McQuirks Mountain

[cory]

What a cool place this is! Great features on quality rock. Thank you gentlemen for all the work you've put in so far.

Unless I'm mistaken of what we actually climbed (and this is quite likely) I see a couple errors in the guide with regards to Red Pill/Blue Pill. Both are worth climbing and Red in particular is beautiful, fun and highly recommended. 1) The wall is only 8m (25ft) tall, maybe 9m.

2) Blue should be R for gear rating. It takes a couple bomber pieces in the first 2.5 meters (crack ending at 8 or 9ft). At about 4m there is a fat, left-facing horn off to the right, which I could not get a sling to stay on even with a slip hitch. I could not find any other gear placements (though I left tricams at the base) until another bomber big cam maybe 2m from the top. The starting ledge is fairly flat, wide and grass covered, so as long as your belayer/spotter is tethered to the tree, and you've got a couple pieces down low, a ledge fall would end there and shouldn't be so bad. It's highball bouldering, really, but totally worth it (unless you're a 5.6 climber).

[austinconrad]

The Nose is 5.9R and possibly R/X depending on whether the shallow flaring cams hold. Challenging gear on the majority of the route. Very nice climbing with great moves.

Which pitch of "the Nose" are you refering to? Are you referring to the whole route?

[Shawn B]

Which pitch of "the Nose" are you refering to? Are you referring to the whole route?

P1

[Greg]

BTW the white pine that had a fixed rope and a sign on it near 50 Mission Cap has fallen, presumably during Arthur, rendering the access to 50 mission cap difficult.

Also, I'm too drunk for this is a nice route but I presume you guys were intoxicated when you gave it its gear rating.

Thanks for the heads up Dom. I will tend to the tree and any other Arthur damage when I get back to NB in August.
As for the gear rating on Too Drunk I think it is G. Mike plans on doing some more work on cleaning it and when that is done you I bet you will agree

[Greg]

After jumping on a few more routes and talking with other climbers here are a few thoughts about some of the routes' protection rating...
Morpheus should be PG rated
Bottom of Mr. Anderson is R rated. Climbing is prob 5.4 or 5.5 and a bit insecure and slippery. Deck fall potential until gear at about 18 or so feet. Crux well protected by the bolt. Superb rock.
Too Drunk is PG rated.
Night Bird should prob be PG rated as well...depending on how much you wander possibly.
Zen has a 5.6 face climbing section that is PG...although the climbing is on positive face holds. Crux is very well protected. Absolutely superb route...at least the way we climbed it finishing on a thin finger crack on the black face directly below the big pine tree. Combine with Neutral Tribe for 200 feet of amazing climbing.
The Nose is 5.9R and possibly R/X depending on whether the shallow flaring cams hold. Challenging gear on the majority of the route. Very nice climbing with great moves.

Thanks for the feedback Shawn. Good food for thought. re: The Nose....I agree that there should be a bolt halfway up the climb above the flaring crack. I will install one there next month to protect that section of the climb. After making that techy face move there is a great horizontal for a #1 camalot and the gear after that is quite good. Where did you top out by the way? Did you pull the crack through the roof or exit left? Both ways are super fun.
re: Mr. Anderson....I found a yellow tcu and a medium sized nut about 12 feet up before the ledge below the bolt. There are also some small cams if you start to the right on the face out of the chimney. Climbing is a bit harder there though.
I think Zen is my favorite pitch on the entire cliff. Such a great combo of face and crack climbing on very good stone.

[Greg]

What a cool place this is! Great features on quality rock. Thank you gentlemen for all the work you've put in so far.

Unless I'm mistaken of what we actually climbed (and this is quite likely) I see a couple errors in the guide with regards to Red Pill/Blue Pill. Both are worth climbing and Red in particular is beautiful, fun and highly recommended. 1) The wall is only 8m (25ft) tall, maybe 9m.

2) Blue should be R for gear rating. It takes a couple bomber pieces in the first 2.5 meters (crack ending at 8 or 9ft). At about 4m there is a fat, left-facing horn off to the right, which I could not get a sling to stay on even with a slip hitch. I could not find any other gear placements (though I left tricams at the base) until another bomber big cam maybe 2m from the top. The starting ledge is fairly flat, wide and grass covered, so as long as your belayer/spotter is tethered to the tree, and you've got a couple pieces down low, a ledge fall would end there and shouldn't be so bad. It's highball bouldering, really, but totally worth it (unless you're a 5.6 climber).

