[Hide Comment] In McLane's new Western Canada Select guide this route has an updated topo and route description. Aug 4, 2011

[Hide Comment] Excellent route! My partner had to leave a stuck green C4 on pitch 4 on 7/19/2012; +10 Karma points if anyone wants to return it. Jul 20, 2012

[Hide Comment] to help ID p1, you can see some rap anchors towards the top of p1 left of the slab traverse. The '10c OW' on p3 is no such thing. maybe a 5.9 chimney with no OW required if you face out and rack on the right. We had a full double rack to 4" and my partner only had 2 small aliens and 3-4 nuts left after leading the monster 70m final pitch! Rap down Bulletheads East with a single 70. every pitch was different and fun! Aug 16, 2012

[Hide Comment] Great route. The chimney pitch was a blast - no need to be scared of that pitch! Straightforward, fun descent down the trail/fixed ropes (you can easily rap if the fixed ropes don't look good). 30 minutes to the car. Double set of cams to 4" works but it wouldn't hurt to have triples of fingers to hands size for the long crux pitch. Sep 16, 2012

[Hide Comment] There is a 10c finger crack variation on the third pitch that starts from the same ledge. It's about 20 feet to the left and has two bolts to start. This is a good option if the chimney pitch is wet. When we recently climbed liquid gold (in October!) the chimney pitch was the only wet pitch. Oct 15, 2013

[Hide Comment] I understand Andrew Boyd was on the FFA. Anyone know more? When done? Jun 30, 2014

[Hide Comment] Top 100 in the guidebook, huh? I must have been missing something. The 1st pitch was pretty cool, but the 2nd and 3rd were pretty nasty - dirty, loose, etc. The 4th pitch was great, but after the middle pitches I was feeling pretty over it. Also, the 4th pitch is not obvious in terms of route finding. There is a massive, full extension (at least for me) rightward crack switch. I started going up left in the well traveled, well chalked finger crack, which just ended at a seam and a sloping ledge. This was not very fun to down climb, back clean, and then make the massive crack switch. Perhaps Krimo Gold is the way to climb this? Jul 5, 2015

[Hide Comment] I thought this climb was a nice outing. I accidentally linked P2-3 together to the ledge below the final pitch. This is actually somewhat reasonable if you string out the gear a bit in the chimneys and use lots of runners. I too kept expecting 5.10 offwidth but found only that little 5.9ish chimney section. As has been said, the final 70m pitch is quite good. Didn't find much dirt on the route, just some scruffy rock in the chimney

Our biggest mistake was attempting to rap Wild Turkey. Apparently if you do it correctly, you go more to the 'skier's right', as they say, and end up making a few clean double rope raps to the ground. Not being hip to this fact, I rapped more or less straight down to a ledge with an anchor. The next rappel was into the trees; fortuitously someone had made the same error previously and there was a sling anchor available. The final rap almost reached the path on a higher ledge near the ground and ultimately did once I re-equalized our 70m/60m rope combo. Fortunately the ropes didn't hang on any of the dozen dead snags or medium sized trees on their way down. I guess my point is, don't do this! It sounds like there are much better options.

I think the criteria for a Top 100 route in the Select guide are fairly subjective as opposed to just being "The Best 100 Routes Ever". This climb is a little more off the beaten path (but not much) and has some blue collar climbing and one very elegant pitch. It's definitely worth doing! Aug 5, 2015

[Hide Comment] My two cents after a rough day on Liquid Gold:

P1: OK climbing up a leaning seam leads to a slopey ledge. A bit scary (and possibly dangerous if you can't reach the bolt) across the slab and very awkward in the corner. Not very classic.
P2: Awkward, left leaning corner with (by Squamish standards) fairly chossy rock and cracks that produce fistfuls of mud. Exit this pitch by slab crawling through more choss/lichen. Not very classic.
P3: A pretty cool squeeze chimney with good exposure and moderate OW techniques. If you choose to stay in that crack, leading up right through the corner above, expect 5th class gully climbing through the dirt. Not very classic.
P4: Endless 5.10 climbing through cool finger/hand cracks. Pretty sustained with several cruxy moves. Pretty classic.
P5: If you didn't link the whole crack to the top, you'll have to bust out one last awkward 5.10 move before it eases off to the summit. Belay from tree. Not very classic.

