B.C. Big Wall Belt

The B.C. Big Wall Belt is part of the Daniel Rivers Valley close to Powell River. Over the past year, a number of big routes have been climbed in the area with many big granite walls. Drew Leiterman and Travis Foster made the f irst ascent of The Vercoe/McMahon Memorial Route (tongue-in-cheek name) on a face they called the Dude Wall, a 1,020- metre directissima of the steepest section that goes at VI 5.11 A2. “The Dude Wall is close to 450 metres of dead vertical, in-your-face climbing with endless potential for free climbing if you wanna put in the time to clean out the cracks,” said Leiterman. This summer, Zoe Manson, Evan Guilbault and Max Merkin opened the 550- metre tall Lady Wall V 5.10 C3. “There had to be a Lady Wall with a Dude Wall just around the corner,” said Manson. “The Hidden Valley delivers the splitters.” Guilbault and Manson had already established the 600- metre Rob Richards Memorial Route IV 5.10 on The Gem and Rogue Tower, a 300- metre 5.10c. In 2017, Foster and Leiterman opened a new VI 5.10 C2 route on the Red Alert Wall in 25 pitches they called Jungle is Massive. Also last year, Guilbault opened the 27- pitch Sacred Stone VI 5.10 A1 with Colin Landeck on The Super Unknown.