This is a part of my two-week climbing trip. You can find other blog posts from this trip.
Please search for “2020rocktrip” in my blog search.
After we climbed Gimli, We had a rest day at Nelson. What we did first was to find a laundry and wash our dirty clothings. We did not smell any bad among us, but we probably did from others.
Of course, we got coffee at Osso Negro. We were going to go to Kurama Sushi, but they were unfortunately closed… In stead, we went to Kootenay Baker Cafe.
We walked around Nelson down town and then headed to Castlegar to see its local crags. We first went to Kinnaird Bluffs, and it was wet and did not interest us. Then we went to check some areas along Arrow Lake, but we could not find crags…
We did not want to waste our time for searching, so we decided to go back to Skaha. We all wanted to spend more time there.
We stayed a night at a campsite in Castlegar during these days. It was good and cheap. The campground is called PassCreek Campground, and it is located near the heart of Castlegar. The fee is $20 per site for 2 adults and up to 4 children. It is $7 per extra adult, so we paid $34.
By the evening of July 8th, we were back in Skaha Blaffs. We went to Diamond Back area to climb the TOP100 routes that we missed on our first visit. We climbed Ready to Strike 5.10a on the first day. We arrived the area around 4:00PM, so we only climbed this route and went to a campground.
The next day, July 9th, we went back to the same area and climbed a few other routes. They were Sidewinder 5.10c, Cytotoxic 5.11a, On Yer Bike 5.11c, and Chameleon 5.11b. They were all sport climbing. The first two routes were on vertical wall, and the others were on overhanging wall.
I highly recommend those routes including Ready to Strike that we climbed the day before.
We did some shopping after climbing and headed back to our camp. Banbury Green RV Park was full, so we stayed at Camp Along RV Park. This was our only option. Other campgrounds near Skaha was all booked. We actually liked this campground. It was $35 per night.
The next day, we went to Screeching Wall area in Skaha bluffs. As we got to the area in the morning, this east facing wall looked so good and we went on it even the sun was hitting it already… That was a mistake. We underestimated the power of the sun in Skaha. We climbed two routes; Watching Bananas Bend 5.10b and Flight of the Fledgling 5.11a. The both routes were excellent quality, and we enjoyed them. After climbing just two routes, however, we were all exhausted and needed a big rest. I did not take any photo in the area. My camera was too hot and was not operating well. We were all baked by the hot and dry Skaha weather. We went easy all day after this.
At the end of the day, I snapped a photo of Naoyuki climbing Ebbing Strength 5.11a at Ochre Wall. This was really fun, too. We called it a day and went back to our car.
This day was our last day at Skaha Bluffs. We drove to Boulder fields in Kelowna. We stopped at Gneiss Climbing Gym to get rental bouldering pads. We also climbed a little bit at the gym. The gym was so clean, and their problem setting was in good quality. There were many variations of problems; overhanging powerful moves to super technical vertical wall. I loved it so much, and the staffs at the gym were all nice people!
Driving to Boulder Fields in Kelowna was a long way on a dirt road. It was a rough road, but we saw some sedans were parked at the parking. I would recommend to get a 4WD high clearance car.
Sea to sky 