Almost 30 years ago, plans were laid for an outdoor program at Brackendale Secondary, what is now Don Ross Junior High, that incorporated hikes to Diamond Head for Grade 8, Garabaldi Lake for Grade 9, and the West Coast Trail for Grade 10. For 16 years, the program ran because of the vision and expertise of then principal Rick Smith. It’s popularity caused Bill Rizun, then a young fresh faced teacher, to revisit the idea of a climbing gym with the help of Jim Harvey and design input from Chris Atkinson and Jack Fieldhouse. The top rope walls went up first because they provided terrain more in line with teaching new climbers movement skills and the bouldering cave idea was shelved…until now.

The blank canvas at Don Ross Junior High in Squamish. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Blumel ©

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The 2015 IFSC World Cup made it’s stop in Wuijang, China this weekend. The two dat event featured all the heavy hitter is the competition scene, including Canadian Athletes Sean McColl and Elan Jonas-McCrae. After the qualification round, Sean was sitting in first place and Elan was in 14th, making semi-finals for the second competition in a row. In the end, Sean McColl made it to the podium in third place and Elan, placing 13th in semi-finals had his best placing in a World Cup event. Congratulations to both!

Here are the final results of the competition.

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We are pleased to announce that Josie Hetyei has sent Ixeia (5.14a) in Rodellar, Spain this week. Josie has been climbing very strong over the past three years, with ascents of Dinosaur Highway (5.14a), Motivation (5.14a), and ADATA (5.14b). She is a master of finding micro beta and she never gives up on a route. According to Josie, it took her 20 tries this trip but she also had tried it on a previous trip. Nobody ever accused Josie of not being tenacious!

Unfortunately, no pictures were taken of her on the route.

Alex Megos has been on a tear lately, putting up 5.15b in the Frankenjura and then sending every current project in the New River Gorge. Here is a video of him on Modified (5.15a).

For those looking for a place to hang out after a sunny day of climbing, look no further! Climb Base5 is hosting their annual BBQ to say thank you to the climbing community. With a ton of food and beer, the event is surely going to be a good time. Climbing is included with admission and will also feature Climb Base5’s new wall. Tickets for the event can be bought at the door and the event begins at 6pm.

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There’s nothing like tackling one of life’s oldest taglines to make you seem bitter and jaded: “Focus on the process, not the result.”

It’s an old line that seems, year by year, to be increasingly at odds with our market-driven culture and the high price we put onto image and success. In life we place a lot of value on performance, and climbing is no different. We use our North American yardstick, the Yosemite Decimal System, to capture a unit to grade a line’s difficulty, its most brutal physical move. Never mind that the grade is being applied by just one person, she who climbed it first, with body proportions unique to her and her alone. Yet we chase these numbers and use them to spur us on, to motivate, to rank ourselves, to erase our failures which we lay bare on the cliffs and walls and to justify whatever lengths needed to get it done.

Jeremy Blumel climbing by light. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Blumel ©

Whether it be a small boulder, a cliff, a wall or a mountain, reaching the summit is the conventionally understood marker of success.

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Here is big Will Stanhope free soloing High Plains Drifter in Squamish, BC. Stunning imagery and a some great words from Will himself.

A number of strong locals have been making the most of the fall sending temps. Mat Pouliot has been quietly ticking off many hard boulders including ascents of The Egg (v11), The Practitioner (v11) in Leavenworth, and a number of v10’s, including two Squamish classics, King Swing Low (v10) and Velcro (v10).

Mat Pouliot on The Egg (v11). Photo courtesy of Mat Pouliot©

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It’s not often you hear of people heading to Oregon to climb something other than Smith Rocks. Check out these two videos featuring Freakshow (5.14a) at Rat Rock in NW Oregon.

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Bonar McCallum started climbing in 1990. At the time, he was 24 years old, working and living in Langley, BC. A friend of his, Cliff Deyo, took him to the Smoke Bluffs in Squamish one day and instantly he was hooked. That winter, he participated in the great North American road trip, starting in Smith Rocks then down to Red Rocks, Yosemite, Bishop, and finally to Joshua Tree.

Flash forward 25 years and you still will find Bonar on the road. This year, Bonar and his wife, Lea Juszkiewicz, are starting in Rumney, NH and making their way down to the Red River Gorge. At the age of 49, Bonar sent his first 5.14’s last year, Bone Thief Extension (5.14a) and T-Rex (5.14a) and continued to put up hard routes in the Bow Valley. Not only that, he has been a strong force in the Alberta indoor climbing scene, coaching and mentoring a number of climbers during the competition season. With so many years of climbing under his belt, Bonar has a lot of wisdom to share, from his ideas about movement training to making sure you stretch, or perhaps more importantly, his ability to stay psyched for all these years.

Bonar McCallum on Wedding Crashers (5.13a). Photo courtesy of Grzegorz Florek ©

Our interview with Bonar was completed during the week that he made the first ascent of Highway to the Danger Zone. Here is what he had to say.

Hi Bonar, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Sounds like you had a great week to finish up your two projects! Can you tell us a bit about it?

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