Peter Croft Rocks Squamish for Arc’teryx Academy

Peter Croft is a legendary climber. From linking spires solo in the Bugaboos to free climbing hard routes in Squamish, his name is synonymous with hard Canadian climbing. On July 14, he opened the Arc’teryx Climbing Academy at a park in downtown Squamish with a presentation. Kris Wild of the local search and rescue opened the evening with a short presentation about the hard work they do. Croft then took over for a 40-minute talk in front of a field with hundreds of local climbers. He flipped through old photos of the early Squamish days provided by Kevin McLane and Pat Morrow and told funny stories. One was about getting his head stuck on a route and hanging from his chin strap until almost passing out. Another was about climber Hamish Fraser climbing to the highest point on an electrical pole and getting zapped.

Croft talked about how the Squamish climbing scene is much better these days than 30 years ago. He spent his day before the evening event climbing on the Sheriff’s Badge with Tony McLane. He said today’s climbers are pushing the sport to places on The Chief they only dreamed about decades ago. These days, Croft is based in Bishop where he passes his time climbing long crack systems and soloing traverses. We have a full feature on Croft in our upcoming August/September issue of Gripped magazine. The Arc’teryx Climbing Academy is taking place until July 17th with presentations at the Sea to Sky Gondola, a trade fair in The Chief parking area and clinics taught by top climbers. For more see here.