The Guy Edwards Interview

Guy Edwards, climbing résumé (partial):

• First ascent: west face of Swachand, India (1500m, M6 WI5, 6721m elevation).
• First ascent: Smell the Roses, Mt Joffre BC (500m, M7)
• Speed Record: 18 min (up and down) naked ascent of Pigeon Spire, Bugaboos BC (II, 5.4).
• Speed Record: 1hr 44min. The Grand Wall + Roman Chimneys, Squamish BC (10 pitch, 5.11d).
• South face of Aconcagua (French Route, 2400m, ED VII, 6960m elevation).
• Ski traverse from Vancouver to Skagway, Alaska (2015km).

These feats, though impressive, do little to capture the spirit of Guy Edwards in the mountains. For that, Christian Beckwith recalls an incident in the West Kokshaal-tau range on Kyrgyzstan (from seanisaac.com) :

After completing a solo enchainment of an unclimbed peak with a new route on a once before climbed peak, Guy proceeded to head out in the middle of the night to bring food and water to Christian, Carlos Buhler and Mark Price who had an epic day on another new route. Shepherding the tired trio safely back to the tents at advanced basecamp by dawn, he commented something about being “too wired and awake now” so he propelled himself in the early morning light up the 2000 ft east face of the Ochre walls, not only making the first ascent of the wall but also traversing over two more unclimbed summits before descending.

I've heard from other mountaineers who've run into "a weird curly haired guy" sprinting through the mountains, often on his third of fourth ascent of a peak that morning, or linking some impossibly long range traverse.

Guy loves all climbing, whether it's on an unclimbed Himalayan peak, in the gym, or on the side of a building.

UBC Chan Centre

What have you been up to so far this summer?

I went to Devil's Thumb for a month and a touch. Mid May to mid June. It's halfway up the Alaskan Panhandle. It's kind of like the North American Patagonia, bad weather and all. We had two good days out of twenty one, and the forecast was calling for more bad weather, so we bailed.

So you went buildering last night?

Yup, but this interview is about you. What's your next buildering project?

I'm going to climb the Chan Centre. It's been on my mind for years since I last tried it in '98.

The roof has a 5 ft outcropping of glass preventing you from topping out. I'm going to bend a coat hanger around some webbing, and use it to reach out and loop the webbing around the little bars that extend from the glass. Then I'll just pull off the coat hanger, and clip in a piece of gear. Sound like the right idea?

Aren't you afraid the glass will break?

It has to be strong. It's meant to withstand heavy snow loads and wind.

As for the bottom part, don't you find the metal tiles incredibly slippery?

Yes, but you can get some stuff to put your hands and feet in so that they won't sweat.

Chalk?

No not chalk, something that actually prevents you from sweating. Like underarm deodorant, only you put it on your hands and feet. There's a lot of surfaces on buildings where it's important that you don't sweat. Like glazed tiles and well made brick.

What have you climbed off-campus?

I usually go for aesthetic things like Science World, or Sun Tower, 100 W Pender. That building isn't easy to climb any more because they took the good stairways off.

What about the Macmillan Bloedel building?

Oh that big chimney? It's an unclimbed chimney, the ultimate buildering challenge in Vancouver. I'm pretty sure that it still has not been done.

There were legends that Greg Cameron climbed it. He was the guy who soloed Pipeline [Squamish, 5.10c offwidth]. He came up with Tom Gibson and Rod Groen, the Squamish climbers that first climbed freeway -- and Perry Beckham. They were all out drinking in Vancouver one night, and as rumor has it Greg soloed the MacBlo chimney and then had to knock on the door at the top to get security so he could get down. But it's not true. The truth is he went up six or seven stories, which is a fair ways, but the building is 33-35 stories high. So yeah it's an urban myth that he climbed it.

The unclimbed MacBlo chimney.

Another good local buildering story: Greg Fowraker climbed a handcrack between two buildings in Victoria, but the buildings were glazed ceramic blocks, and he had protected the crack with cams. He fell and all his cams ripped out. He landed on his back and had to be taken to the hospital.

Have you climbed the Lions Gate Bridge?

I've been up it a few times. You can walk underneath the far end of the bridge, and then climb up a ladder inside one of the pillars, or you can walk up the cables. Definitely the most aesthetic way is to walk up the cables. They are phenomenal. It's like a Via Ferrata [an Italian/Spanish climbing phenomenon where rock routes are equipped with ladders, cables, even bolt on holds].

As far as bridge climbing goes, in Quebec City they often climb Le Pont De Quebec and they climb it without any problem from the police. It's not as exposed as the Lions Gate, the Lions Gate is more exposed than a lot of things that a climber would do. And in Australia they guide people up the Sydney Harbor Bridge. For $50 anyone can go up there.

Me, Matt Buckle, and Jacqui drove out to the Lions Gate recently. It's quite a bit brighter now due to the new renovations. You'd want to do it early in the morning sometime, when there is less traffic.

When did you graduate from UBC?

1997.

Were you involved in Varsity Outdoor Club?

I was always associated with it in some form, but didn't always pay my fees. I was really keen, but I never did a Longhike [the first and biggest VOC event of the year]. I remember having some good buildering sessions after the instructor meetings for Longhike. I used to go to the meetings just to go buildering afterward.

Who do you builder with?

Dave Vocadlo, John Sims…actually when I first started buildering, the first year I was at UBC [91-92], I climbed with an old friend named Kai Pajet. Kai and Guy, we were quite the team. He was into smoking pot and doing yoga during the days, and I went to school. I slept in the Geology building that semester, and he'd come out at night to go buildering. I remember we did the big roof on the War Memorial Gym together.

That's in the old guidebook. Did you aid up the electrical conduit?

[laughs] No that's crazy! I'd never do that. We just climbed out a window onto the lower roof. The main roof is tricky though.

War Memorial Gym. Photo from 1968 Guide.

Route as described in Dick Culbert's 1968 Cragrat's Guide to UBC:

Route This is one of the more classical artificial routes on campus, and its solution demonstrates how even the most unlikely looking buildings may sometimes be climbed with a little ingenuity.

Lower Section 1st asc. 1965 A. Purdey, R. Culbert
Begin from western end of porch on north-west corner. Just beyond the railing here a conduit pipe runs up wall to sub-roof overlooking pool. There are cross-grooves every so often in the cement, and pitons may be jammed in grooves behind pipe. Now as a rule, when weight is put on these pitons, the pipe warps and the pins rotate -- flipping out. Hence it is best to put on only partial weight and then then slip a prussic knot on conduit as it pulls away from wall. In this fashion proceed to roof.

Upper section 1st asc. 1963 - G. Headley, B. McKnight.
The party recorded above originally solved the problem of the summit overhang, reaching the forementioned sub-roof by coming out windows from inside the building. From subroof ascend these windows to ventilators under final overhang. Using sling tied on the ventilator struts go straight out, hanging free in etrier. From outer edge of ventilators reach up and hook claw-hammer of fifi-hook on edge of roof. This last movement is somewhat tricky.