Squamish Climbing Weekend with the VOC!
Squamish Climbing Weekend! We went on the VOC (Varsity Outdoor Club’s- see last blog post) trip to Squamish to learn about outdoor climbing! The trip is called Son of Rock and is an annual instructional climbing outing to Squamish for all levels of climbers. Squamish is home to amazing rock climbing and is known as the “the adventure capital of Canada”. The small town (population ~ 20,000) is about an hour north of Vancouver and on the way to Whistler. The area where most of the climbing groups spent the day was at Smoke Bluffs, a municipal park created in cooperation between the town and local climbers. The park is a very well set up for climbing with multiple sites and easy trials to rock faces. There is also a guide book available with the ratings of each site as well as additional information for climbers such as best time to climb, anchor available, top access, etc.
My boyfriend and I signed up for Rock 1 (beginner) but they offer up to Rock 5 (advanced). Our curriculum consisted of the basics of top rope; belay techniques, basic knots, beginner climbing skills, and rappelling. The upper levels learned about sport lead, trad lead, multi-pitch, and safety. The instructors were experienced club members who had volunteered to educate beginner members. In our group of 5, we had 3 instructors and most other groups had around a 2 to 1 student to instructor ratio. This was a great environment to learn, the other students also had very little experience and the instructors wanted us to learn the safety standards and become excited about climbing. They had all also learned from this “Son of Rock” weekend and wanted to give back to the club by volunteering their acquired knowledge. After the end of the first day we had completed several climbs and I had learned a ton about climbing and was excited to get to the point where we could come out to Squamish and climb by our own. Thank you instructors for being so helpful and fun!
My boyfriend and I signed up for Rock 1 (beginner) but they offer up to Rock 5 (advanced). Our curriculum consisted of the basics of top rope; belay techniques, basic knots, beginner climbing skills, and rappelling. The upper levels learned about sport lead, trad lead, multi-pitch, and safety. The instructors were experienced club members who had volunteered to educate beginner members. In our group of 5, we had 3 instructors and most other groups had around a 2 to 1 student to instructor ratio. This was a great environment to learn, the other students also had very little experience and the instructors wanted us to learn the safety standards and become excited about climbing. They had all also learned from this “Son of Rock” weekend and wanted to give back to the club by volunteering their acquired knowledge. After the end of the first day we had completed several climbs and I had learned a ton about climbing and was excited to get to the point where we could come out to Squamish and climb by our own. Thank you instructors for being so helpful and fun!
That night most of the group climbing went to a nearby campsite to spend the night. The campsite was free (always a plus!) and absolutely gorgeous. Its tradition for the VOCers to camp on the island next to the campsite (see photos below). The island is situated in a valley with great views of the snow-capped mountains and a river running by. The island was complete sand and it felt so nice to take off my shoes after a big day of wedging my feet into precarious rock cracks. We had a feast of spaghetti and goldfish and sat around the bonfire getting to know other members of the club. We made plans with other beginner climbers to join them the next day at Smoke Bluffs.
We woke up and “faffed” around for a bit (faffing is a term they use to describe wasting time lol) while the sun was rising and headed out to Tim Hortons for a quick breakfast before going back to the park. Since we were now on our own and new the basics of climbing, we had a lot of fun pushing the limits of our ability. We spent the day going between various routes and getting stronger and more comfortable each time. It was a beautiful day and perfect conditions to climb.
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