Borderline then joins Angel's Crest maybe a third of the way up the wall and continues on that route until about three pitches from the top. This part of the route went very quickly as we had both climbed the route many times and there aren't any particularly difficult pitches in the middle section. When climbing the Angel's Crest in the past I had always looked over in awe at the overhanging headwall to the right that is split by the hand crack of High Plains Drifter. It is quite an impressive looking climb! The beginning of the route is reached by traversing several hundred feet to the right and then up some great Squamish style tree/root climbing with a fixed line. The fixed line ends on a large platform with the overhanging crack looming above.
Ty Johnson on the the first pitch (5.11a) of High Plains Drifter, Squamish, B.C.
Ty got the first lead as for some unknown reason he thought that I would have a better chance at leading the second pitch. He turned out to be totally wrong. The first pitch ranks high on the list of the "Best pitches at Squamish." It would be high on the list anywhere and is one of the most perfect hand cracks I've ever seen on granite. Perfect hands should be easy right? Not quite. Due to it's leaning and overhanging nature it clocks in at a very physical and pumpy 5.11a. Bring lots of #2 (mostly) and #3 camalots and not a whole lot else. The 110' pitch ends at a small stance and bolted belay below the even more overhanging second pitch.
By this time I was feeling quite fatigued as the pitch before had nearly spit me off and the accumulation of all the pitches had caught up to me. It was a bit of a lost cause but I gave it a go anyway. Much flailing and pulling on gear ensued. Pitch two starts up a deceptively awkward and off-balance corner then traverses over to the right on a pumpy rail to a tight hand crack in the back of a flare. As you can imagine, this is quite the demanding pitch. The tight hand crack then punches up the ever steepening wall and begins to narrow and arch slightly left. The only respite from the onslaught of tight jams is the occasional face hold on the left wall. The problem is it seems that every "rest" involves a slightly off balance position so any recovery is difficult. If the rest of the pitch wasn't demanding enough, I was thrilled to find out that the crux comes at the very end. As the crack arches left it slowly peters out and you are left with only one option which is to face climb out the overhanging wall to the arete on the right. A V3ish boulder problem out of the crack is followed by a long reach to the rounded arete which isn't nearly as good as you were hoping it would be. To top off this amazing pitch, the anchors lie another 10' or so up the arete and some wildly exposed liebacking is followed by a beached-whale belly-flop onto the belay ledge. At this point all I wanted to do was throw up and go to sleep.
