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New Big 5.12 at Washington Pass by Brit and Canadian Team

This spring, Canadian Colin Moorhead and Squamish-based British sender Tom Wright established a new seven-pitch 5.12b up the golden granite on the M&M Wall. The route is called Golden Age and links crack systems through technical face climbing. It is sustained and has no gimme pitch. It includes hard laybacking moves and difficult jams.

Spent a full value weekend with @squamishrockguides down in the Cascades – can't wait to go back!

A photo posted by Tom Wright (@tomhwright) on

The line is the fourth free route that goes to the top of the wall. Moorhead, owner of Squamish Rock Guides, wrote on his site SquamishClimbingSource.com that he and Wright cleaned and established the route top-down due to the nature of the rock. Moorhead is one of Canada’s leading granite new-routers with some of B.C.’s most difficult big routes to his name.

All of the belays are bolted and the route was established for others to enjoy. It is reported to have amazing pockets and small edges that allow free climbing up an otherwise blank wall. On their final send, they flipped a coin to see who would climb what pitches and they both freed every pitch.

Washington Pass has some of the finest hard alpine granite routes in Washington State. Located on the North Cascades Highway, the area sits between the Wine Spires, Liberty Bell and the Early Winter Spires. The granite is often good enough for hard free climbing and has a number of classic aid routes. Other routes up the M&M Wall include The Tiger 5.12 and Ellen Pea 5.11.

Squamish Rock Guides is one of Canada’s leading guiding services. Look them up if you’re in Squamish, visit here for more.

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