Early morning at the base of the Grand Wall, Rory takes a second to pre-acclimatize himself by getting high. This will help avoid any confusion between his mind and body once he has gained substantial elevation.

Luke has a huge rack but only one friend(he says he has 5, but I’ve only seen 1)..

Using this greasy chain to reach the next ledge leaves you exposed over a 50 meter drop, with slop on your shoes and seepage all around you this move can be sketchy(watch your feet!)..

Harnessing the power of gravity with a 3:1 pulley system; Luke “The Kid” Cormier makes the pig fly 60 meters up to our ledge, in style..

Luke looking up the slightly damp first pitch of Mercy Me. This 40 meter pitch of 5.7 face climbing only has 3 bolts to protect the distance making for a strung out lead, I bagged the onsite despite some drizzling rain in between the last bolts..

The Kid getting some in the sun, high above the sea to sky..

Luke would arrive at the belay anchors to find that I had avoided the nice shiny bolts and instead set up my personal anchor on a rusty button head that must have been as old as I am, there’s nothing like living life on the mank..

Luke happy as can be before tackling the soaking wet second pitch of mercy me(the kid wasn’t even wearing his climbing shoes!), He is still 2 feet below the first bolt in the photo on the right, his only point of protection being the carabiner at the bottom of the frame..

At the first bolt Luke takes a moment to plan his attack on the even wetter, somewhat blanker section of climbing ahead of him. After realizing that free climbing the rest of it was hopeless in the wet, he attempted aiding to the next bolt but after making almost 6 body weight only placements with his sky hooks(making it an A3 aid lead(aid routes are only rated out of 5)) we decided to descend and wait for the route to dry. We fixed our ropes and rapped down to our bivy..

Cormier enjoys the moment while lounging in his hammock..

We take a break to brew some tea and enjoy the view while waiting for Rory to return with beer, hoots and smokes. Rory made it back in good time and promptly headed up the fixed lines to see if the route was drying. His happy shouts from above signaled the rock was good to go so Luke and I jugged up to meet him at our previous high point. Luke lead the now dry upper pitch of Mercy Me with ease and Rory and I followed after him.

Luke multi tasks while Rory climbs the 2nd pitch of Mercy Me. Proper belay technic should allow for phone calls to be taken at any time during your partners climb..

By the time all three of us were at the top of Mercy Me the sun was dropping behind the mountains that rise from the western shores of the Howe Sound. Luke pushed on to try and aid the 1st pitch of The Golden Throat Charmer, just past the point he is at now Cormier was placing pieces and making progress when he began to sing(to the tune of “if you’re happy and you know it”);

if it’s bomber and you know it, don’t bounce test
if it’s bomber and you know it, don’t bounce test
if it’s bomber and you know it, don’t bounce test

Only three verses into his song, as he bounce tested a cam, it popped. He took a small whipper and let out a big “woooooo” before getting right back after it. He said it himself; if it’s bomber and you know it, don’t bounce test!

Rory was the voice of reason, calling it a day for the team when luke took a second whipper while moving into the seeping section of the under-cling, the light was fading and we were forced to use our headlamps to make our way down to the ledge(CLICK THE PIC TO TAKE A CLOSER LOOK)..

Rory raps down to the bivy and the beer..

The Kid dances down the rock behind him, The Golden Throat Charmer looms above and to the left..

Enjoying some sacrificial smoke to please the granite gods before eating some oatmeal, as we slowly woke up on the ledge we heard a wooomph above us and looked up to see a base jumper floating through the air. Early morning entertainment indeed…

The strongest cup of coffee I’ve ever seen.

Rory packs up his camp site..

The hammock hangout, in total we spent a little over 24 hours on the wall and at least 8 of those hours were spent snoring in these hammocks…

The camera died before we headed out on our morning excursion so I left it behind and we jugged up the lines to the first pitch of The Golden Throat Charmer. Luke walked on his etriers and cams back to the point he reached the night before and continued into uncharted territory. After successfully reaching the end of the horizontal crack(some interesting downwards aid moves make the end of the traverse a little spicy) he had to clip his etrier into a manky sling attached to a manky piton and then step up on it to be able to place another cam in a short crack above so he could scramble onto a 6 foot long douglas fir that grows horizontally out of the base of the 2nd pitch. The 2nd pitch follows an incredible right trending crack that splits the wall below a burly looking roof. I followed second and tried to free the 10c under-cling but after a few falls I chose to try aid climbing for a change and finished the route standing on cormier’s cams. I took my leave at this point; rapping down and fixing ropes at another set of bolts for the boys, then lowered myself to the hammocks. I took a second to enjoy a cold beer and watch Rory clean the traverse before packing up my things and walking off the ledge whistling a tune. As I wandered down the trail I let out loud hoooo’s to test out the hearing range on the wall. The boys responded each time, even when I hollered from the highway as I hitched my way back to the city.

The ride back to the city was another story altogether…………

To find out what happened after I left or if your just looking for some interesting blog candy keep an eye on THEKIDCORMIER’S BLOG