Jon Walsh’s Bold Start to Rectal Squirrels

Jon Walsh has climbed most of the routes in the rarely-visited Storm Creek, one valley north of the Stanley Headwall. With Michelle Kadatz, he climbed a variation first pitch at M7-ish to a Raphael Slawinski, Eamonn Walsh and Pierre Darbellay route called Rectal Squirrels. At the time of the f irst ascent, the f irst pitch was a shoulder-width-wide pillar of ice. Walsh climbed a left-facing crack to the left, plugging cams as he went. He took a number of big falls onto the “solid” gear.