We are pleased to announce that Jacob Cook and Drew Marshall have finished their (including Tony Mclane) two year project establishing Inner Fire (5.12d), a five pitch climb off Bellygood Ledge in Squamish, BC.
According to Jacob Cook:
Tony McLane and I began trying the line last summer, We would teeter up the dykes from the ground up then tag the drill to bolt on lead from stances. Sometimes the stances were very poor indeed. We inched up the wall discovering its intricacies slowly, bolt by bolt. The process was mentally challenging but very satisfying.
This season, Drew and I continued the quest and managed to break though the crux on the second pitch that had shut down Tony and I last summer. Drilling the bolt from the stance after the crux on that pitch was an intense five minutes! Above that the climbing was slightly easier but it continued to be an interesting challenge to find the line and get the bolts in ground up. Yesterday we wrote the final chapter by making a continuous ascent of all five pitches. The route is very similar in character to Marc-Andre Leclerc’s Labyrinth on the Tantalus Wall and I’m proud to contribute in a small way to the history of ground up slab climbing in Squamish.
Special thanks to the Sea to Sky Route Development Fund (https://www.gofundme.com/f/seatoskyroutedevelopment) for contributing the hardware, the donations are greatly appreciated!
