Trip Report: Climbing in Chek

Rock On

This summer I applied to be a mentee in the BCMC mentorship program so I could finally get comfortable with multipitch climbing. Although I did a course a few years ago, I haven't practised the skill enough to feel comfortable, and I figured that this would be a good way to get some climbing time in since I didn't have a solid climbing group either.

Happily, I was selected, and after doing a super rainy training session in Lighthouse Park a few weeks ago, it was time to put the training into practice. I did a cheeky visit to Smoke Bluffs on the Sunday to get my mitts on some actual rock and then on Sunday we headed up to Chek canyon. I went to area a couple years ago but had never repeated the experience. Our target was new climb beside Ursa Minor that had a similar pitch and grade profile.

The climbing itself was not too challenging, a lot of low 5.7-5.9ish pitches. The crux for me was remembering the sequence of what to do when I got to the top of the route. Once we wrapped up the climb we hiked off the top and then set about some cragging, where our mentor led a 10c and we attempted to follow. I learned that I'm not in outdoor 10c shape. I suspected as much but it was fun to get up on the toprope and try something a bit out of my range.

We finished with one more multipitch, two pitches at 5.7 and 5.9. I led up both and felt quite good about both the grade and the multipitch anchors. Last year I was really struggling mentally with leading so it was a surprising, in a pleasant way, to feel so comfortable running up a 5.9.

Overall a great day. It's amazing the BCMC has this option for members and I'm really enjoying the process so far.