The Mountain Boy January 16, 2009
Posted by dhpi in Uncategorized.add a comment
The McColl family of North Vancouver recently sat down to tell me their story, and in particular that of their youngest son Sean who is having quite a bit of success competing as a professional rock climber in Europe. Sean’s also started a blog, and is beginning to experiment with climbing videos to share stories of his trips climbing around the world. Posted below is the story in full as published in the January 8, 2009 issue of the North Shore Outlook. 
DANIEL PI
Staff Reporter
They called him the Mountain Boy.
When Anna Lee and Terry McColl had their second child, they named him Sean.
For the baby’s Chinese name, Anna and her mother chose Shan, which pronounces very closely to Sean in Mandarin. It also means mountain.
From an outsider’s perspective, that tiny bit of family history can seem prophetic.
Twenty-one years later, and Sean McColl is now considered one of Canada’s top competitive rock climbers. He regularly flashes past rivals in regional and national competitions, and recently placed sixth overall in his first year competing in the World Cup circuit in Europe, where climbing runs deep in the continent’s blood.
Sean’s accomplishments recently earned him a front page story in Canadian climbing magazine, Gripped, while his climbing trips and competition finishes make news in numerous others. His backers include outdoor gear manufactures Petzl – makers of mountain gear from headlamps to climbing harnesses and ropes – plus outdoor apparel maker Blurr and shoemaker La Sportiva – who are known for everything from rugged mountain boots to nimble climbing shoes.
But while Sean has been a singular force on the rock walls, setting records and collecting trophies, his success can be traced back to his childhood growing up with his family in North Vancouver.
His father Terry was a soccer player and university track athlete. His mother Anna is a nurse who studied human kinetics, an athlete and avid hiker.
Sean has been the recipient of their athleticism, competitiveness and tenaciousness. He’s muscular, lean and compact, and years of training have given him broad shoulders and bulging forearms. Until recently he sported a head of shaggy black hair, looking very much like a man of the mountains.
Those who know him say he’s quick in movement and a strong problem solver.
They are all perfect attributes for a rock climber.
While Sean has long been known to local climbers and lately climbers around Canada, Europe recently got a look at what he can do during the World Cup season where he was the only North American to finish in the top 30. His name is spreading, and being heard by non and new climbers, who are geared to see the top prospect in action.
And as the story goes, Sean might never have found his sport except for the closing of a tennis club where the family belonged nearly a dozen years ago.
“THEY WEREN’T VERY GOOD AT TENNIS”
Anna Lee opens the door to the family house dressed smartly in a blouse and black pants.
She’s a tiny woman, energetic and quick to welcome visitors into her home where framed photos of her two children hang on the walls. They are nearly all shots of climbing around the world from Bishop, California, to Fontainebleau and Céüse, France.
On the kitchen counter is a glass inukshuk – Sean’s latest trophy from his first place finish at the December 2008 North American Climbing Championships in Montreal, Que. Underneath is a rectangular sheet of white paper with black lettering and the number 180 on it: Sean’s jersey from the competition.
“I’ve been collecting them and putting them in a scrapbook,” Anna says as she runs her fingers over the paper, flattening the creases. This latest jersey will join the half dozen from Sean’s summer competing across Europe. “Just when he remembers, it’s just kind of neat.”
When Anna talks about her boys – Sean, 21, or Jason, 23 – her voice rises to excited levels or drops to hush tones, as if awestruck by their potential.
That Sean and his older brother Jason would become outstanding athletes wasn’t much of a stretch. They come from athletic parents and were blessed with the right genetics and proportions.
That they both found a sport they could excel in and become international competitors at early in life is largely thanks to timing and a bit of luck.
Father Terry McColl explains: “We were part of a tennis club but they closed so we asked the kids what they wanted to do.”
Sean and Jason had been to a few birthday parties at the Edge Climbing Centre, and were intrigued with the idea of gripping plastic holds and scrambling up sandpaper-rough walls. So the family bought year-long memberships, traded in rackets for shoes and harnesses, and started climbing. They decided it would be the family activity for the year, and would decide after if they wanted to continue or find something else.
It quickly became apparent that climbing was destined to become a large part of the family’s life.
“I think we thought it was quite a bit of fun,” Terry says. “It was something we all had some quick success doing.”
“They weren’t very good at tennis,” Anna says lightheartedly, then adds about climbing, “For the first two months, because Sean was so short we were all better climbers than him.”