Glad you liked Red Pill/Blue Pill Cory. I didn't know if anyone would bother with these two climbs but I agree that they are quite fun. I adjusted the descriptions of each climb in the guide to reflect gear and length. I could see them being PG but not R. I will reclimb them though to confirm.

[Greg]

Just a heads up that the guide listed at the top of this thread has been updated and all the climbs are now amalgamated into the first post. No more need to scroll down for routes.

[cory]

I didn't know if anyone would bother with these two climbs but I agree that they are quite fun.

The Red Pill is definitely worth doing -a beautiful continuous 5.5 finger crack! I give it a star.

I also appreciate how you've taken these posts exactly as they were intended: constructive feedback. It's often tough to be objective after putting so much work into a climb (and McQuirks was a lot of work!) as you become too familiar with the nuances of the rock, and comfortable with the climb. Ultimately the FA has the final word, but it's nice to be receptive to others. Consistency and accuracy are more likely with open discussion. As much as it's a labour of love, you're putting all this effort into establishing and documenting climbs so that others can enjoy it. Without accuracy and consistency, people are unlikely to frequent this crag as much as they should ('cause the climbing is great).

[Dom]

As with any new routes, there will be discussions regarding grades and gear ratings and the majority of posts regarding new routes or new crags tends to focus toward these things. Not everyone will agree with you but make no mistake, these "disagreements" does not negate in any way the appreciation we have of the labour and devotion your poured into making this cliff a wonderful addition to the realm of crags in NB.

With that in mind, here is my opinion :

As for the gear rating on Too Drunk I think it is G. Mike plans on doing some more work on cleaning it and when that is done you I bet you will agree

I thought it was reasonably clean.

I disagree. I think it is PG. In my opinion a 5.5 G should not have any runouts. In my recollection, there are at least two 10'-15' runouts. One is close to the start and would probably be close to a deck fall.

Maybe I missed something but if that's the case, I'm not the only one. My partner that day also found it spicy and another climber told me they bailed off of this route.

Ultimately, it is Mike's decision to leave the route as is and I have no problem with that. I simply think a better warning should be given to a trad leader with limited experience to warn them of the potential dangers of this route.

Do not misinterpret my post - I'm not saying this route is dangerous. I'm simply saying that this route contains more "risks" than a 5.5 G route should.

Climb on!

[Greg]

I didn't know if anyone would bother with these two climbs but I agree that they are quite fun.

The Red Pill is definitely worth doing -a beautiful continuous 5.5 finger crack! I give it a star.

I also appreciate how you've taken these posts exactly as they were intended: constructive feedback. It's often tough to be objective after putting so much work into a climb (and McQuirks was a lot of work!) as you become too familiar with the nuances of the rock, and comfortable with the climb. Ultimately the FA has the final word, but it's nice to be receptive to others. Consistency and accuracy are more likely with open discussion. As much as it's a labour of love, you're putting all this effort into establishing and documenting climbs so that others can enjoy it. Without accuracy and consistency, people are unlikely to frequent this crag as much as they should ('cause the climbing is great).

Well said Cory.

[Greg]

As with any new routes, there will be discussions regarding grades and gear ratings and the majority of posts regarding new routes or new crags tends to focus toward these things. Not everyone will agree with you but make no mistake, these "disagreements" does not negate in any way the appreciation we have of the labour and devotion your poured into making this cliff a wonderful addition to the realm of crags in NB.

With that in mind, here is my opinion :

As for the gear rating on Too Drunk I think it is G. Mike plans on doing some more work on cleaning it and when that is done you I bet you will agree

I thought it was reasonably clean.

I disagree. I think it is PG. In my opinion a 5.5 G should not have any runouts. In my recollection, there are at least two 10'-15' runouts. One is close to the start and would probably be close to a deck fall.

Maybe I missed something but if that's the case, I'm not the only one. My partner that day also found it spicy and another climber told me they bailed off of this route.

Ultimately, it is Mike's decision to leave the route as is and I have no problem with that. I simply think a better warning should be given to a trad leader with limited experience to warn them of the potential dangers of this route.

Do not misinterpret my post - I'm not saying this route is dangerous. I'm simply saying that this route contains more "risks" than a 5.5 G route should.

Climb on!

