Coast Range Outdoors

Weather and daylight are two of the major factors when planning activities in Squamish during the fall season. When a few days of high pressure set up in early October, AJ, Peggy and I decided that it would be a fun day to climb something on Mt Habrich, knowing that it would be potentially be the last opportunity before the late-Fall parade of storms started crashing into the South Coast.

We left Squamish at a reasonable hour and made our way up the Indian Arm FSR to the Shannon FSR. There is extensive industrial activity on the Indian Arm, and there will be for the next few years, due to the pipeline work. Traffic flaggers are staged at the base of the Indian Arm FSR and at the junction to the Shannon FSR. We quickly touched base with the flagger at the base of the Indian Arm FSR, and had no issues getting clearance to drive up to the Shannon FSR junction. Having a radio with resource road channels is recommended.

Overall, the road conditions are in excellent shape with the industrial activity going on. The Sea to Sky Gondola recently installed hydro towers up the Shannon FSR, so that road is also in good shape. You can park in a dedicated pullout near a locked gate, and walk about 20 minutes up the remaining stretch of the FSR to reach the top of the Sea to Sky Gondola.

We were still deciding what route to take up Mt Habrich once we parked. AJ had climbed Earthshine (10a) earlier in the summer, and was interested in checking out Escape Velocity (5.9). I had climbed Escape Velocity 10 years ago back in 2015, and didn’t have a preference. Peggy was psyched to climb anything on a sunny October day. We decided on Escape Velocity, and started to make our way up to the route.

The trail to the base of the Habrich routes startes on a casual decomissioned FSR’s for a few km, heading up the Sky Pilot Valley. At an obvious junction, the climbers’ access trail splits to the left (North), and changes in character to a slog fest for a few km, gaining close to 1000m in elevation.

Once we got to the base of the route, we realized we were in for a slightly more alpine-y day than we had set out for. Tempuratures were sub-zero on the shady north face of Mt Habrich, where the 7 pitches of Escape Velocity are positioned. We could see the crux on pitch 2 from the base of the climb, and it looked damp. We decided to layer up and give the route a try. With all anchor stations bolted, and the climbing moderate, we figured we could rap off at any point if the conditions were too unpleasant.

I quickly lead pitch 1, which involves a few moves of 5.4 up to the anchor for a grand total of 10m. This pitch could be solo climbed, however with frozen hands, awkward slab moves with death exposure down the north gully below, and because we’re note all that hardcore, we decided to throw the rope on.

Peggy then set off on pitch 2. As she pulled through the crux, she found a nice patch of ice where an ideal handjam could have made things easier. This was the theme of the day – trying to stay warm, avoiding ice and damp sections, and placing our hands in and around mountain goat poop at times by mistake. Apparently Habrich is ideal winter goat range.

After pitch 2, the climbing eases off. Although I had climbed this route back in 2015, I hadn’t remembered the climbing being so broken up with ledges, vegetation, and rock moves. It had more of an alpine feel than I had remembered, and due to the broken up nature of the climb, it wasn’t always perfectly clear where the anchor stations would be located. Nothing too crazy, but keep a close eye out for the stations or you might just get slowed down a bit.

We were convinved we had the area to ourselves, so we were surprised when we heard shouting in the distance. We looked up and saw that a paraglider had launched off the summit and was hooting and hollering on their flight off the peak. Just another day in Squamish.

Getting closer to the summit, as AJ was leading a pitch, we heard laughter and relief. After a few hours in the shade, we were finally getting into the sun. It sure felt great to warm up.

We enjoyed some lunch on the summit while basking in the sun and warming up a bit. Tempuratures were in the 8-10 degree range, but felt infinitely warmer than the shady pitches below.

There’s a few descent options off Habrich. You can downclimb the scramble route on the NE side of the mountain, you can rap off in the Life on Earth / Earth Shine area off the south side of the mountain, or you can rap Escape Velocity. All raps are less than 30 metres off Escape Velocity, can can be done with a single rope. We decided to rap the way we came up, which in total took a little over an hour.

At the base of the route, we quickly packed up and started our hike back down to the truck. A few hours late, we were arrived at the truck and were only 10 minutes late getting AJ to his evening SAR meeting.

All and all, it was a great way to spend a sunny October day. We were truck to truck in a little over 10 hours. We were climbing a bit slowly due to the conditions and a few route finding hiccups, but overall we had a great day out in the mountains. Overally, the climbing on Escape Velocity is nothing to write home about. There are a few good quality pitches, but it’s definitely a ledgy and bushy affair at times. But the position of the climb is spectacular, and it sure was nice having bolted stations to speed up the climbing and the raps. It’s certainly worth checking out. The topo on Quickdraw Publications is a good place to get started for trip planning: https://quickdrawpublications.com/wp-content/uploads/topos/Habrich_Escape_Velocity.pdf

Gear used for the climb: 70m Triple Rated Rope, single rack to 3 with a few extra hand sized pieces, nuts, 8 alpine draws.