The Black Dyke goes free.

Article by Andrew Querner, Gripped Magazine Oct - Nov 2002

above Matt on pitch 4. Completely horizontal 15 foot roof above another 40 feet of overhanging rock at 5.12b, The Gargoyles Pitch!

below Matt on pitch 6. 45 meters of super steep 5.12a sport clipping.

"It's the only route in Squamish that can be properly pointed out to a tourist in 2.5 seconds" says Matt Maddaloni of The Black Dyke, now an all-free bolt protected adventure to the right of the Grand Wall. Indeed, the basaltic intrusion that splits the Stawamus Cheif's west face epitomizes the expression line of weakness. Encased on both sides by an ocean of solid granite, the Dyke rises the height of the Cheif like a giant elevator shaft. It is characteristically blocky, loose and until Spring of this year remained an objective only for those aid climbers "insane enough to repeat it due to it's massive death blocks pasted by dirt to the underside of the 'Gargoyles' pitch," a 13 m roof 100 m above the forest canopy.

Maddaloni who is in the unique position of being the only person to have ever free and aid climbed the Dyke is a talented all rounder who has put up big walls around the world. He became interested in freeing the entire feature after succeeding on the sixth pitch, where 11 years ago Dean Hart, on second, had pulled off the "crucial hold" which John McCallum had just used to send the pitch. Hart and McCallum had approached the Dyke from the left, by-passing a pair of roofs which Maddaloni free climbed using bolts for protection.

The menacing Gargoyles roof hangs frightfully over the first two moderate pitches and provides the route's first crux. After sending the 'death blocks' into the talus below, Maddaloni worked and sent the pitch (5.12b) which required wildly exposed "star fish chimneying" and horizontal climbing out the end of the roof. The business of the route lay above however, and involved a short, steep overhang with poor holds. Maddaloni is hesitant to grade the 'Nubian Queen Roof' but concedes, "It's the hardest sport pitch I've sent." A number of strong locals have tried it and the grade seems be settling around 5.13b although it remains unrepeated. When combined with the already established Upper Black Dyke this new creation provides 12 pitches of climbing, much of it on moderate 5.9 to 5.10 terrain. In keeping with the nature of the Dyke, however, it is some-what loose and runout and definitely not your typical sport climb. It still awaits a continuous one-day ascent.

 

Left: Raul Sauco onsighting pitch 6. Go Raul go!

Andrew Querner photos.