Famous 5.13c Squamish Sport Route Sent on Trad Gear
Eli Bucher just climbed the iconic Big Show wall in Chek entirely on gear, skipping all the perma-draws along the way
The Big Show is one of Squamish’s most impressive sport climbing walls. Huge and steep, it houses one of the highest concentrations of hard sport routes anywhere in the Sea-to-Sky corridor. Starting at a grade of 5.13c, many climbers never even dream of climbing the wall. Even fewer climbers have dreamt of sending the wall entirely on trad gear.
On June 20, Eli Bucher sent one of the Big Show’s most famous routes, Freewill 5.13c, foregoing all the perma- and fixed-draws and instead relying solely cams and nuts for protection. Originally from Boston, Bucher now lives in Squamish, and he’s been in and out of the area regularly for the past six years. With this send, he’s quite likely the first person to free climb the Big Show on gear.
First ascended by Jola Sandford in 1995, Freewill is a prominent line running up the middle of the Big Show. The nearly 30-metre climb features a 5.13 crack crux, a heartbreaking redpoint crux below the chains, and pumpy, powerful climbing throughout.
During Bucher’s successful gear attempt of Freewill, I was around the corner climbing at The Circus. While on the wall, I could hear someone power-screaming on the Big Show to my left – a totally normal occurrence at the crag. But these screams sounded a little different than those typically echoing through the halls of Chek. They sounded more raw, with perhaps a note of fear. I paused for a second to listen, and then kept on climbing.
When Bucher made it to the chains, the small crowd at the bottom of the crag erupted. I knew then that something big must have just gone down on the Big Show. As I was lowered back down I was gobsmacked to see cams sticking out of Freewill.
To learn more about this incredible ascent, I reached out to Bucher, and we spoke a couple days after his send.
How and when did you get the idea to climb Freewill entirely on gear?
In the fall of 2017, I learned to climb on a road trip where I dropped out of college and drove out to Squamish with a friend. We would set up top-ropes on top of a random cliff which was not equipped for climbing and just try to get up stuff. By the time we got to Squamish we had discovered bolted routes and tried to climb the chief with no trad gear. We obviously ended up having to bail and were told by some campers to go to Chek. I remember struggling on the 5.10’s at the Main Event [wall] and looking up at the Big Show. It’s a freaking massive overhang and looks totally unclimbable.
The first time I climbed Freewill, I immediately asked my friend if anyone had ever done it on gear. It seemed that the consensus was that there wasn’t enough gear to safely protect the start and finish despite the crux obviously having perfect protection. Last fall I sent Freewill, and then when I returned this spring I did Division Bell 5.13d.
I told myself I would do Patience 5.14a [on the Big Show] and then try Freewill on gear as it would give me the margin to climb it confidently regardless of gear quality. Patience starts on Freewill through the crux of the route before linking into Heat 5.13d.
That plan was going perfectly until Nat Bailey showed up, fresh off sending the Cobra with the full intention of wanting to send Freewill on gear. At this point, I decided now was the time to finally try this after years of thinking about it.
What was the gear like? What kind of pieces? Was it safe? Run-out?
To my surprise the bottom was a bit safer than I thought. There’s a really good 0.1 that protects the start and then an unlikely 0.75 placement. It’s still probably V5 R with a real ankle breaker fall but you certainly have no risk of death. After this the gear is great, though over-gripping the start and slowing down to fiddle gear in makes the route quite a bit pumpier.
The crux protects well but it’s run-out and you have to stop climbing to place a 0.2 in the middle of it. This piece could be skipped but it would be a winger of a fall. From here, Nat gave me beta on two bomber pieces that can be placed upside-down from a no-hands knee bar. Nat also found a bomber 0.2 that protects the final crux of the route at the very top. It’s a good thing that it’s good, because if it blew you’d be taking a 50-foot fall. I don’t think I ever would have spotted this piece without Nat. He had to clean a tiny dirty crack to find it himself.
How were you feeling during the send attempt?
When I got to [that bomber 0.2] piece on the send go I thought I was going to vomit I was so pumped. Nat yelling at me from the anchor telling me every piece was a bolt helped me push through the last V4 crux and clip the anchor. I sent on my first try after working the gear three times. It’s a special route and a total dream to work as a trad line as it conveniently has perma-draws on fixed draws everywhere. For now….
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