some years ago, they had taken a vacation to Index and fallen in love with the town.
From there, they uprooted everything they knew, left all their fellow immigrant friends, left their old lifestyle in the city, left behind people who understood their culture and background and history and language and everything about them.
They left behind everything familiar so they could move out to this tiny mountain town filled with people who were so different from their selves.
Save for the fact that they loved the mountains and the forests and the rivers around them.
I left Index with more questions than I started with.
Leavenworth!
We ended up spending a day here by accident. My partner and I had done the 1.5 hour approach (which included crossing a scary river!) to get to a multipitch, only to decide to abandon it when it started thundering in the distance. As much as I love climbing, I'm more over dangerous epics.
But it all turned out well. Leavenworth is an absolutely adorable German-themed town with bright colors and beautiful architecture everywhere!
Not to mention delicious pretzels and dozens of delicious mustards for your choosing!
Happiness.
I'm so happy.
When I first came to Squamish last year, I had just started trad climbing that year. I was so nervous about it-- I didn't really have anyone to learn with. I had friends who trad climbed, but they all climbed way harder and had been doing it for years. I didn't want to burden them with my inexperience.
So when I came to Squamish that first time, I felt very much like my partners were doing a "service" for me, as I was obviously the weak link, barely able to carry my own weight.
I'm grateful to my partners then for having so much patience with me, teaching me how to trad climb and partnering with me through the easier multi-pitches as I learned and became more confident. By the end of the trip, I was determined to improve my trad climbing so that I could come back and climb all the routes that I'd heard about-- things like Angel's Crest and Rock On!
This year, I like to think I fulfilled that goal.
I was able to take down Angel's Crest and Rock On, just as I had wanted, as well as Squamish Buttress and a few other great routes!
Of course, I could have improved a lot more, but it's good to see my progress. I hope that next year I'll be able to do the Grand Wall!
"Did you see the dragon?"
"The what?"
"The dragon."
"What do you mean drago-- WHOAMYGOD THATS AWESOME."
Totem pole halfway up the Crest. Someone either carved this on the ground and then hauled it up 7 pitches or they carved it here!
Either way, impressive!
Exaperator. My ultimate project.
I looked at this crack 1 year ago, and saw Van and Madeleine both send it.
This year, I wanted to go back and get the flash.
I didn't get the flash or the send, but still was able to do it in 2 falls. I'm really happy with my progress on it anyway, as it's an absolutely phenomenal climb with fantastic movements, and I can't wait until next year when I can try it again!
This is Excalibur.
Excalibur is a rock that sits in the middle of the woods. Legend has it that if you can pick it up with one hand, it's a V6. And if you mantel on top of it, it's a V4.
No reception or data means reverting to archaic modes of communication.
"Bouldering @ Mantra/Titanic area"
Life doesn't get better than this.