Back on the boards--skiing down the Vallee Blanche in Chamonix.

Something that I have always regretted is not becoming a proficient climber. As a skier, I shrugged off learning rope skills and picked up mountain biking as the summer counterpart to my winter endeavors. When I was about 23 years old, I spent a winter in Courmayeur, Italy skiing on the Mont Blanc Massif and dabbled in crevasse rescue and basic glacier travel skills, but I was inexperienced and my nervousness made it hard for me to absorb the information that I was taught. When I lived in Colorado, I spent many days in the backcountry, but I never really found the need to apply any of those skills that I had learned that winter in Europe.

After more than six months of work, the newest edition of Squamish Bouldering is finally complete. This is the third installment of the guide and it now contains over 3,000 problems, 500 more than before. I grossly underestimated the amount of time this project would take. I'm still trying to figure out what happened, but I'm guessing the good climbing conditions in January and the great skiing in March had something to do with it. Regardless, the printing of the new book should be complete by late June.

The bulk of the new problems are in the North Walls zone, but some previously unpublished areas, including Cat Lake, Short Stories and Shannon Falls, will provide plenty of fresh terrain to explore. Our new Quickdraw Publications website should be live in the next couple of weeks and ordering will be available on-line. As always, I welcome feedback on any aspect of the book. Get in touch if you have anything to say.

Enjoy the new boulders!
Marc Bourdon - Squamish, BC
http://www.quickdrawpublications.com/