Fun in Squamish

Ahh, back in Squamish again - Boulders in the forest, granite cracks, multipitch routes, and heaps of itinerant climbers. As long as it isn't raining, it is great. First, here are some of the motley cast of characters....

**Cory fights the man and climbs hard**

**Grand, star of "hug your favorite Asian day"**

**Erin topping out on "Master of my Domain"**

**Paul high on Angel's Crest**

**Pablo boulders 'til he bleeds**

**Jackie impersonates a mermaid**

**The Chief from the estuary at dusk**

A number of those folks are actually part of the "Winnipeg Connection" which was taking over Squamish at one point. Here are some activity photos... I suppose I should write more, but since I haven't, at least you can see some pictures.

Here are some of the things I climbed...
Angel's Crest, Arrow Root, Crime of the Century, Diedre, Exasperator, Jacob's Ladder, Rutabaga, Smoke Bluff Connection, Snake, Squamish Buttress (via Rock On), Ultimate Everything (via Over the Rainbow)
and bouldering, Baba Hari Dass, Bali Song, Cutting Edge, Easy in an Easy Chair, Jack's Baby, Lounge Act, Mantis, Sloppy Poppy, Superfly, Titanic, Trad Killer

**Jackie stretches on "Jacob's Ladder"**

**Jason takes the plunge at Brohm lake**

**Pablo flips into the lake**

Kellie on Exasperator
ok, so maybe I should have been taking up slack
instead of taking pictures, but she was solid

**Climbing out into the rain on "Jacob's Ladder"**

The chief from Howe Sound
(you have to go to great lengths to get a picture without tons of power lines in the way)

One day I went on a walking - paddling trip. I walked up through the neighborhood, then down a logging road to the Mamquam river. There I inflated my raft and set off down the river. At first it was clear water which was very nice. I saw a bunch of salmon which was cool but They were pretty crusty looking. I should have tried to get underwater pictures of them there, as soon a silty stream came in, and the visibility went down. The main difficulty was a few places where the water was very shallow, maybe 3 inches deep, which is a little less than the raft's draft, although if you spread your weight up onto the side tubes, it doesn't draw as much water.

I saw plenty more salmon going through the shallows, and lots of dead ones being eaten by gulls and ravens etc. It smelled pretty rank at times. Then down to the Squamish River which is much bigger. There the water was completely silty, and there were seals (eating salmon I presume). On down the river with increasingly fierce headwinds and less current (the tide was coming in) to Howe sound. There I paddled across the sound and up the blind channel to take out by the hostel and then roll up my boat and hike up through the smoke bluffs back to the house. I thought it was pretty cool that this can be done. Maybe 6 or 7 K of walking and 10 of paddling, but I am not sure. By the end my feet were pretty cold. Mostly because I stood in the shallows for a while hoping the salmon would go by to get an underwater picture, but I think I spooked them. I was wearing neoprene socks, but it was still cold water.

**Panorama from the hike to Elfin Lakes**

Another day I hiked up to Elfin Lakes. This was a pretty nice hike once I was actually up past most of the trees into the meadows. There were lots of nice views of alpine scenery. It was pretty cold, especially in the shade. I suppose fall is here now.

**Elfin Lake reflection**

The day before I left, it started raining, it rained all night and it was pouring when I left. The apron was a waterfall, and Shannon falls was raging. I was hoping to get one more chance on some projects, but at least it was a lot easier to leave when it was pouring.