Special thanks to Kaylan Worsnop, Danny Guestrin, Brent Goodman, Stephen Molgard, who have added Deep Impact (5.11a, 245m, 7p), a five pitch extension to the original Halley’s Comet on the Dog Wall in Squamish, BC.
Deep Impact (5.11a, 245m, 7p)
The following was provided by Danny Guestrin.
*FA P1 – Jon Rigg, Brent Goodman, Kaylan Worsnop, Danny Guestrin 2018
FA P2 – Joe Turley, Ted Marks 1985
FA P3-7 – Kaylan Worsnop, Danny Guestrin, Brent Goodman, Stephen Molgard 2019
*
Deep Impact is an extension of Halley’s Comet, a classic 60 meter splitter finger crack located on the left side of Dog Wall that was established by Joe Turley and Ted Marks in 1985. Deep Impact links several buttresses providing a well-protected quality crack line in a more quiet area in Squamish. Long splitter cracks, comfortable ledges, and excellent views make for a great day of rock climbing.
In the early spring of 2018 an exploratory mission was carried out to see what the striking Halley’s Comet crack was all about and to check out the other obvious features on the left side of Dog Wall that have caught the eye of many Valleycliffe residents. After a huge cleaning effort by Brent Goodman, Kaylan Worsnop, Stephen Molgard, Jon Rigg, and myself, a thoughtful line of mainly finger and hand cracks was pieced together.
Approach
Start up the Slhanay trail and about 75 meters before the main rock face turn left onto the climber’s trail to Klootch Buttress. Approximately 30 m past the start of Babies in Kailand, before the trail steepens towards Photophobia, look for a faint trail that contours left. Follow this across a small talus field to the base of Dog Wall. Continue along the base to where the trail ends at a knotted fixed line. Rack up here. Up the fixed line to a ledge system that takes you down to a 2 bolt anchor that marks the start of the route. 30 minutes.
**Pitch 1** (5.7, 30m): Make an exposed traverse left then up a large flake and past several horizontal cracks. A thin traverse left leads to a short wide-hands corner crack ending at a small ledge with a 2-bolt anchor.
**Pitch 2** (5.10c, 60m): Climb the long and beautiful splitter finger and hand crack. Once the crack peters out, clip a bolt and make delicate slab moves to a 2-bolt anchor.
*Up a fixed line and move left to a tree belay above a gully.*
**Pitch 3 **(5.8, 25m): 7 bolts. Traverse the hanging slab underneath the huge roof.
**Pitch 4** (5.10b, 45m): Face climb past a bolt to gain a golden left facing corner. Up the corner and into a slot that breaches the left side of the huge roof. Finger and hand cracks past a ledge to a double crack system. Tree belay on a large treed ledge.
*Up the fixed line to a 2-bolt belay on a ledge.*
**Pitch 5 **(5.11a, 20m): Layback and face climb past two bolts to a gain a splitter finger crack that leads to a 2-bolt belay.
**Pitch 6** (5.11a, 40m): An incredible pitch of crack climbing. Climb the flare with a thin crack in the back. Once the flare opens up, gain a parallel finger and hand crack which curves left providing strenuous climbing to a stance in a pod. From there, a steep hand crack opens up to an easy offwidth to a tree belay on a beautiful forested ledge. Do not touch the large detached block out left to avoid the final offwidth.
*Move right to a tree belay beneath a splitter crack.*
**Pitch 7** (5.10c, 25m): Climb a right-angling shallow crack past a bolt to gain a splitter finger crack.
**Rack:** Nuts. Double set of cams (BD sizes) from .2 to 3. Offset cams useful. Triples from .3 to.75 recommended for Halley’s Comet (Pitch 2) for those who like to stitch it up.
Decent:
9 rappels with a 60m rope. Rappel from the top of pitch 7 and locate chains on the right side of the ledge. 2 rappels (or 1 with a 70m) to a large ledge. One short rappel off a tree anchor to the ledge on top of pitch 4. From there two rappels gain the forested terrace above Halley’s Comet. Hike up and right to a rap station at a large tree. From there three rappels to the base.
Thanks to all those who donated to the bolt fund https://www.gofundme.com/seatoskyroutedevelopment And thanks to all the climbers who’ve established routes in Squamish which has provided the inspiration for taking on new routing projects such as this. Happy climbing!