But Sean’s potential didn’t go unnoticed. He was invited to join a youth program at the gym run by part-owner Andrew Wilson, Canada’s national youth climbing coach since 1996.
Shortly after joining the program, which took Sean to the gym two days a week training, he was encouraged to compete at his first competition.
He was just 10.
“I remember Andrew told me Sean was going to be one of the best climbers Canada would ever produce,” Anna says.
“I took it at face value,” Terry says. “I believed him because I know Sean … Sean picks things up very quickly and tends to excel at whatever he does, so I wasn’t surprised to hear that.”
Sean mostly remembers that first competition as a fun day where his coaches encouraged him to try one climb after another. They were all difficult, just at the edge of his skill level, which meant he had to work hard to complete each one.
At the end of the competition, a surprise for Sean and his family: He was announced the winner of the beginner’s category. His prize: a day of guided climbing outdoors.
“PRETTY DRAMATIC MY FIRST TIME OUTSIDE”
Anna, bundled in a blue down jacket and toque, pops her head over the counter and smiles down at the climbers downstairs at the Edge.
Her appearance is greeted by a chorus of “hellos” and “you’re backs” by the people below.
Sean and Jason are nowhere in sight. Anna and Terry are here for themselves.
Nine months ago, Anna suffered a serious climbing injury, falling nearly six metres off of a wall at the Edge, breaking both her legs and a wrist.
After a lengthy recovery, tonight is her first time back climbing
“I asked my surgeon, ‘So yeah, am I ready to climb now?’ He said, ‘Yeah but why would you want to?’” Anna smiles conspiratorially and explains: “He just doesn’t know.”
While her sons are climbing heroes at the gym, Terry and Anna have proven strong climbers too.
Climbs are rated in different grades depending on the type of climbing (roped routes or bouldering problems) and depending on where you are in the world. At the Edge, roped routes are rated by the Yosemite Decimal System. Climbs are rated as Class 5, and the difficulty by a number after the decimal point. A 5.6 is considered relatively easy while 5.10 and beyond rises in difficulty. Currently the hardest rating for a climb in the world is 5.15.
Many climbers work years to surpass the 5.10 mark. Anna has completed a 5.12 climb before, while Terry regularly climbs at that level. By comparison Sean was just 12 when he climbed his first 5.14 route.
“I think my climbing goal is to just keep climbing and to me it’s a great way to stay fit … it’s like lifting weights but there’s no boredom to it,” Terry says. “It’s actually very liberating to do climbing because you have to clear your mind: you have to focus on what you’re doing and I really enjoy doing that.”
Anna’s injury came as a shock considering her reputation as a safe climber and the mother of such talented climbers. She doesn’t want to dwell on the accident or talk too much about the recovery.
But she’s glad to have had such a large network of family and friends nearby ready to help and lend a hand during her downtime.
It also hasn’t deterred her husband or boys from climbing and it certainly didn’t slow Sean from his dream to compete against the world’s best this year.
“No, no discussion,” Anna says about her injury affecting Sean. “I don’t know what he was thinking, but I said go.”
Asked about his mother’s injury, and Sean seems unfazed by it now.
“Luckily when the accident happened I didn’t leave for another three months,” he says. “I pretty much was in the hospital for a month just visiting … So my mom was in the hospital for a month, and then she was in a hospital bed at our house for another two months. When I left for Europe she was already doing a lot better.”
It’s not the first time Sean has witnessed a climbing accident. His first time climbing outdoors – the reward for his first competition win – is the stuff of legend. But not for anything he did.
Sean recalls the incident with vivid clarity, and he relates it in a straightforward manner.
The guide was teaching Sean and his parents to rappel but slipped when the rope she had looped around a rock for tension came loose.
“The rope got rolled up over the rock and when it popped off the rock it shot backwards and then she slipped and fell off a cliff,” Sean recalls. “She fell a hundred feet … she landed on her back and she was fine. In about 20 minutes she was walking around. They still heli’ed her out to take her to Squamish hospital but after two hours of X-rays and stuff they were like, ‘She’s fine.’
“So pretty dramatic my first time outside.”
“I’M A VERY COMPETITIVE PERSON”
Sean figures he was too young to really understand the gravity of that first time outdoors. He was too innocent to know what the consequences could have been.
“My parents thought I would never climb outside again,” he says. “So it was an awkward situation the next time my coaches wanted to take me outside.”
Whether his parents thought it was too dangerous to climb outside after that first experience, Sean isn’t certain. But he wanted to climb more, outside and inside. And he did.
