The season has transitioned over to spring, and as we’re waiting for the summer trails to melt out, we’ve spent the first few weekends in April and May climbing.

Weekend 1:

On the 27th Katy and I headed to Vantage to kick off our climbing season.

Katy led and cleaned her first ever sport routes on the feathers—it was awesome! It was crowded, but we got on some excellent routes in the morning before we hiked over to Sunshine Wall.

Katy’s first lead!

Exhausted after lunch, I decided anyway to make a go of Duress/Under Duress, an awesome 5.8 column with a 5.9 second pitch to the top.

Duress/Under Duress follows the center face and crack, depending on how you choose your adventure.

I took a nice whip around the top but found whatever reserve I had left to get to the anchors and finish it up. It was awesome, airy, beautiful, and exactly what I needed to kick off the summer.

Weekend 2:

The next weekend a few of us headed up to Leavenworth to do some camping and climbing, plus Christian and I wanted to get some practice with trad leading and anchor setting.

This is long overdue, but on Katy’s birthday I surprised her with a trip up to Canada. We stayed at an awesome B&B on the Sunshine Coast, right on the water on the Sechelt Inlet.

In short, it was amazing.

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