Eventually there will be a complete trip report for my trip to Skaha, BC. But NOT YET (or ever)
The climbing area of Skaha is located just southeast of Penticton in BC. It is a series of gneiss rock ridges overlooking Skaha lake. I went with a varied group of climbers from the Squamish area. Varied in that everyone seemed to have a different schedule so that we couldn't all share rides. I drove down with Alex, with a stop in Vancouver to pick up Scott "evilseed" from the bus station. We met up with Corey and Marie who were already there, and Jen showed up just before us. A few days later, Erin and Jason showed up, and Pat and Jackie were there for the weekend. There you have the cast of characters and the setting.
The climbing at Skaha is a lot of fun. Due to the fracture planes a lot of the climbing involves positive sharp edges on either overhangs or just off vertical faces. We were there for a break from trad climbing, so we just clipped bolts. It seemed like the grades were a bit soft there, or else maybe I am finally getting stronger. In any case most of the time I felt I was climbing fairly well, especially with an onsight of "14 shutouts"(11c) (very overhanging with mostly big holds except for the irreversible gaston of doom) and flashes of "Dr. Megatrip"(11d) and "The spell" (12a).
This trip was at least as much about loafing as climbing. People were talking about going on a winery tour, but we ended up settling for the dirtbag penticton winery tour. This involved buying a bottle of wine and drinking it in the park. Then getting another bottle for another park... A few more for the campsite around a fire... you get the idea. We also played hacky sack, did some poi, sat around, and went to a rather poor movie (the underworld) matinee.
Mostly we just amused ourselves. In fact I think I laughed harder on this trip than I have in a long time. We were laughing so hard in the Thai restaurant that we thought we might get hustled out, but as they never brought our bill, we just stayed and laughed some more. My stomach actually hurt from it. The campground was convenient for us as we were off at the far end of a road where we would bother a minimum number of people with our noise and fires. I think we broke 7 of the 8 posted rules which may or may not have been a joke. (we didn't break the "no union organizers" one).
There were an awful lot of rattlesnakes in the area. we saw at least one each day we went to the crags. Mostly they were pretty small, but a few were rather large. I also saw a bear from the vehicle on the drive down.