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‘Squamish courses take climbers out beyond the edge

MY FINGERS feel as if they’ve been crushed in a bench
vise and my toes belong to a foot-in-the-door salesman
who’s been suffering a lot of personal rejection.

it’s been a good day on the
Squamish rocks: fresh air, inspir-
ing views of Howe Sound and the
surrounding mountains, and a
strenuous introduction to one of
North America’s . fastest-growing
recreational activities: rock-clim-
bing.

I've been tagging along on one
of the two-day basic rock climb-
ing courses offered by Mare Dube
Climbing Guides Ltd.

This particular ‘‘Beyond The
Edge”. outing is tailored to clients
who've learned some clirnbing and
belaying skills at The Edge
Climbing Centre (#2-1485 Welch
&t.), and are pumped to get the
feel of the real.

In addition to the fundamentals
of equipment, knots and anchor
construction, this course zeroes in
on techniques of vertical crack
and ‘friction climbing — condi-
tions in which obvious holds are
minimal and hard to duplicate in
an indoor gym.

In my case, the word friction
has taken on whole new levels of
-meaning, but the unpredictable
challenges of real rock are ir-
resistible.

No one has set these routes; it’s
You versus God and Geology.

if rock-climbing is' one of those
things you thought you’d never do
(like eating your first raw oyster),
you owe it to yourself to try.

Dube offers a one-day ‘*Check
It Out’’ course that will give you
the basic skills on a. variety of
short pitches on the scenic
“Smoke Bluffs” above Squamish.

By John Moore
Contributing Writer

If the bug bites, you should
follow up with Dube’s ‘Basic
Rock’’ or ‘‘Beyond the Edge”
two-day crash courses that stress
the safety-first aspects of the
sport, while encouraging a creative
individual approach to the prac-
tical problems set in stone by
Mother Nature.

Dube is not only one of the
most accomplished technical
climbers in the country, he’s one
of the best teachers, having taught
at the National Army Cadet Camp
in Banff and worked as a heli-
skiing guide.

Superficially laid-back, an en-
couraging mellow positivist, he
rigorously enforces. safety
discipline on novice climbers,
checking and re-checking anchors
and harnesses.

Even on the Smoke Bluffs,
where the climber can’t really fall
far enough to dislodge the belayer,
an essential part of the drill in
Dube’s course is the anchoring of
the belayer. :

This only seems over-cautious
until you realize that in 90% of
real climbing situations it means
the difference between one person
getting a few bruises and scrapes
and two or more people dying
horrible deaths.

Got that? (Thought sc. That
past made a big impression on me,
too.)

WE DO ee

for your style of living

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30/93

The one-day ‘‘Check It Out’’
course will run you $110; the
“Basic Rock/Beyond the Edge”’
versions are $165 for two intense
days that will wring you out
tighter than Grandma’s tea towel.

If you persist, Dube also offers
courses in ‘‘Learning to Lead”’
and ‘Improvised Rescue’’ (both
$175), and in extended ‘‘Multi-
Pitch Climbing"’ ($225).

The high safety standards and
temarkably low accident rates
among climbers in Squamish, one
of Canada’s most heavily used
climbing areas, are due in large
measure to the efforts of Perry
Beckham, director of Pacific High
Mountain Guides, who has been
teaching rock-climbing and
guiding cut of Squamish for more
than six years,

As a technical climber and
master-rigger, Beckham has few
peers, and Squamish rock-rats
speak his name with an almost
religious reverence.

His rigging skills, originally ac-
quired in the logging industry,
have been recognized by
Hollywood and employed on such
movies as K2, Medicine Man, and
Cliffhanger.

He has also worked tirelessly to
promote the recognition of
Squamish as one of the prime
rock-climbing destinations in
North America.

lu spite of a full calendar of
commitments, the proper training
of novice climbers remains one of
his paramount concerns.

‘I see climbers on the Smoke
Bluffs and The Chief every

See Grab page 36

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THE HIGH safety standards and remarkably low gccident rates
among climbers in Squamish, one of Canada's most heavily used
climbing areas, ave due in large measure to the efforts of Perry
Beckham, director of Pacific High Mountain Guides, who has
been teaching rock-climbing and guiding out of Squamish for
nore than .:i: gears. ;

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