The first of many: Climbing around Nanaimo
While my instagram feed is still full of images of snowy peaks, skiing, and snowboarding, when I moved to Victoria a few weeks ago I reluctantly accepted that after 141 days on the board, my winter was over. Thankfully I’ve found similar joy and excitement in climbing up mountains as I do sliding down them. Still being fairly new to climbing is great because it offers so many fresh experiences, and endless opportunity to learn.
This past weekend was my first outdoor climb of the season and we could not have asked for better weather. I went out with a long time friend who I have been on a few big adventures with, and two friends of his; one of which I had met once before and the other I met the morning of. We pilled all the humans and gear into a Honda Civic and began the drive up island. Coffee, introductions, plans for summer adventures, and the usual banter filled the time, and before we knew it we were at our first destination; Mt. Benson.
The parking lot at Witchcraft Lake was fairly full, though there was still space enough to park. After gathering everything we needed, we began the approach. The group was moving fairly quickly, giving me the impression that we had a ways to go, but after about 5-10 minutes we arrived at the crag; I guess they were just excited! As none of us had climbed the location before and this particular crag was not in the guide book we had, we did the ol’ “Well this looks easy enough!”, and began to climb. The rock was great and had lots of cool cracks and pockets, and a few blank-ish areas to keep things interesting and cruxy. We continued to climb here for a few hours before moving on to our next destination.
Details, details! Mt. Benson climbing area:
Mt. Benson features the longest routes in Nanaimo, including several multi-pitch routes. There are many cliffs scattered throughout the park, some of which have been developed for climbing. The rock is moderate to hard basalt and has great friction. There are many sport, trad, and mixed routes to be explored, and there are guide books available for the area.
Before heading to our next destination, we stopped at an outdoor outfitter to pick up a guide book. After the only girl in the group of four mocked us for wanting to go shopping on a climbing trip, we assured her that we were only there for the book. 20-30 minutes later I left the shop with a new rope and belay device… classic. Oh yeah, and the guide book we picked up was an updated version of the book we already had, and featured the crag we had been climbing all morning; good timing as usual.
Shortly after all this we arrived at the Nanaimo River, and as it was late in the day we chose to climb the Dark Side. The approach to this climbing area is very cool. At first, the trail follows a cliff that handrails the river before dropping into a gully created by huge pieces of sand stone that have split apart over the millennia. Descending further into the gully means climbing down ladders and walking under large boulders that have created cool cave type structures. With all the steep stone walls, old growth trees, ferns, and mosses, one is left with a kind of pre-historic, other-worldly experience. Eventually routes start to appear on either side of the steep gully, and after the gully opens up, a big steep wall stretches out on the high side of the river. A small trail leads down to a small pool off to the side of large boulders and rapids and makes for a pretty great swimming hole. Needless to say this is a pretty amazing spot. I got to use my new rope on the first outdoor route I had ever lead (also the first rope I have ever bought, pretty exciting stuff!), and on my last climb of the day I took my first lead fall, nearly swinging up-side-down into the rock... nice to get that one out of the way.
More details? Nanaimo River climbing area:
The Nanaimo River features two climbing areas aptly named the Dark Side, and the Sunny Side. The two zones are pretty much right across the river from each other and feature beginner to expert level climbs. All routes are single pitch and most are bolted, though there are a variety of trad and mixed routes available. The rock is mainly sandstone and conglomerate, and the majority of the beginner routes are on the Sunny Side. Guide books are available for the area.
The drive home was considerably quieter than the way out, as we were all pretty bagged from a full day of climbing. Everyone had some great climbs, and there were of course routes which we would have to come back for. But that’s cool, we’ll be back.