DO NOT RAP the Wild Turkey zone as described in the guidebook. Most likely you will end up 50m from the ground with no bolted anchors in sight and enough trees surrounding you to snag all of your rope. Not very classic but you'll have earned your dinner. Jul 5, 2016

[Hide Comment] I didn't find any dirty climbing and thought the route was classic. Aug 4, 2016

[Hide Comment] After climbing the first two pitches I was completely confused as to why this would marked as a top 100. After climbing the last 2 pitches I was completely on-board.

P1 (10+) - Awkward climbing with a runout traverse. Not very fun. Gear belay. Note: Make sure you do NOT go out left to the bolted belay. You'll see a bolt that is out of reach above you, traverse left to the point where you can shove in a purple C4, then clip the bolt, back-clean the purple and continue on your way.
P2 (10+) - OK climbing, nothing special. Gear belay.
P3 (10b) - Pretty fun chimney/offwidth/face climbing to a nice slanting crack. Ends on a big ledge. Cool. Tree belay.
P4/5 (10+) - Do them as one pitch, you don't need much gear for the last 15 meters. Super fun! Long pitch of great crack climbing. Plenty of places to rest and shake out. Tons of nut placements to conserve your gear, safe, fun and long. One of the best 5.10 crack pitches in Squamish.

Gear Beta:
Lots of nuts. Lots of draws for the nuts. Double from small cams to yellow C4. One #3 (2x if you like placing a lot of gear). 1x #4 if you are really nervous. Aug 14, 2017

[Hide Comment] Last pitch is money. Jams and finger locks the whole way. More physical than technical, felt more like 5’10+ than 11-. One hanger is missing on the bolt anchor at the top of the money pitch. Aug 13, 2022

[Hide Comment] great climb

does not need a #3.5 or a #4 Aug 26, 2022

[Hide Comment] Date climbed: Tuesday, July 4,2023

Approach: Park at the upper Chief lot (by the slackline), walk down the main path towards the chief hike and turn left at the cook shelter and walk up the hill until you hit the wall, then turn left and walk along the wall. P1 shares the same start of "Krimo Gold", so you can use those pictures as well for reference. About a 10 minute approach.

P1 -> Start up the wall and trend left towards the bolted anchors of "Krimo Gold", tempting as it is, do not clip it. Instead, you will see a bolt on the right, do the slab traverse (2 bolts long) and either runout to the gear belay, or plug in gear and suffer rope drag. Expect some polished rock for the last few meters. *Gear Belay*

P2 -> Start into a wide corner (#3ish) and trend left into the next belay alcove. The crux moves are short. *Gear Belay*

P3 -> This is the wide pitch. Squirm your way into the crack and plug in a piece as high as you can go. Then wiggle back out and attack the chimney from below, creeping up the outside to find some exceptionally positive holds around the corner. RIP whoever has to drag the backpack up that. Climbing eases up into some excellent fingers, toping out at a large ledge which forms the base of P4. *Tree Belay*

____________General info about the last pitch (P4):_________________

1. This final pitch can be broken down into two pitches if you're stupid like me and bring like 6 runners and forget your nuts at the car (6am starts are too damn early ok?). Described below.
2. The anchor at the top is missing hardware, but a tree belay exists 4-5m further. This will cause you some drag headaches if you do the last pitch in one go, expect to maybe simul the last few meters to make it, assuming your extensions are excellent.
3. First 75% of this pitch is pure trad, last 25% is very sporty. If you are a weaker trad climber, but a strong sport climber, you may wanna pull dibs on the topout.
__________________________________________________________________________

P4 -> This is the money pitch, long lines of fingers and hands oh my! Long arms for the crack breaks will do you well, and excellent climbing to the belay below the bulge really makes for an excellent pitch. This pitch will eat up your gear like the cookie monster with...well, cookies. *Gear Belay*

P5 -> This short section is maybe 20m, trends left up the bulge to the top-out ledge. Despite previous comments, you can plug in lots of gear if you'd like, but there are plenty of face holds so you may decide running out is the better option. *Tree belay until anchor is repaired*

Descent: Multiple options exist, but we just scrambled down the mountain through fixed lines and linked into the descent for slot machine (an excellent add on!). There is a long section of fixed line (orange rope) that some will prefer to rappel. My partner found the fixed line easy while just doing some opposition down the chimney. I personally found it quite uncomfortable, though I wearing crocs and had like 16 cams slamming into my ass the whole way down.

Final thoughts: Don't bother bringing the #4, anywhere you could place it, you can place something smaller nearby. Thank you for listening to my TED talk. Jul 6, 2023