After 17 months of rigorous cleaning of rock, dirt and vegetation, the easiest full-height climbing route up the Stawamus Chief is open.Jeff Mottershead and fellow members of UBC's Varsity Outdoors Club (VOC) recently completed Europa, which follows a line roughly parallel to another popular line, Crap Crags. The new route means moderately experienced climbers who are able to pull themselves up a bit of 5.8, a fair bit of sustained 5.7 and a bolt ladder, can experience the famous monolith's face. And greater accessibility means more people will be compelled to visit Squamish, said Mottershead."I'm hearing about lots of ascents from all kinds of people, both in and out of the VOC. It's drawing people in and as the word gets out, the draw of a long, sustained climb at a moderate grade will bring in a lot of traffic, much of which will require accommodation and guides."Mottershead, a climbing instructor, conceived of the $10,000 project out of a desire to provide students with a full-height, sustained but easy climb that exits off the backside trail. Mottershead funded the majority of the project himself, along with the VOC, Mountain Equipment Co-op and a number of individual supporters. The project got underway in November 2006 with advisement from the Squamish Access Society (SAS).The endeavour uncovered a number of surprises. Mottershead alone spent about 1,500 hours on the Chief while a team of about 35 others combined for another 1,500 hours.SAS board member Kevin McLane said he was impressed by the team's efforts. "It was clearly a bigger job than they ever dreamed. It was astonishing to see them persist with such diligence to actually get it done." While the estimate of vegetation they would have to remove turned out to be accurate, there were a number of big surprises with the amount of loose rock and dirt and the tenacity of the roots."In many areas, rather than a crack under the dirt, there was a pile of big blocks with the roots weaving in and out through the openings. Dealing with these areas was incredibly time consuming."Clearing loose grit and blocks often revealed even more grit and by the time workers got to solid rock, impressive chimneys were unearthed.They used a chain puller to yank trees and eventually resorted to lowering an air compressor down the climb and using a blow gun "as a poor man's pressure washer" to get all the dirt that coated the maze of blocks, said Mottershead.Partway through the project, Mottershead started receiving environmental concerns via online forums touching on falcon habitat and maintaining a natural state of vegetation. However, Mottershead noted the vast majority of work took place on the bottom two pitches, out of the falcon nesting area, while the work done on the upper pitches was standard cleaning done outside of nesting season. Photographs taken prior to 1970 show that there are still many more trees than there had once been.Climb On owner Daniel Butler said visitors and locals are already making inquires."I think it's going to be great, The Chief shouldn't just be exclusive to the expert climber. I think everyone should have the opportunity to experience the joy of climbing."Those climbing before July 31 should check for route closures due to falcon nesting.