Thanks for the feedback Dom. This is good to know. After Mike and I climbed this route we both genuinely thought the gear was G. We will climb it again and look very carefully at the gear. I want the route descriptions for all the climbs to be as accurate as possible.

[Joe]

BTW the white pine that had a fixed rope and a sign on it near 50 Mission Cap has fallen, presumably during Arthur, rendering the access to 50 mission cap difficult.

The rock block near the root system of this fallen tree is very loose. When rappelling from Up Yours I touched the block with my foot and the massive block moved. Too many present for me to trundle it at the time, but it will need to be dropped. So please avoid touching the horizontal tree or it's root system/rock base until it's been dealt with.

[Shawn B]

Magic X is yet another 3 star route. To help a bit with route finding...Greg pointed out the line to me. From the big spruce tree go up and left a bit on to a clean slab. Gear in discontinuous shallow cracks until it gets steeper. Follow a crack up and a bit left until it ends and break right into another crack and straight up to the beautiful belay ledge with 2 bolts. Looking from the spruce you will see a left angling undercling thin crack directly above you. You will join into this from the left near the top of it. It doesn't look like there is gear from below but there is plenty once the climbing gets steeper and there are a few pieces on the slab. Pitch 2 is pretty obvious...fight for the lead...take multiple green thru blue camalot if you want to sew it.

To reiterate what Joe said....the block on Up Yours is SCARY. Deep freeze sized and teetering...along with roots of a big tree tangled up in it. The big tree at the base of 50 Mission Cap is fairly solidly wedged in a lower tree.

[MaDelaney]

The block and tree on Up Yours is now gone.
However the downed tree on the walk-up to 50 mission Cap is still blocking the path.

[Joe]

Good work Mike. That must have been fun dropping that rock. Was it as loose as it seemed?

[Shawn B]

Thanks Mike. Hope you got video. Denise really wanted to see/hear that thing go. Bet it made just a bit of noise.

And not to rave any more about the place but the 3 star routes just keep coming...Crack Machine P2 is unreal. Exposure and position are tremendous. Gear is great once you get into the goods...take a #4 if you want good gear right off the belay...although the climbing is easy and there are some other ok options. Be thoughtful of your belayer and others below if you use the questionable flake up high...its pretty hollow and I didn't even want to stand on it. P1 has a couple of tricky sections of climbing and pro. When you get to the overlap at about 80 feet go up the right trending finger crack rather than left to the arête/offwidth crack.

[Greg]

The Nose is now equipped with a bolt about midway up pitch 1.

[Greg]

Wow! A busy weekend at McQuirk. Lots of climbers and a few fa's on Saturday. PJ and Eric sent a cool link up of the arch to the Nose. Eric climbed a direct finish to Nightbird. Mike Parker and I managed to get Trolley Tracks. I will update the guide to include these climbs.

Boogers 5.9+ PG 110' M (1) /R (2)
FA: P. Adamson, E. Samis 2014
Climb boogers into the nose. This line follows the obvious corner that diagonals across the long arching roof on the lower part of main wall. Same start as Nightbird. Finish straight up the nose after the end of the corner.

Trolley Tracks 5.11a PG 100’ / N / R
FA: G. Hughes, M. Parker 2014
Located 10 feet right of the big v shaped groove on the slab. Look for twin finger cracks about a foot apart. From here the line goes straight up to the top of the tree ledge. Climb cracks/slab to the arch. Move over the arch and up to the next slab. Climb a tricky overlap which leads to a steep vertical crack. Follow the crack to the top of the ledge. There are a couple of run outs on marginal gear. Some might consider this climb R.

Jon Adamson also sent a nice crack line just left of Nightbird. I will post up the details on that when I get them from Jon.

[Greg]

Rinse, lather, repeat..........another stellar weekend at McQuirks Big crowd of folks and more new routes! Mike Parker sent Combat Math on gear alone. Didn't need the bolts after all. Shawn Bethune put up a sweet line between Magic X and The Dance Platform called Fake Right - Go Left. Two awesome climbs that are looking for traffic! Pierre and I found a new one directly above the pitch 1 rap station of Magic X. It will require some cleaning and a name. I will post up more info on this one later. Pierre and I also climbed a new direct finish to Trinity. The route guide is now updated............is it Friday yet

[Greg]

