Frontside 180

Frontside 180 - Squamish — Jordan on Frontside 180

Around mid-September, I received a text from Jordan. It has been more than a year since we had climbed together, and was happy to connect with him again. We made plans to climb the next weekend.

After five consecutive days of rain, the forecast looked good for Sunday, September 27. I met Jordan at St. David’s Church in North Vancouver, and we drove to Squamish. My knees were still hurting after the Grouse Grind laps from the previous day, and Jordan hadn’t climbed in a while, so the plan was to find some easy climbs. Our search for some dry routes led us to Cheakamus Canyon in Squamish.

Electric Avenue Cheakamus Canyon — Electric Avenue

We parked at the first lot on Conroy Forest Service Road and made our way to Electric Avenue. The routes looked pretty dry, so we decided to go and checkout Frontside 180.

Frontside 180 is a popular 10-pitch 220 m sport climb (5.8) on the West Ridge of Mt Chek. It was established in 2018 by Tess Egan, Jay Robinson and Toby Foord-Kelcey.

Pitches 1-3

The first pitch was wet, but we decided to climb as the route higher up would most likely be dry. Around 9:45 am, we started the climb. Jordan went up first. The crux of this first pitch (5.7) is just past the sixth bolt, and the wet slab made it a bit more challenging. Jordan switched from his approach shoes to climbing shoes.

With a 70 m rope, Jordan continued on and soon finished the second pitch (5.7). I followed him and then led the third pitch (5.6) to reach the open bench. From here, we walked a short section to reach the base of the fourth pitch, and I continued to lead.

Frontside 180 Pitch 3 — Jordan on Pitch 3

Pitches 4-6

The fourth pitch (5.7) starts with a fun move to access the slab section higher up. As I got to the anchors, I felt comfortable to keep going and link the next pitch. The fifth pitch (5.8) has some exciting crack features, but it felt easier than the crux move on the wet first pitch.

Frontside 180 Pitch 5 — Jordan on Pitch 5

Jordan led the next pitch (5.7). A variety of features on this climb – slab climbing at first, then a short climb on a groove and an arete climb to another bench with stunning views. A short walk led us to the base of pitch 7.

Frontside 180 Pitch 6 — Jordan on Pitch 6

Pitches 7-10

Honestly, I thought we just had two pitches to go, but it turned out to be four. Jordan ended up linking all the pitches 7 (5.6), 8 (5.8) and 9-10 (5.4) and probably skipped half the bolts. He later mentioned that there was considerable rope drag and splitting this section into two pitches would have been better.

Frontside 180 Pitch 7 — Jordan on Pitch 7

I followed him shortly and by 11:25 am we had finished the route. Although we had not climbed together in a while, I thought we were quite efficient on the climb and did the route in one hour forty minutes.

A short hike led us to the summit of Mt Chek that offered a panoramic view of the Tantalus range. There was fresh snow on the mountains.

After a long lunch break, we made our way down the trail on the climbers left (North) of the route. Scrambling down the moss-covered rocks and slippery slabs made the hike more interesting.

Electric Avenue

We were soon back down at Electric Avenue, and it was busy. We decided to do some climbs on the West Face.

First up was Kye’s Stairway to Heaven (5.6) – 40 m and two pitches. The descent was along the same trail we had taken earlier. Next up was Out In the Street (5.7) – a single pitch climb that Jordan and I took turns leading.