The Austrom

A bonafide legend of Squamish climbing, Carl Austrom pioneered much of the terrain around Shannon Falls, The Apron and more while leading onsite, hand drilling his way up into the unknown. He had placed hex-head rivets from free stances or hooks, requiring wired nuts to be slung over them as pro. A bold, unique style that most can only imagine as much of the stone was likely (even back then) covered in lichen and needed brushing, all while on the sharp end. While never reaching the top of this section of the wall he did indeed find some truly excellent climbing, primarily on dykes, in a picturesque setting and for that we all owe our respect. 

This route has humbly been established using modern top-down tactics, searching for the best free-climbing line with a respect to the style of the wall. As far as locations of bolts, typically they are placed from good stances, and not as often on easier ground.

Carls rusted rivets on the second pitch, part of a climb he called “I Wanna Be Teased”, were replaced one-for-one with modern stainless bolts. Start on a perfect granite ledge above the river.

Pitch 1 (10d, 5 bolts + gear) From the ledge, climb up past a bolt to a horizontal break. Mantle up and climb a sustained, excellent dyke past bolts to the anchor.

Pitch 2 (11c, 6 bolts + gear) “I Wanna Be Teased”  Continue up the beautiful dyke on easier ground to where the wall steepens. Move right to a good stance, clip a bolt, and pull the bouldery crux on small edges. Continue past a couple more bolts to the anchor. Carl had rated this pitch 11a when he did it in 1984, but a large broken flake stance at the crux has bumped the grade.

Pitch 3 (10b, 3 bolts + gear) Climb dykes to the right and link into the “Dark Matter” finger crack. Finish as for that pitch.

Pitch 4 (11b, 12 bolts) Climb left along dykes across the wall to an increasingly exposed position above the falls. Sustained movement through amazing small pockets and edges on the face above lead to the top. Fully bolted, leave the rack at the belay.

Rappel trending climbers right to reach an intermediate anchor, and rappel the rest of the route back to the base or to the Klahanie area. A 60m rope works well.

From the bottom of the log steps just before you arrive at the Klahanie Crack area, a new trail leads left along the base of the wall to reach the start of "Liftoff". Just beyond, a perfect granite ledge is the base area for this route and "Cafe Direct"