Trying to escape the 30+ degree heat in the summer as a rock climber is always interesting. Wether its climbing during the morning or late afternoon, it can be a little unbearable to be on the wall while the sun is baking you. Recently I have been climbing on some of the more secluded cliffs in Cougar Canyon where the are some really fun routes to get on. The Secret Wall has a couple of great little crimpy routes and some potential for some really amazing climbing. There is the cool feature called the Cougar's Tooth, with a nice 5.8ish splitter crack, short but fun.
The Lakeview Face is another shady cliff with a couple of hours worth of good climbing, though I thought it was a bit scruffy like many of the less used cliffs at Cougar. All it took was a good brushing and now a couple of the routes are ready to go again. Its not a far walk, about 2 minutes past the drop in gully to Toad Hall you just go down the gully to the right instead, and there it is facing Kal Lake. Just wanted to share this so my days work didnt go to waste. All this info is in the guidebook, just wanted to add it here for those who use the plaques and/or dont have a guide. The freshly brushed routes are:
Dazed & Confused - 5.11 - Fingery climbing that doesnt relent to the anchors. Really fun!
Squeeze My Lemon - 5.11+ - Hard!
Lakeview Arete - 5.10+ - Throw a small piece of gear in the finger crack and head for the roof and up on bolts.
Bombs Away Variation - 5.9 - GEAR + 2 Bolts - We skipped the end of the route to avoid the really loose sketchy rock and joined the Arete route at the last two bolts.
Lakeview Slab - 5.7 - GEAR - Two little corners, climb one of them then onto the diagonal trending crack to two anchor bolts at the top of the cliff.
