The popularity of Squamish within the #vanlife community has increased to the point that there is great concern about the group’s collective environmental impact. “Wild” or “Freedom” camping has become unmanageable environmentally because of the high numbers of campers. This is a serious issue that causes conflict between locals, home owners, and climbers!
VAN CAMPING / WILD CAMPING
Within District Boundaries
The
District of Squamish PROHIBITS camping within the municipal boundary. This includes sleeping in a vehicle anywhere within District boundaries. A
bylaw gives the District the power to issue tickets for contraventions.
Camping on urban / residential streets is prohibited under pre-existing bylaws.
The “hot spots” that have been of most concern are below.
· The whole of the Mamquam Forest Service Road under the North Walls of the Chief between the junction with the 99 and junction with the Stawamus/Indian Arm Forest Service Road (as a salmon run and sensitive riparian area, camping close to the Stawamus River is especially inappropriate)
· The Powerhouse Springs Road including the parking area for the Fern Hill cliff
· The dirt road to the kitesurfing “Spit.”
Outside of District Boundaries
If you explore forest roads in crown land outside the municipal boundaries, it may be possible to find discreet roadside sites suitable for tents or van camping. However, the provincial authorities do have
some restrictions ;
· Stays are limited to 14 days.
· Campers should follow
Leave No Trace principles. HUMAN WASTE is a major issue.
· Strictly observe any
current fire bans.
DESIGNATED CAMPGROUNDS
Please see the
District of Squamish website for a comprehensive list of designated campgrounds.
Recommended affordable camping:
- At the Chief:
Stawamus Chief Provincial Park Campground BC parks site, spots start at $10.00 CAD/person. No reservations.
- 7 minutes north:
Mamquam River Campground A non-profit site, spots start at $15.00cad/night for a drive-in site. Reservations recommended, not required.
- 20 minutes north:
Chek Canyon Recreation Site A public site; no fees, no reservations and world class sport-climbing. No running water. The road is steep and rough but 4x4 not required
Access Issue: SIGNIFICANT ROCK FALL CLOSURES - UPDATED Feb 29th 2024
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Doubles from fingers to big blue camalot ... An extra big yellow or blue camalot useful depending on which finish you take ... Also eats small-mid sized nuts like a famished squirrel
Two ropes to rappel
;) Jul 24, 2015
Sequim, WA
Despite its intimidating appearance, rests can be found where needed and jams can be interspersed with the laybacking to minimize the pump factor.
Doubles to #2, if you take four or five #3's, you'll find places for all of them. If you only take two #3's, be prepared to do a bit of bumping or backcleaning. An old #3.5 nicely protects the last move to the anchors. (A #4 might work as well, but we didn't carry one with us.)
The 5.8 approach pitch is a pleasant warm up.
One double-rope rap with 60m's gets you to the ground. Aug 3, 2015
Seattle, WA
I wanted to do this before, always too wet, now is the time, also great one for avoiding the sun.
If you are going to switch back and forth from lay-back to jamming I would say TAPE GLOVES.
Looks to me like Brian added this route without climbing it, who adds a route and says unsure about the gear? Both of above posting covered this. I thought 3) #2 great to have, 2)#3 camalot.
It could also be added :
FA: Kirt Sellers, Bill Noble, 1986.
This is on the Opal wall.
The original start is dirty and pretty scary looking, the Opal 1st pitch is used. 5.8/5.9
We used a tag line as suggested for double rope rap, but a single 70m would work using the 1st pitch anchor for 2 raps. Aug 4, 2015
Bend, OR
I was surprised to see how small the first 50' of the second pitch was.... primarily fingers to big fingers.
The top half of 2nd pitch will take as many #2s and #3 camalots that you can throw at it. A old BD #3.5 went in perfectly before the anchor. It looked like a #4 new style camalot would as well. Aug 22, 2015
Vancouver, BC
I think The Opal approach is now the go-to first pitch, which felt around 5.8/5.9 to me. From the ground it looks like the crack is overgrown between The Opal p1 and the Mercy Street anchor, but that's because the route traverses right before the shrubbery and transitions to easy face climbing. The jive-ass anchor at the top of p1 was a bit of a bummer, two rusty pitons and a single raw hanger. If it stays dry I'd like to get up here with a Hilti and put in a proper rap anchor, and also maybe an anchor on the face so one can rap with a single 60m.
The money pitch is sweet where it isn't wet, but the first 50 feet was a steep tips-to-fingers crack that I found quite challenging for the grade. Might recommend an extra red or yellow C3 for this section. Once the fingers section is over there's still a full pitch's worth of full on jamming, which I imagine is a lot more fun without the slime. I brought a #4 Camalot after seeing some of the comments here, but it barely fit in the roof. I guess it was fine, but a #3 would have probably been better. 3-bolt anchor, 2 with rap rings. Aug 17, 2016
Seattle, WA