I was on a detour through Salt Lake City during my drive from Red Rocks to the Valley, and ended up spending three days ticking off classics in
Little Cottonwood Canyon and
Big Cottonwood Canyon. Lane Baldridge—who I’d climbed the
Incredible Hulk and
Regge Pole with the previous summer—noticed I was in town and reached out. We made plans to get a day in together.
The original plan was to crag in Little Cottonwood, but then one of my Instagram followers suggested
Squawstruck—a 22-pitch sport route less than an hour south. I floated the idea to Lane: “Crazy idea, but…” He was immediately in. He’d been wanting to get on it and just hadn’t found the right moment. Even with a 40% chance of showers. Limestone, bolted anchors… what could go wrong?
Welcome to sportaineering.
Squawstruck climbs the south face of Kyhv Peak (formerly Squaw Mountain) in a long, wandering line. It’s not the most direct route, and the ledges and shorter pitches break things up a bit, but the rock is generally good, the movement is engaging, and the sheer length makes it memorable. The climbing is also sustained: five 5.8s, four 5.9s, twelve 5.10s, and one 5.11.
The route is fully bolted—no trad gear required—and features mostly just-less-than-vertical climbing punctuated by roofs. There’s a bit of everything, really. Large ledges interrupt the wall at intervals and require a bit of walking to the next section of climbing (Lane and I kept our climbing shoes on for all the traversing sections, to save time of switching shoes).
The limestone varies wildly—from occasional choss to beautiful, water-streaked stone. Colors shift constantly: gray, white, black, tan, red, orange, even hints of blue. This is sportaineering, so expect some loose rock.
This line was over two years in the making, and it shows. More than two-thirds of the bolts are stainless, and every belay has at least two bolts and a comfortable stance. The route is quite well bolted.
Lane and I had an excellent day. The rain never materialized, and it ended up warmer than expected—fine overall, though I would’ve dressed a bit lighter.
Despite the topo’s suggestions, we linked much of the first half of the route, occasionally using microtraxions to simul short sections. Higher up, where the climbing gets more demanding, we switched tactics—linking pitches in pairs and climbing in a fix-and-follow rhythm. It worked well.
Lane took both 5.11 crux pitches and onsighted them cleanly—nice work.
We did have two hiccups. On Pitch 19, a bolt hanger was missing at a cruxy section with real fall potential. I clove-hitched the bolt, climbed past it, got into some desperate moves below the next bolt, and ended up downclimbing. Not eager to repeat the experience, I handed it off to Lane, who found a slightly easier line out left and pushed through the runout.
The second issue: somewhere durinig the day, we managed to lose the car key.
On the hike down, Lane jogged back to the base to search while I carried gear to the car. When I arrived, the key was hanging from a sign directly in front of my van—presumably placed there by someone who had found it and figured out exactly where it belonged and didn't care to steal a Transit.
Car to car in seven hours. Not bad for a first lap.
