KAYA Climber Stories
Meet the Author: Peter Michaux
Squamish Bouldering Guidebook
We are so proud to have collaborated with Peter Michaux on our new KAYA Squamish Guide. Peter is the author of the original Squamish Bouldering Guide. We sat down with him to learn about the history of Squamish bouldering, his memorable experiences, and his advice for new Squamish climbers.
KAYA: Tell us a bit about your history with climbing and in Squamish in particular.
Peter Michaux: I started climbing in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1991. A bunch of us climbed at a place called Fleming Beach, a really small sea cliff, right in town. While it’s small, it’s bouldering — and there wasn’t much bouldering in Canada at that time.
I guess Fleming would have counted as a hotspot, because it had been used since the 70s for bouldering, top roping, and all kinds of other crazy stuff. There were way too many holds, so it worked kind of like an outdoor climbing gym with eliminate boulder problems. A few years ago, when I moved to Squamish, I made a website recording the lines as a time capsule of sorts. It’s called flemingbeacheliminates.ca.
When we started, the idea was we’d learn how to climb and then go to Squamish and climb multi-pitch routes. Not all of us were very trusting of ropes and still aren’t, and at Fleming Beach we were starting to get really into bouldering. Around that time, John Sherman was really promoting bouldering with articles about Hueco and Colorado with John Gill. We started to learn that there really was a bouldering community out there and you’re not, “just a boulderer,” you’re a boulderer and that’s what you do.
One of our group members was Nick Gibbs. Nick had driven his ’70s Volkswagen van from Victoria to Squamish when he was 14 or 15, I believe, which is not allowed, and he’d climbed the Grand Wall in ’91. Nick had traveled to Yosemite early on, and he went on to visit Hueco in the winter of 1994–95. He was really inspired by what he saw there, and before returning to Victoria, he went up to Squamish to look at the boulders which he’d had in mind throughout his trip. There was always a bit of talk about them, but they were so covered in moss, they were just brutal. You could walk up and flick flakes off them… We weren’t really sure Squamish was a bouldering area that we could believe in.
In the spring of ’95 when Nick checked it out, he found what became Gibbs’ Cave (V8) and that really inspired him. He recognized the whole place as a bouldering area, but it was specifically the boulder problem, Gibbs’ Cave, that had him super excited. He didn’t say a thing to us for the whole year. We were climbing together multiple times per week throughout all of the fall of 1995, and he didn’t say anything. The winter of 1995–96, he went to Hueco again. In March, he came to Squamish and found it dry. That’s when he did Gibbs’ Cave and developed three clustered areas. That was essentially the beginning of the modern Squamish Boom.
After one or two weeks, he came back to Victoria and called me on the phone, super excited. He told me, “it’s going to be bigger than Camp 4. There’s going to be over 500 boulder problems.” That just blew my mind. 500, I couldn’t believe it. There might be 5,000 now, if you counted everything!
He gave me his hand drawn topos of the areas he developed, and I photocopied them and I put them up on my website, http://squamishboulders.ca/.
That summer, I started coming up on weekends to boulder with Stu Worrall. Then other Victoria climbers from Fleming Beach like Tim Doyle, Vince and Pat Chung, and a whole bunch of others started coming too. It’s really amazing how Fleming Beach spawned the community that got the ball rolling in Squamish, especially Nick, Nick’s responsible for it all.
KAYA: How was it seeing the waves of publicity and growth hit the Squamish bouldering scene? From folks like Chris Sharma coming through on his Rampage tour in 1999, to the ground-breaking ascents from the younger generation like Lucas Uchida, Andy Lamb, and Ethan Salvo
Peter Michaux: Initially, we weren’t so happy about the word getting out. It wasn’t so much about keeping it to ourselves, we didn’t feel it was ready for publicity. It was a super special time because there were no guidebooks and it was really enjoyable to explore and not have a big scene. We were savoring it. We didn’t take it for granted. It was really amazing. It just didn’t feel like it was time yet. Ultimately, it was going to happen no matter what, and, for me, it’s better to see people enjoying it.
Overall, it’s been a positive experience. There’s pros and cons, but it’s great to have the traffic to keep the moss off the boulders and it’s always really nice to see people out having fun. They’re enjoying the boulders and it becomes an important part of their life and they love it and that’s great.
Sometimes it’s so busy that it feels a little impersonal. I always watch to make eye contact or say hello when someone walks past me. Early on, if you saw someone in the boulders, you were the only two people in the boulders that day and you’d stop and talk. You wanted to find out what that other person was up to and it was exciting.
Now, we have split cedar fences throughout the boulders to keep people on the trails. I’m glad they’re there, but that just wasn’t necessary before. It’s not just the bouldering, the town of Squamish has been booming. Ever since the announcement of the Olympics in 2008 the whole place has exploded, especially for mountain biking and rope climbing with remote work.
KAYA: Which first ascent of yours in Squamish was most meaningful to you?
Peter Michaux: Resurrection (V9) was mine. Initially, it was named Canadian Stud Bull, and I’d sent it on Canada Day. That was pretty awesome. I found that problem when on a boulder hunt in the north walls with Stu. We split up, I went right and he went up the hill. I stumbled across Resurrection and freaked out. It was just unbelievable. We cleaned it and began climbing on it and I eventually got the first ascent. When Stu returned to send, he got up onto the big jug hold and the whole thing was vibrating. He was reasonably very spooked. He took a 15-foot log, put it behind the jug, and pried a massive piece of rock off. It’s still there at the bottom of the climb and you can still grab that jug. A couple years later, Tim Doyle re-climbed it for the first ascent post-break and he renamed it to Resurrection.
KAYA: With this boom, and our impact as climbers in mind, what advice would you give to climbers visiting Squamish for bouldering?
Peter Michaux: Please really try to figure out where the trail is and stay on it. If it takes a few steps to not cut the corner, then do that. Fortunately, the trails for every area are on KAYA, which should make it much easier to do so.
If you see someone in the boulders, say hi! That person might be saving your life later in the day, who knows?
KAYA: That’s great advice. Thanks so much for chatting, Peter, we hope to see you at the boulders!
We hope you enjoyed this insight into Squamish bouldering history. Below you’ll find Peter’s five most memorable problems in the valley!
1. Resurrection V9, North Walls
4.8*, 44 ascents, 10 beta video on KAYA
“A tall, independent line up the middle of a boulder with a flat landing. You can’t really ask for more.”
2. The Drowning Grip V11, Grand Wall
5.0*, 9 ascents, 3 beta video on KAYA
“It doesn’t even look like there should be a climb up such a blank wall! Amazing movement that lives up to the comparison between climbing and dance.”
3. Count Your Blessings V11, Gonzales Creek
5.0*, 2 ascents, 1 beta video on KAYA
“A bit reachy for the first move but otherwise it’s the perfect boulder problem. Four hard moves on a 40° overhang followed by a moderate highball. A committing last move to the lip with the creek below.”
4. Ride the Lightning V8, Grand Wall
5.0*, 6 ascents, 1 beta video on KAYA
“Great climbing to the lip but the mantle is the business. A scary one for sure.”
5. Worm World Cave V9, Grand Wall
4.7*, 103 ascents, 25 beta videos on KAYA
“Such a big advance in difficulty for Squamish. A beautiful wave-shaped arete and a satisfying mantle. You’re cheating yourself if you don’t do the big left hand move at the start.”
