Coast Range Outdoors

Peggy and I went to a wedding in the Slocan Valley, and decided to take a longer loop home to visit friends in Kamloops and then head through Marble Canyon for a bit of climbing. We were on a time crunch to get back to Squamish, so we knew we didn’t have time to climb the mega classics like The Goat and Guaranteed Rugged. We did a bit of research on Mountain Project and found a shorter multi pitch called Beers with Birgit, that went at 10a. We decided to go for it.

Neither of us had climbed in Marble Canyon before, and had only climbed on limestone a few times. We were excited to see a new place and climb on some different rock than the Squamish granite that we’re so used to.

Peggy and I swapped leads, and found the climbing to be enjoyable. Most of the climbing was on solid grey limestone, but there were bands of chossy red limestone in specific areas that required caution. Rockfall hazard is simply a reality of climbing in Marble Canyon, just like it is anywhere else, but perhaps with more frequency here.

We got to the base of the final pitch, which was supposed to be the stellar pitch of the route. We looked at our watches and realized we were out of time, and we started rapping down.

Overall, this climb was great. It’s a fully bolted route with fixed anchors. The approach from the highway was about 15 minutes, and route finding was straightforward. We can’t wait to go back and spend more time here, and climb a variety of routes in the canyon.