Squamish Benchmarks - Traditional Climbing

Breaking into a new grade is hard, especially when you’re placing gear while twisting a body part into a crack, precariously above your last piece. As we grow and learn in climbing, we encounter pitches of the same 5th grade that teach us lessons along the way, exposing missing skills in our repertoire or weaknesses we hadn’t yet identified. These moments of growth can happen within the same grade or as you begin reaching into the next one.

Certain traditional climbs are notorious for humbling climbers, not because of pure physical difficulty, but because they demand a robust set of skills and a calm head. In this way, they become the climbs that, once you feel comfortable on them, show that you’re ready to move onward and upward.

Grade	Climb Name & Area	Description
5.6	MCM – Smoke Bluffs	Fun and well-protected climbing, a great introduction to crack climbing in Squamish.
5.7	Asleep at the Wheel – Smoke Bluffs	Longer than it looks with multiple sizes and good rests. Hidden a bit higher in the Bluffs, but worth the visit.
5.8	Sunshine Chimney Centre – Chief/Bulletheads	Adventurous climbing into a cave and beyond. Not your normal line—and one you won’t forget.
5.9	Orifice Fish – Smoke Bluffs	A stout little line, steeper than its neighbours, requiring more effort to find the right gear.
5.10a	The Zip – Smoke Bluffs	Classic straight-in jams with helpful feet when you need them. Feels good to break into the 10s.
5.10b	The Split Pillar – Chief/Grand Wall	Wild and sustained in an outrageous position. No move is harder than 5.10b, but it feels serious throughout.
5.10c	Halley’s Comet – Slhaney	Long with varied movement and a classic slab sting in the tail—commit away from the crack to reach the bolt.
5.10d	Liquid Gold – Chief/Bulletheads	Possibly the longest pitch on the Chief. A full rope-stretcher with multiple crack switches and cruxes.
5.11a	Perspective – Nightmare Rock	Steep and technical with two distinct cruxes testing different skills. Good gear where it matters.
5.11b	Astrologger – Chief/North Walls	An awkward start leads to a beautiful corner. As you get pumped, remember—the crux is behind you.
5.11c	Dead On Arrival – Murrin/Pet Wall	Sport-style climbing with gear placements. No jams—just committing moves and a bit of airtime.
5.11d	The Crosmonaut – Long House	Long, steep, and sustained with every crack size—wanted or not—packed into one punchy pitch.
5.12a	Shock Collars for Christmas – Top Shelf	Tricky to onsight. Manage gear placements and flared jams well—or expect to pump out fast.
5.12b	The Facade – Chief/Dihedrals	A steep, overhanging double corner hidden in the Chief. More physical than it looks.
5.12c	Flight of the Challenger – Murrin/Pet Wall	A classic. Hard lip encounter into a flaring crack with barely-there tips—must-do for the grade.
5.12d	My Little Pony – Chek Canyon	A fully horizontal offwidth with an awkward lip—unique, burly, and unforgettable.

Grade	Climb Name & Area	Description
5.13a	Teddy Bear’s Picnic – Chief	Layback up a sharp arete, then pull the infamous Houdini move to slip around it before a powerful finish. The pitch is bolted, but it’s all trad to get there.
5.13b	Speechless – Chief	As close to El Cap–style free climbing as you’ll get on the Chief. Radical exposure on perfect, overhanging rock.
5.13c	Lake of Fire – Murrin	A direct start to the classic Sixty-Nine, adding difficulty, quality movement, and a runout to an already serious test piece.
5.13d	Tainted Love – Chief	Stem and palm your way up a mostly shut corner—requiring strong legs, composure, and precise small gear.
5.14a	The Bull – Murrin	An “R”-rated line leaving the corner for the face. Expect big, wild falls if you come off at the crux.
5.14b	Cobra Crack – Backside	A world-renowned test piece, featuring brutal mono-finger locks guarding the final boulder problem.
5.14c	Bladerunner – Kashmir Wall	Unrepeated, overhanging, and highly technical on perfect rock, tucked away in the forest above the Apron.

… you made it here! Might as well skip to the world's hardest trad line.

Connor Herson climbing 'Drifters Escape' (5.15a/9a+) Photo: Christian Adam for Black Diamond

Grade	Climb Name & Area	Description
5.15a	Drifter’s Escape – Chief	Currently considered the hardest crack in the world—unrepeated, thin, and featuring a V12 crux above marginal gear. Hard to access, but that won’t stop the world’s elite from trying.

Within every grade, there are climbs that feel easy and others that feel impossibly hard, often shaped by our strengths, weaknesses, and even the size of our fingers. Before rushing upward, build your pyramid: climb many 5.10+ routes before stepping into the 5.11s. If 5.11 slab or 5.11 offwidth shuts you down, go back and try again until they begin to feel within reach. Seek out your weaknesses rather than avoiding them; in doing so, you become a well-rounded climber, one who can answer when the rock asks something unfamiliar.

As Gaston Rebuffat famously said