A few notes on some recent developments:
1. I'm Too Drunk and Nightbird are quite dirty now because we have been doing some new routing above these climbs. Hopefully they will be cleaned up soon.
2. If you use the rappel station on After Midnight (last one on the top at the far right end of the cliff) make sure you either use a 70 meter rope or rap to the Party Ledge. A 60 meter rope will not reach the rap station for I'm Too Drunk. The rap station left of After Midnight is a better option if you have a 60.
3. Rapping to the ground at the X Wall is much easier with a 70. It's a good idea to knot the ends of either a 60 or 70 just to be sure.
4. A new wall is under development between The Matrix and X Wall. Expect to see some more routes go up here soon. Several nice lines are being projected now.
5. Salad Fingers was sent on the weekend. Details posted in the route guide. Linking this with Emerald City will provide for the longest route to the top of the cliff at 3 pitches and about 260 feet of climbing.
6. Trails along the base have been improved and there are much better areas for belaying and hanging out.
7. Shawn is working on a project between Combat Math and Trolley Tracks. It's going to be another dandy. Feel free to tr but please don't lead this project. Thanks.

[Greg]

A couple of fa's last weekend. Here are the details:

One Night in Copenhagen 5.6 G 100' / N / R
FA: M. Delaney, G. Hughes 2014
Climb I’m Too Drunk to reach this climb. From the Too Drunk anchor head up to a steep crack that angles back after about 20 feet. Follow the cracks to the top. Double up on #1 through #3 camalots or run it out.

The Hall Way 5.10c G 100’ / M (2) / R
FA: S. Bethune, D. Hamel, G. Hughes 2014
Remembering our friend Cory. Climb the slab in between Combat Math and Trolley Tracks past a bolt to the overlap. Clip another bolt and pull the overlap to the next slab moving up and a bit left with discontinuous cracks for gear. A few steeper face moves gets you into a very shallow flaring chimney (the hallway). Stem through this and up to a short left facing corner. Exit the corner onto the ledge on the right and continue up easy cracks to the big tree ledge and the anchor. Double or triple up on cams from purple to yellow tcu size. Technical climbing and gear. A safe but challenging lead. Three alternate finishes are possible and all are great climbing.
Iron Cross finish – At 2/3rd’s height just after entering the hallway break right and climb the obvious overhanging finger to wide hand crack. Climb the crack only (5.11c) or the crack and left arête (5.10).
Boulder finish – At the top of the short left facing corner continue straight up the crack and overhanging face (V2).
Left finish – The left part of “the boulder” 2m left of the crack. Hard to protect well but a fun TR (V1).

[Greg]

A bunch of us were at McQuirks last weekend and treated to some very dry, clean rock, no snow and NO BUGS! The approach trail is in great shape – almost no deadfall on it as opposed to last year’s mess from the ice storms. There are a couple of big spruce trees that came down in December at the campsite but they are not really in the way. Here are a few noteworthy updates:
1. The most up to date route guide is at the top of this thread. Check here for beta as it is your best source. The routes are also now listed on mountainproject.com
2. The Green Zone is a new wall in development between The Matrix and X Walls. There is one new line on it and it is listed in the route guide. It is just left of Up Yours and is called Merlin. This route is still really dirty so I don’t recommend climbing it right now unless you want to get your soil excavating adventure on. It is going to be a gem when it is all cleaned up. The pro is stellar by the way even in its current dirty condition.
3. Josh has a project on the left end of the Green Zone. It is super clean and ready to go. Josh worked really hard on this line to get it ready so please don’t climb it until he has the chance to go for the send. I think he plans on doing it this Saturday.
4. There are two or three more projects in the middle of The Green Zone that from the ground appear to be ready but are not. There are piles of dirt on ledges which are not visible from the ground that need to be removed, dirt filled cracks and there’s some trundling to do as well. I still have to assess a couple of sketchy looking blocks. They may be fine but maybe not. I will try and find a rainy day to do the trundling and hopefully get these lines ready to go sometime this spring.
5. Lots of folks have been climbing The Hallway and are commenting on what a great line it is. Check it out.
6. There is a new variation of The Dance Platform. It is easier and perhaps more enjoyable that the original line. The variation is slightly left and very easy to figure out when you get on the route. Use the same start as Fake Right – Go Left.
7. Did I mention there are currently no bugs! Enjoy it while it lasts

[max]

Folks if you like 5.10+ climbing 50 Mission Cap into Salad Fingers is an awesome sustained route! Highly recommended!

