Pineapple Express
Sonnie Trotter made the first ascent of
Pineapple Express VI 5. 13 b/c on El Capitan
in the fall of 2018 and this spring, Alex
Honnold and Brad Gobright made the
second ascent. Trotter established the route
with Honnold and then sent it in a 13 -hour
push with Tommy Caldwell supporting.
Honnold and Gobright climbed the route
through the dark after starting at 4 p.m.
on June 10. El Nino and Pineapple Express
have technical free climbing on steep faces
with intermittent cracks. There’s a lot of
5. 10 and 5. 11 climbing, six 5. 13 pitches and
five 5. 12. El Nino was first climbed in 1998
by Alex and Thomas Huber at VI 5. 13 c A 0 ,
it links pitches of Continental Drift, New
Jersey Turnpike and North America Wall.
Trotter’s original plan was to free North
America Wall.Dreamcatcher
Nicholas Milburn spent around 10 weeks
over three seasons piecing Dreamcatcher
5. 14 d in Squamish together. He is the
seventh climber on record to have sent
the test-piece which climbs a rising tra-
verse up slopers and pin scars on the
Cacodemon Boulder below The Chief.
“I came really close last year, but ran out
of time,” said Milburn. “I trained hard
before returning this year to make sure
I would be strong enough to send. The
weather was also the best I have ever seen
in Squamish. The day I sent was super
windy making a huge difference. Matty
[Hong] taught me some advanced sport
climbing strategies and I finally caught
the dream. I’m psyched that such an
iconic route is my first of the grade.”Vest and McNamee
Open Champs
Allison Vest and Guy McNamee took
top spots at the Canadian lead climbing
championships at Allez Up. Guy came out
third-to-last on the final route and climbed
in McNamee style: slow, efficient, precise.
He was the only climber to top the route.
For women, Vest (the reigning Canadian
open bouldering champ) put her boulder-
ing strength to work and crushed the final
route, nearly reaching the to.—GrippedLeft: Niall Hamill on an
early attempt of Canmore
Swingers PartyCanmore Swingers Party is a new 300 -
metre M 6 +R that climbs the north face of
Mount Lawrence Grassi above Canmore.
The wall has a number of routes, but
Canmore Swingers Party follows one of
the more striking up a buttress feature.
The first winter route up the wall was in
2014 by David Lussier, Jay Mills and Ian
Welsted on The Hole M 6. Niall Hamill
and Ryan Richardson made the first ascent
of May 3 , a few months after Hamill’s
earlier attempt that ended with a 100 -foot
whipper and a broken scapula in Hamill’s
back. Canmore Swingers Party starts at the
base of the wall on a M 7 WI 5 pitch that
climbs into Tainted Love WI 3 M 9 , which
was first climbed by Juan Henriquez, Colin
Simon and Raphael Slawinski in 2015. The
first attempt up this part of the wall was 15
years ago by Sean Isaac and Rob Owens.
“It steers west away from the bolts into an
attractive weakness,” said Hamill about
the line he and Richardson followed. “A
chimney/wide crack that splits the upper
buttress and goes on all natural gear. The
climbing is fairly sustained in the M 6 to
M 6 + range, and in a few places, not easily
protectable. There are some fixed pins and
a couple of wires left in-situ. All anchors
are fixed for rappel. We rappelled the route
but you can scramble and walk off of the
backside, or into Miners’ Gully.”Canmore Swingers Party
Photo^Ryan^ Richardsonnews