Ten pitches of Diedre

Last Thursday, Ryan Goldsbury and I climbed Diedre on the Apron. It was our first multi-pitch trad climb in which neither of us were simply being dragged up a face to belay and clean gear. I only started learning to trad climb last fall at Longhike and leading sport climbing a few months earlier. Ryan had previously done quite a bit of bouldering, but ever since we met last fall when we both started our masters degree in the same program, I've been pushing the idea of using ropes and climbing higher onto him. I also found out last November that I had a broken bone in my wrist and for a few months I wasn't allowed to climb, but at the beginning of March, my doctor told me I could try climbing again. This was great news and since then, I've been rock climbing as much as possible and practicing my new trad skills. I've been spending most of my time climbing at Smoke Bluffs and if I'm not climbing or belaying, you'll usually find me placing an assortment of gear in a nearby crack at the base of the cliff, just seeing what fits and what doesn't. I aspire to great things and for a while, multi-pitch trad climbing has been the next big step for myself. If you haven't heard of Diedre, it's a seven pitch 5.8 route and it's the easiest route up the Apron on the Chief and therefore a logical place to start. I had been bugging Ryan about trying it for several weeks, and once he was convinced, we were then scooped by poor weather several times. Diedre is also famous for being the busiest multi-pitch climb in Squamish and if you want the wall to yourself, it's suggested that you climb it during a winter snowstorm by some sources. Being grad students without any set hours, we decided to climb it during the week once the weather was nice enough. That day turned out to be last Thursday.

We left our place at 9 AM and made our first stop at Tim Hortons in Squamish to grab a bagel B.E.L.T. and coffee. If you haven't figured this part out yet, this is an essential beginning to every successful outdoor activity. We then headed to and parked at the base of the Chief where we greeted a party of three climbers, who as it turned out, were also planning to climb Diedre that day. Looking up, we also saw that water was seeping down our route, but decided to give Diedre a shot anyway. When the five of us arrived at what we thought was the start of the climb, we spent about ten minutes trying to distort in our minds what we saw in the guidebook and what we saw in front of us so that they would match. This didn't work, so we headed to the right along the base of the cliff until it did. When we saw the first pitch, we all had a good laugh because if we hadn't known it had 5.6 rating, we all agreed we would have just walked up the low angle slab and thought nothing of it, as many people do. I guess this is what you do anyway since there's no place to place protection until you're nearly at the first anchor. Being inexperienced at multi-pitch climbing and a beginner trad climber, I suggested that the party of three should climb ahead of us. Before leaving the ground, I made sure to relieve myself so that I wouldn't have to while on the rock. Just so you know, my title isn't a misprint. While waiting for the party of three to climb the second pitch, Ryan and I decided to climb to a tree just below the first anchor tree to get things moving and with Ryan taking the lead. Once here, we realized that we should move up 10 feet to the real anchor, as it gave a better position to belay from, so Ryan belayed me up once it was free. Here, I decided that we still weren't at the best tree to belay from since I would be starting the next pitch further left, and so I belayed Ryan across the ledge we were on to another tree 10 feet away. It turns out that parties of three are slower than parties of two, so we sat at this ledge for some time waiting for the next anchor to become free.




The second pitch is 5.7, but the crux comes at the very beginning with a slabby start followed by a good cam placement, another easier slabby section and then an even easier crack. I've heard that placing an inadequate amount of protection is a good way to hurt yourself, so I placed a second cam, but only really managed to create some bad rope drag. Again, we waited at the anchor for the party of three to move on.




The third pitch is a 5.6 slabby traverse to the left with no chance of placing protection and Ryan took the lead. Again the crux was at the very beginning and was short lived. Right after taking down our anchor, I skirted a short way to my right to a patch of grass to relieve myself again before heading back left towards the next anchor. It was a beautiful sunny day, but there was a light wind that chilled us as we again waited our turn to climb the next pitch. At this point, we had been on the rock for over three hours, mostly sitting on our butts. This had one advantage though: we were on the rock long enough that most of the notoriously slow drying upper pitches dried while we were waiting.




The fourth pitch is a 5.8 and is the start of a dihedral that is the reason so many people climb Diedre. I was very eager to begin my next lead since it meant I could climb up a short distance to another bushy ledge where I could again relieve myself. Maybe a large Tim Hortons coffee isn't the way to begin a long rock route. The climbing was very enjoyable and sustained. Every time I climbed to a nice stance, I would lean toward the rock to take a look at the crack and would find the perfect gear placement staring back at me. I guess this is where the old-timers stopped to pound in their pitons that eventually turned into good nut and cam placements. Once Ryan finished following and cleaning the pitch, he informed me that I had lead the pitch faster than the last party member had seconded the next pitch that had already been cleaned.



The fifth pitch is more 5.8 dihedral and Ryan took the lead. Ryan has one ankle that is mostly fused, one previously broken toe that doesn't bend correctly and shoes that are uncomfortably small for bouldering. Halfway up the pitch, Ryan also got leg cramps during a particularly hard and wet section of the climb. Needless to say, this resulted in an unpleasant experience for Ryan, but no falls were taken. Nearing the top, Ryan asked for my advise on direction, which resulted in Ryan making a scary slabby traverse out to the wrong anchor (they belonged to "passing lane" that's rated 5.10c), which Ryan didn't realize until after setting up the anchor. I followed up to these anchors, then took the rack from Ryan and headed back toward the dihedral on lead. At one point, I blew a foot while making the traverse, but managed to catch myself and avoid the unpleasant pendulum. Partway up the rest of the pitch, I lowered down and unclipped a few of the bottom pieces so that Ryan wouldn't need to fear the pendulum and then continued on to the anchor.

The sixth pitch is a 5.6 continuation of the dihedral. Since Ryan was having pain from his small shoes, I again took the lead. The pitch was surprisingly long and had much fewer placements for protection. I found myself quite runout in a few sections, but everything went smoothly.



The seventh pitch is a 5.8 and the guidebook says, "Easier climbing follows, but a sting in the tail gives a brief struggle just below Broadway." At the start of the climb, I was hoping that Ryan and I would be swinging leads the entire way and that Ryan was going to be the one to discover the "sting in the tail." There was one pocket near the beginning in which I was able to fit my smallest cam, but as I climbed higher, there were no placements to be found. As promised, the sting in the tail came as I was runout 20 meters from my only protection. The slab steepened, was partially wet and was quite dirty. Halfway up this short steep section I was able to move to the right and place a sketchy cam, followed by another sketchy cam, followed by clipping an old fixed pin. To break this trend, I then found a bomber hex placement. Once this was accomplished I finished the "sting in the tail" and topped out our climb.




The scramble down Broadway was trickier than some of the climbing we had just done, but we were able to descend safely. Somewhere alone the way, Ryan stopped to climb a boulder to celebrate our success. We were pretty happy to have leveled up in RL, even if it did take us 7 hours to do the climb.