When the sun comes out in the North West this place is hard to beat. We took advantage of another sun filled saturday climbing with friends in Squamish. This weekend we joined forces with some friends, McKay, Julianne and Banyan for another family day at the crag. 
Spring is happening here in the North West. We took advantage of the beautiful day, driving up to Squamish to climb with the WildReilly family. This has become something of a tradition. Waking up saturday morning, packing up, driving along the Sea-to-Sky highway to the "Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada". 
Instead of heading straight to the crag, we end up at Jen, Chris, and Eric's home and have breakfast. This time it was french toast, maple, syrup, and fruit salad on a sunny deck looking out over the mountain scenery. What starts out as a slow morning, always turns into a full afternoon. 
We climbed at the smoke bluffs; the octopus's garden wall that had a good mix of moderate to challenging crack climbs. Aurora slept for an hour in a small pack and play that we had carried up with us and then spent the whole afternoon playing, eating, crawling and hanging out with Eric. We are psyched that she is always so chill hanging out outside. Shannon had a great climbing experience, ticking several climbs including an awkward 5.8 off hands route that was really pretty tricky. We climbed the entire afternoon, juggling belays, kids, and climbing. As usual it was great afternoon and another successful day of family climbing.
After a whirlwind of classes, papers, conference presentations, Bethany's wedding, more papers, and research work; things took a welcome pause in St. George. The desert was in spring bloom and the temperatures were on the rise. Our North West climatization had us running for the shade. We had a good visit with Shannon's parents and spent some time bouldering in Pioneer park. Several times I had driven along skyline boulevard, past large white house-painted "DIXIE" on the south facing cliffs overlooking St. George, and thought "I am sure there is some bouldering back in there." Sure enough in the local guide book the bouldering section included a brief description of un-rated problems on good rock that were easy access and family friendly. There were several things I'd like to try again with a larger crash pad and a spotter who wasn't distracted with an 11 month old discovering cacti. The great thing about having family in that part of the world is we always find our way back there.
