IT WAS ABOUT FINDING THAT WILD PITCH THAT DREAMS WERE MADE OF—FINDING YOURSELF AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, YELLING INTO THE WIND, WITH ONLY YOUR HANDS AND HEAD TO GUIDE YOU. After three months climbing my way up North America, a Squamish local and friend, Rob Chassel, invited me on a heli-supported expedition to the Pantheon Range, British Columbia. Dave Ellison, a local climbing and heli-ski guide, had been scouting out the area and had found a skyline of several 400–500m unclimbed granite towers. The photos looked amazing, and the featured white granite whispered promises of splitter cracks.
Dave’s climbing partner Andrew Sylvester, another Squamish crusher, shared Dave’s aspirations for long days in the alpine, linking together ridges and buttresses to the true summit of the range. For Rob…