Jesse Warren arrived in Squamish, BC four years ago at the age of 18. He had just started his first semester at Quest University and was more than excited to be living in a climbing paradise. In his first few years, Jesse and Mike Foley, a relatively well-known climber from Boston, MA, teamed up to make the best out of their Squamish experience. As the years went by, Jesse made big gains in his climbing, including ascents of The Silent Menace (5.14c), Lost Horizons at Little Si(14a/b), THe Shelter (V13), Mandala SDS in Bishop (v13), and Meadow Lark Lemon Stand (v13).
Last month, Jesse graduated from Quest University and has gone back to his hometown of Seattle for the summer (even though I see him around all the time!). Squamish Climbing Magazine had a chance to catch up with Jesse as he reflected on his time here, being a student at Quest, climbing in Squamish, and his future plans. Here is what he had to say.
Jesse Warren on Eurasian Eyes (5.13b).Photo courtesy of Keagan Pearson ©
So, this is your last week in Squamish, how are you feeling?
My last week in Squamish has been an emotional one. While I will still be coming back up to Squamish semi-frequently, I’m still going to miss it a ton. Despite suffering through rainy, warm winters, and the stresses of university, the past four years in Squamish have been amazing. I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to learn, spend time in the outdoors, and meet a bunch of great people here.
To give our readers a little bit of background, how and why did you come about to living in Squamish?
I moved to Squamish four years ago to attend Quest University. I first visited Quest on a climbing trip to Squamish when I was 16. In the following two years its unique academic approach, in addition to its proximity to world class climbing began to win me over, and I began my first year of University there in the fall of 2011.
You have had a chance to really get to know the city and the climbing. What is the best thing about Squamish for you?
I think the thing I like most about Squamish is the proximity to the outdoors. The 5-10 minute drive to the Chief has spoiled me. Any day that it’s dry enough, I can usually find at least a few hours to get out climbing. In addition, I ski in the winter, and while that does require more driving than going climbing, there are a number of great touring zones that are still quite accessible to someone living in Squamish. Pemberton is just over an hour away and has some of the best backcountry skiing in BC. I’m definitely going to miss the ability to spend half a day working, and then, after a short commute, spend the other half of the day climbing or skiing. That’s something that’s pretty unique to Squamish.
Jesse on Room Service (v12). Photo courtesy of Jesse Warren ©
A handful of climbers have gone through the Quest program. How has the experience of being a quest student been for you?
Overall, Quest has been an amazing experience for me. As a liberal arts university, it takes a very different approach to academics than most large universities, especially in Canada. Instead of having students take large, lecture based classes, and focus more on research, Quest has very small class sizes and focuses more on interdisciplinary learning. I’ve come away from Quest with not only a number of skills that I wouldn’t have learned at another university, but with a desire to continue learning in the future.
In terms of climbing, while Quest likely offers the best proximity to world class climbing of any North American university, it has so far attracted very few strong climbers. Mountain biking, and especially skiing are definitely much more popular with the student body. That said, I spent my first two years climbing with Mike Foley, a ridiculously strong former Quest student from Boston who showed me a lot of the climbing that Squamish has to offer. The past two years I’ve definitely had less partners at Quest to climb with, but I’ve survived due to not minding solo training sessions and learning to lug 4 pads around by myself. This year a longtime climbing partner of mine from Seattle, Sam Conard, started school at Quest, and next year there look to be a number of strong climbers coming as well. I think that the Quest climbing community will only continue to grow in the future, although I’m a bit sad to say I won’t be there to really see it.
Your have gotten stronger and stronger over the past four years. Anything about your schedule at Quest that you attribute to your success?
Quest’s curriculum does lend itself nicely to climbing. Unlike almost every other university out there, it is structured on something called the Block Plan. Students take one course at a time in 3 and a half week blocks. At the end of the block, students have a four day weekend, known as a ‘block break’. While the block plans singular focus can be so intense that it prohibits climbing, other aspects of it work great for climbing. Block breaks, the fact that you can take a full block off easily, and having only one class a day all lend themselves to climbing. During my time at Quest, I took a block off to go climb in Bishop for a month, learned Spanish (and how to grab tufas) in Spain, and took over a dozen block break climbing trips around the Pacific Northwest. Despite Squamish being so rainy for much of the year, I’ve probably managed to climb outside for close to 75 days a year for the past four years.
