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Banana Peel - Stawamus Chief

Canada>British Columbia>Canada>Squamish>Stawamus Chief

Millie Evans

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Banana Peel

Planetmountain

Beauty

First ascent

Dan Tate & Barry Hagen, 1965

Millie Evans

Orientation

North West

Length

400m

Difficulty

5.7

If you like slab routes where the angle is almost easy enough to walk up with great friction then this route is awesome. But with the padding up easy angle slabs come the run outs! There are plenty of moments requiring complete trust in the friction. When it gets tricker though it is protected either by gear or the odd bolt. The belays are not bolted, although some are trees, others are good wire placements. It is 8 pitches long, but partly because of two long traverse pitches at the beginning before the climbing proper starts.

Getting there
The Chief is located on Highway 99 and is unmissable as you drive from Vancouver to Squamish. It towers over the highway just south of Squamish town centre and there are several different parking spots depending on which routes you are heading for. The Apron car park is located about just south of the town centre at the turning to Mamquam Forest Service road. This places you directly below the climbing. Access
The carpark is 500m north of the Chief campsite. Follow the path past the toilet and scramble up and right to the base of the route. Banana Peel starts up the slab of Diedre before traversing off right. Descent
It is an easy walk of along Broadway ledge and then back onto the main path. Gear
Full rack needed, tree and wire belays. Maps/Bibliography
- Squamish Select by Marc Bourdon.
- Climbers Guide to Squamish by Kevin McLane
- Climb Squamish covers lots of extra information beyond what the guidebook provides to help the travelling climber. It covers all sorts of detailed information regarding routes, travel, accommodation, bear advice etc.