Matthew and Cassie's Big Climbing Trip.: more from squamish

if I needed more reasons why mountain biking is scary

We're still in Squamish and loving it. It may seem like one month is a long time to spend in one place, but at Squamish, we haven't even come close to running out of things to do here. We have about two more weeks and are starting to think of with so little time left how we'll be able to do everything we'd like to do here. Our perspective on time has started to shift after three months on the road.

excited for another day in the forest!

Matthew has started sending problems pretty quickly and easily (other than the bashing and scraping of his hands and ankles against the rock), I'm making progress on some of my projects, (just a little slower and with more of my skin in tact). The granite here is ridiculously good, and the boulders are concentrated at the base of The Chief in a beautiful forest. It's always cool and shaded in the forest and it's easy to forget that you're in such a beautiful place. We often emerge from the boulders blinded by the sun, shedding layers, and looking up and around at the amazing scenery here.

Matt - titanic v3

stu's fly - the hardest v2 in the world

black mark - v4

We've been lucky to find a drive in campsite at the climbers campground that gets a bit of sun, most of the sites are walk-in tent sites nestled in the forest which may be a nicer setting, but for us it means we still get a bit of solar power and there have been a number of sun oven baked goods. Blueberry muffins and peach crisp have been our favorites lately since both are fresh, local, and cheap! The conversations that happen among VW van owners has again been great as we met and are camped right next to an Australia couple with a eurovan who are traveling and climbing around the US for a year. It's been great hanging out and climbing with Mars and Kim the last week or so! They are primarily trad climbers, but we convinced them to come boulder with us a couple days and we had a good time trad climbing with them yesterday. They've also gotten us even more excited to go to Australia and climb in the Arapiles!

kim - thriller off the void 11b

remembering how to place gear

mars - a very impressive onsight of thriller off the void 11b

mars - titanic v3

This week we also were able to meet up with friends from Salt Lake. Christian, Julie, Dave, and Chris made the 20 hour drive to mountain bike at Whistler for a few days. Whistler has amazing mountain bike trails, but is a little out of our league in both price and skills. They invited us to join them for some relatively easy mountain biking on some local trails, but since they were heading for the trail we saw earlier with the warnings of an aggressive cougar and knowing that I would by far be the last one of the group making me perfect bait for the cougar, we decided not to join them. After they had beaten themselves up at Whistler for a few days (including bruised ribs and a broken bike), they met up with us for an afternoon of bouldering before driving back. It was great to see friends from home and we all had a great afternoon playing around in the forest.