Connor Runge Talks Sending One of Canada’s Hardest Sport Routes
Spirt Quest 5.14d in Paradise Valley is a modern test piece on some of Squamish's best granite
Photo by: Sam Pratt
On September 8, Squamish local Connor Runge repeated one of Canada’s most difficult sport routes – Spirit Quest 5.14d, located at the beautiful Paradise Wall just outside of Squamish. Spirit Quest is a direct start variation of the Tom Wright masterpiece, Spirit of the West 5.14a. The climbing is physical, technical, and relentless, linking directly into the crux of Spirit of the West with no rest in between. Originally bolted by Wright in 2016, Spirit Quest saw its first ascent by Mike Foley in 2021.
Runge is originally from 100 Mile House, four and a half hours north of Squamish, an area is known for its hunting, fishing, and slope-style mountain biking. He’s been living in Squamish for three years now, climbing many of the area’s hard sport classics.
Runge has had a lot of fun at Paradise Wall. He’s sent many of the classic lines like Queen Bee 5.13c, Spirit of West 5.14a, and Killer Queen 5.14b. In July, he made the first ascent of a link-up originally bolted by Wright. The route links Spirit of the West into Queen Bee via a hard, runout boulder problem. Runge named the line Spectre del Norte and gave it a grade of 5.14c.
To learn more about his send of Spirit Quest – his most difficult route to date – I reached out to Runge with a few questions, which you can read below.
When did you first try Spirit Quest? I first tried the route in July – not sure the exact day. It shares the upper half of Spirit of the West and finishes at the same anchor so I had tried that bit before.
After sending Spectre del Norte, was Spirit Quest your next big goal? Sort of! My main goal was to one-hang Spirit Quest this season. I had been psyched with how things went at that wall this year and just wanted to start getting familiar with the moves for next season. I didn’t expect to actually get it done this season!
How would you describe the climbing on Spirit Quest? Pumpy! The hardest set of moves (for me) is after the intro 5.12 climbing. After that it’s a lot of boulder problems with bad rests, with a deep building pump. It’s so intense, and so so fun!
After you sent Spectre del Norte, you said you were taking August off to train. Did you end up doing that? I was planning on training all August but then I just got so psyched on Spirit Quest, I just didn’t want to stop showing up! The weather wasn’t amazing, but it also wasn’t heinous so I kept crackin’.
Anything else you looking to try at Paradise? Some new wild link-ups? Or are other crags/climbs in Squamish calling to you? There are a bunch of link-ups at the Paradise Wall that really get me psyched. Tom Wright did such a great job prepping that wall for the existing routes and future link-ups. Sadly, my season is coming to an end, but lucky, I’m going on a trip. I’m so keen to come back In the spring and start trying them! As for other crags, I’ve bolted a link-up on the Cacodemon that I’d like to try next spring – Squamish has so much!
Feature photo by Sam Pratt. You can find Pratt’s Instagram here and website here.Â
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