Squamish Climbing: Trip Report: Kelowna

This weekend Ben Harnden gave me a tour of the Kelowna climbing scene. The plan was to check out the boulders in Cougar Canyon but because of crap weather Ben thought the boulders were most likely soaked. In a quick change of plans, Ben and I headed to Skaha to meet up with Drew and Anna, from Victoria, and Marek, who is know living in Summerland. For those who don't know Drew, he was once a power house in the Squamish climbing scene and is dubbed with the first ascent of Be on Four, one of the most intimidating highballs in the forest.

Anna and Drew.

After a tour of the new house and some friendly banter we headed out to Skaha. On the way there it was pouring down rain and when we arrived at the new parking lot things were looking pretty grim. The new parking lot, on the other hand, appears quite the hotspot for parking and now cuts the Skaha approach in half which is a huge plus. I have always had a true love hate thing for the Skaha approach. Damn those stairs and their fitness!

Ben caught in a sea of cars.

Despite the weather, we ended up heading to the Great White Wall and found ourselves having a pretty good time. If you have never been to Skaha, it is more than a good time. The routes here are jammed packed with good holds and always seem to get you feet thinking. If I had the chance, I would stay here for a whole season and climb everything. Marek and I had not been sport climbing in years, so we were sticking to the short routes and still getting pumped like crazy. We ended up climbing most of the afternoon until Marek went down after a rogue boulder busted up his leg. After climbing, we all headed back to Marek's to have some sweet sweet moose stew that was brewing at home thanks to Clara. All and all a great day!

Anna climbing on the edge of the Great White Wall.

This morning I woke up early and called Ben because I wanted to see what the bouldering scene was like around Kelowna. Ben brought us to a place called Pebble Beach that was host to a handful of good problems situated right next to Okanagan Lake. The place doesn't have much but some of the problems were really great. I stuck to most of the easy stuff while Ben bounced around climbing all over. Here are a few pictures of Ben crushing and the local art scene.