Big New Dude Wall Opened in B.C. Big Wall Belt
B.C. has some big walls and many of them are so remote that it takes more than a weekend to find, climb and descent them.
Drew Leiterman and Travis Foster have made the first ascent of The Vercoe/Mcmahon Memorial Route (tongue-in-cheek name) up a previously unclimbed big wall, which they’ve dubbed the Dude Wall.
The wall is in the Daniel Rivers Valley, an area Leiterman has called the B.C. Big Wall Belt because of the number of El Cap-sized faces that rise up to 1,500 metres above the valley.
On Aug. 6, they made the long approach into the valley and began climbing the following day. They aimed for a line up the northeast face of the peak called Super Unknown.
Their 1,020-metre directissima of the steepest section took just under a week to climb and goes at VI 5.11 A2.
“We named the route The Vercoe/Mcmahon Memorial Route after our bros who attempted to climb the route with us earlier this spring but we didn’t make it due to poor weather,” said Leiterman.
“The Dude Wall (head wall) is close to 450 metres of dead vertical, in-your-face climbing with endless potential for free climbing if you wanna put in the time to clean out the cracks.”
The two climbers thanks MEC, Clif Bar, Climb Arq climbing gym in Cranbrook and Gord McArthur for the support.
In 2017, the two B.C. climbers opened a new VI 5.10 C2 route on the Red Alert Wall in 25 pitches they called Jungle is Massive. Watch below.
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