This weekend, The Boulders in Central Saanich, BC continue to play host to the 2019 Sport Climbing BC Provincial Difficulty Championships. Here are the final results of the Difficulty competition Saturday which will be followed today (Sunday) by the Speed competition

Men’s Open

1. Elan Jonas-McRae
2. Devin Wong
3. Guy McNamee

Women’s Open
1.Lexi Binder
2. Stephanie Chow
3. Brielle Zacharias

For Junior and Youth Results, please see below. Special mention for Squamish local Cedar Pidgeon, who came home from a bouldering trip only two weeks ago to place on top of the podium for Youth C!

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Facundo Langbehn claims the first ascent of Chile’s hardest boulder and first (V14/8B+) “Inferno”.

Multiple reports and agencies are now reporting that American Jess Roskelley and Austrians Hansjörg Auer and David Lama are presumed dead after a massive avalanche on the Canadian Rockies.

“Parks Canada visitor safety specialists immediately responded by air and observed signs of multiple avalanches and debris containing climbing equipment. Based on the assessment of the scene, all three members of the party are presumed to be deceased. Further investigation is underway but recovery efforts are not currently possible due to additional avalanches and dangerous conditions at the scene.” – Amy Krause, Parks Canada

The climbers were believed to be repeating a route on Howse Peak first established by Steve House, Barry Blanchard, and Scott Backes in 1999 called M16.

The team of climbers had arrived in Alberta a week earlier and is thought to include David Lama, 28, of Austria, one of the top climbers and alpinists in the world, Hansjoerg Auer, 35, also of Austria, who is known for his free solo fame and American Mountaineer Jess Roskelley, 36.

David Lama just released a highlight reel of his 2018 mountain moments on youtube two days ago.

The Scarpa Instinct line has long been the flagship of Scarpa’s high performance shoe line, with many climbers refusing to let go of their Scarpa Instinct VR even when they sleep!

With the 2018 redesign of the Instinct lace-up and the 2019 of the Instinct SR, the line has come full circle, providing beginner and advanced climbers a number of options when it comes to the proverbial ‘lacing up’ while still offering true precision and power to any climbing experience.

Hands down, the Scarpa Instinct SR is the most powerful slipper on the market. We had a chance to test the new 2019 Scarpa Instinct SR for a three month period and here is what we thought.

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Join us to cheer North Vancouver local Alannah Yip as she competes in semi-finals (and hopefully finals) at the 2019 IFSC World Cup Bouldering Moscow.

With an increase in visitors during the summer months, wild camping and van dwelling in Squamish has become a increasing issue for the city. On April 9th, Squamish City Council took action to address the camping situation and voted to draft a bylaw to regulate camping in public places including crown land within the municipal boundary with the exception of two areas (shown on the map below).

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Another priceless video featuring the modern boulderer by Outdoor Research.

Hilarious video highlighting crag crowding by Outdoor Research.

The IFSC World Cup season started last week with a bouldering stop in Meiringen,Switzerland to kick things off. Representing Canada was our two top athletes, Sean McColl and Alannah Yip. With a strong start in qualifications, Alannah Yip made semi-finals, topping one problem and placing 15th in a strong field of seasoned competitors. Sean McColl placed 24th in the qualifications round, still with four tops but leaving him just shy of semi-finals.

Alannah Yip in Meiringen. Photo courtesy of Sytse van Slooten ©

Both Alannah Yip and Sean McColl will be the only athletes representing Canada this weekend at the IFSC World Cup Moscow (RUS) 2019. The competition will feature both bouldering and speed. Let the games begin!