Climbers Tick 5.14d in Rockies and Squamish
A new hard route has been added to Planet X, while a test-piece line on Paradise Wall gets another repeat
Late summer weather has brought great cragging conditions to western Canada, which has led to many climbers completing their projects.
In the Canadian Rockies, Evan Hau has made the first ascent of John Doe’s Space Adventure 5.14d at Planet X near Canmore. The route is an extension to John Doe, which Hau bolted in 2020. Hau’s new 5.14d is the hardest climb on the steep limestone wall, which is home to other test-piece routes like Iron Butterfly 5.14c and The Prestige 5.14c. Hau had previously established several 5.14+ routes.
And in Squamish, Connor Runge has climbed his first 5.14d with a repeat of Spirit Quest on Paradise Wall. Runge, whose story about the amazing crag appeared in a recent Gripped magazine, started working on Spirit Quest earlier this summer. It was bolted by Tom Wright, first climbed by Mike Foley and has been repeated a handful of times since.
“The development that has happened in the past 20 years in Squamish is a testament to the unrelenting psyche of the Squamish climbing scene,” Runge wrote in his story for Gripped called Paradise Valley: Hard Squamish Climbing Among Giant Cedars. “I thank the developers who have put the work in for the community because without them, the scene in Squamish wouldn’t be the same.”
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