[Greg]

Bug Report
After a delayed start the bugs have arrived at McQuirks but so far they are very tolerable. They are intermittently present around the cliff but none on the approach. Mostly black flies although a few mosquitos were spotted on Monday. I would rate them at about a 4 out of 10.

More new routes
There are now four new lines on the Green Zone. Details are in the route guide. There is still more cleaning to do so keep that in mind before jumping on them. I will post up when the polishing is done. The routes on this wall are between 120 and 160 feet long so getting down is not an easy thing right now. There are no rap stations/anchors mid way so the best option is to either climb with double ropes or scramble down to a lower tree anchor where it is possible to get down in one rappel.

[Greg]

Here's the latest bug report:
7 or 8 out of 10. They seem to be building and in a few days (especially with this hot weather) they are going to be crazy. I recommend staying away until they calm down a bit.........hopefully in a couple of weeks.

[Greg]

Lots of activity at McQuirks in the past week. I managed to get the X Wall cleaned from top to bottom. All routes on the X Wall are now longer due to the new cleaning that was done this spring.
The Green Zone now has 6 lines on it with maybe one or two more to go up soon. Jaws is one very unique climb. I encourage folks to get on it but keep in mind that the early feedback has ranged from "it is scary with tricky gear" to "it is sandbagged". The climbing through the chimney is super cool. I changed the anchor location for this climb, moving it up and right of the original tree ledge. I did this because it was impossible not to rain debris from the ledge down onto the climb. Please step right when you approach this ledge climb a bit higher and belay from a bolted rap station. This is also an easy climb to set a top rope on.
There is a new climb on the Matrix Wall as well that is just gorgeous. I am going to give it one more pass with the brush this week to polish it up a bit.
Don't forget, McQuirks is a great place to camp so come climb and bring your tent!

[Greg]

Wow what a busy end to the summer at McQuirks. Will Jones sent what is probably the hardest line on the cliff, two new routes were put up at The Matrix, Mike Delaney sent a nice line at The Green Zone and the Kennedy clan found yet another line at The Green Zone. For a wall that didn’t look like it had much potential two years ago it certainly has produced. Eight distinct routes are now established on this very unique wall. I will try to post up some pics on mountain project so it will be easier to figure out what is what. These new routes are now entered into the route guide at the top of this thread. Joe’s route will likely need some fixed protection so we will wait until that is installed before posting up details. It should be a good fall season on rock. There are over 50 pitches of climbing now at the cliff. Come on out and enjoy.
here is the link to where you will find the routes and some photos on mountain project
http://mountainproject.com/v/mcquirks-m ... /109620479

[Greg]

Another wall of climbing is cleaned and ready to go at McQuirks Mountain in St. George. This is a really nice wall with some great routes. It's about 170 feet tall and connects with another wall to reach the top of the cliff for some three pitch lines. It's slabbly and loaded with cracks so the climbing is generally quite easy. Mostly low 5th but there are a couple of places where it jumps up to 5.8 or 5.9 for a move or two. When you look up at this thing from the bottom it is quite incredulous - a crack line going to the top - step right and another crack line going to the top...rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat all the way over to the end of the wall with the exception of one small blank face. I first thought there would be five routes on the wall and came up with the name 5 Guys Named Moe. Seemed fitting because they are all similar but different in their own way. Turned out to be 10 routes all together if you include Too Drunk which is the first route on the left side.

With this wall done I am calling an end to my developing at McQuirks. Other than some upkeep I am finished with the brush and crack digger. It's time to climb If someone else wants to take up the torch there are still more routes. Message me and I will give you beta. Many people helped out with the development of this cliff by donating hardware, tools, time and sweat. Thanks to all who pitched in but special thanks go to Mike Parker, Mike Delaney, Shawn Bethune, Chris MacClellan, Annette Boerlage and Josh Shewbridge. Several people donated cleaning ropes, webbing or cord for rap stations, bolts, bits, hangers and rap stations including Shawn, Luc Gallant, Marty Theriault, Dom Caron, Eric Samis, Patrick Arsenault, Pierre Arsenault, Joe Kennedy and Richard Tremblay. Many thanks.

For all the new routes on Moe Wall and the rest of the routes on the cliff check the new routes log here on CEC

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7881

or go to mountainproject.com for the complete list and pictures as well.