While the block break trips definitely helped my climbing, I think the proximity to the boulders that Quest’s location provides was what allowed me to progress the most. Squamish climbing requires a subtlety that I feel like I didn’t pick up on until this year. In fact, my second and third years spent in Squamish I sent almost no hard problems, and ended up just getting really frustrated. Something clicked this fall, and all these longstanding projects of mine started to feel much easier. While I think part of that was me getting stronger, a lot of it was just being able to put in dozens of days out at the boulders and get a better understanding of the subtleties required to climb hard here.
Are there any that you are leaving behind? and are there any that just stick out to you as some of the best?
There were times this year when it felt like I had exhausted the climbing that was possible to do in Squamish for me unless I either changed my name to Tim or locked myself in a room with the pinch block for a year, both of which I’m not really willing to do. But as this year went on, I realized there’s always more boulder problems to get obsessed with, and that I’ve actually done very little of Squamish’s sport climbing.
In terms of projects that I have now, I’ve been getting pretty close on Black Magic (V12/13). In my last few sunny days in Squamish, I lugged a bunch of pads up there by myself 3 days in a row, only to be shut down repeatedly by seeping holds. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish that up this summer.
On a longer time frame, I’m pretty psyched to dive into the black hole that is projecting Dreamcatcher. I tried it a few times 3 years ago, but after watching so many strong people struggle with it, I wrote it off as being too difficult and involved. But this spring I got on it again, and surprised myself by doing each of the three main crux sections right away. It’s still a long way off (I’ve essentially two hung it, without doing the slab), but it feels like it might be possible. I plan to train for it a bunch in the summer, then come up in September and try it more then.
There are also some hard boulders that I want to do at some point in my life, like North Ridge, The Singularity, and I Shot the Sherriff. But those will likely take more focus on only bouldering, and a fall/winter spent in Squamish.
Jesse on Dreamcatcher. Photo by Eric De Paoli ©
Jesse on I Shot the Sheriff. Photo courtesy of Jesse Warren ©
Where are you headed next?
I’m returning to Seattle for the summer and fall. I’m looking forward to spending some time in a city again. I essentially grew up in the climbing community in Seattle, and I’m excited to climb with all my friends there in the next few months. After that, in January, I plan to go to Spain to sport climb for three months. Spain, particularly Catalunya, is one of my favorite places in the world, and offers a ridiculous amount of hard, beautiful, and tall sport climbs in close proximity to each other. Three months there is not even close to enough time, but it’s a good start. I’ve also got a bunch of friends there that I made when I visited last year that I’m excited to see again.
Any climbing goals outside of Squamish that you are gunning for?
I’m pretty excited to spend a summer climbing at Little Si. What Little Si lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in quality, especially in the 5.13 and 5.14 grade range. I think this summer will involve a lot of hangdogging on Whore of Babylon (14b) and Jonathan Siegrist’s route New World Order (14c). Both of those routes are the epitome of Little Si climbing: long and crimpy, with bouldery cruxes. Getting pumped and grabbing real crimps should be a nice change in pace from Squamish.
I also am going to try to go down to Smith Rock more, especially in the fall. Smith never fails to humble and scare me, and there’s an endless amount of things to try down there. I also have a bunch of projects in Leavenworth and Index, both of which have seen a ton of recent development.
You plan to spend the winter in Spain. Where are you going to settle down and what do you have in mind for this experience?
The plan is to spend three months there this winter. I spent two months studying Spanish in Barcelona last year, which was enough time for me to sample a tiny portion of the climbing in Catalunya. I’m excited to go back there with the sole purpose of climbing, particularly in Siurana and Oliana. Those two areas are each home to as many, if not more hard sport climbs than all of North America. There really isn’t anywhere else in the world that has that concentration of tall, beautiful, difficult sport climbs. The plan is to onsight things for the first half of the trip, then spend the second half of the trip projecting in Oliana.
Jesse on Kalea Borroka (14a) in Siurana. Photo courtesy of Jesse Warren ©
Well, thanks a lot Jesse. Squamish will definitely miss you (if you, technically, ever leave). Glad to still have you around!
Jesse is sponsored by Five Ten.