He kept competing, and from 2003 to 2006 he dominated youth world climbing competitions, aging out of the youth category with five world titles.
For his coaches, this was Sean tapping into his potential.
“He was doing things at 10 and 11 I had never seen other climbers (his age) could do,” coach Andrew Wilson recalls.
“And I thought, ‘You know what, he has the potential to be really good.’ I wasn’t the only one at the time (who thought this).”
Other coaches have moved from different climbing gyms in Vancouver or from other cities to come and coach Sean, Anna and friends say.
They’ve come to have a hand in shaping what many say is one of the best rock climbers in Canada, if not the best, and to witness the sport grow in Canada because of his actions.
“Sean alone has done a lot for climbing in Canada,” Andrew says. “Our young athletes believe they can compete at the world level because of Sean.”
One look at this year’s national youth team can attest to that. Eleven of the athletes on the 26-member team trained at the Edge gym.
Despite all that he’s done, Sean isn’t finished yet. In his first year as a full-time pro, he finished in the top 10 in all seven of his competitions and twice made the podium at third.
He’s going back soon with a bigger goal in mind.
“I’m a very competitive person,” Sean admits. “I think I was a very competitive person from a very young age and it probably helped that I had a brother that was two years older so he was always better, stronger, bigger the whole time I was growing up … It really helped me because I strived to be as good as him … I find with my whole life I try to make everything a competition just to have fun.”
Those close to him though, think there’s more to his competitive spirit.
“Knowing him as well as I know him, Sean wants to know if he’s that good or not,” coach Andrew says. “He won’t be satisfied until he’s given it a good shot (at the World Cup). He wants to know how far he can take it.”
“IT’S JUST A MATTER OF TIME”
A week after Anna’s first climb, she’s back at the gym with her husband Terry. Anna’s not ready for the higher-roped climbs yet, so while several girlfriends spot her on the bouldering walls, Terry is route climbing with a friend.
He’s been particularly interested in several climbs recently set at the gym by his son Sean. He says so with a competitive edge, like he wants to know if he can climb the routes his son can do – even if the climbs are rated in the 5.8 to 5.10 range for everyday gym climbers.
The climbs feel different than the usual ones at the gym, he admits. The moves are different, foreign even, and he wonders if it’s Sean bringing some European influence back with him – perhaps a sign that a World Cup is on his mind.
“I think in the back of his mind, he’d certainly like to win a World Cup event,” Terry says. “So that, as much as he probably won’t say it, that’s his next goal and … I think it’s just a matter of time and a matter of keeping to the commitment. It will come.”
For Sean, there’s a desire to know if he can do it, if he can scale the walls or if his fingers can stick on the holds. Since indoor climbing uses artificial holds that are mass manufactured, there isn’t an infinite number.
“I pretty much know all the holds in North America unless they’re brand new,” Sean says. “I can look at almost any hold … and tell you what it’s going to feel like. I go to Europe, a lot of the holds I’ve never seen before.”
He explains that that piques his interest: he wants to know what they feel like, how to hang off of them. It also creates a bit of nervousness too. A bit of fear of the unknown.
But there is no doubt in the Mountain Boy’s mind. His fingers will stick to the holds.
“They have to be good enough because someone’s going to have to get to the top,” he says.
Caaaaaaaall of the Rooster November 5, 2008
Posted by kellyleemcmanus in Uncategorized.add a comment
Aspiring rec climber Kelly McManus starts an eight-week training program with The Edge training group. The first in a weekly series, we follow Kelly as she unlearns what she has learned and starts from the beginning.
KELLY MCMANUS
Staff Reporter
The alarm goes at 5:20 a.m. I groan, peering out the window with one half-open eye.
It’s cold and dark and kinda rainy. I feel like crap.
But this was my idea, after all.
After about four years of horsing around in the gym on fake plastic rocks, and one real season climbing outside, I want to be a better climber. So I’ve signed myself up for Andrew Wilson’s Call of the Rooster, a twice-a-week early morning training program at the Edge Climbing Centre in North Van.
Wilson trains the National youth team and his North Shore climbers consistently represent about half of Team Canada. He’s one of the best coaches out there – far better than I deserve, but the opportunity’s there, so I’m taking it.
About that.
Were I to still to reside in the glorious land of slumber – and I’d like to – I’d be dreaming about rocks. I’d be dreaming about the sunlight through the trees and the slap of chalky hands on the cold, sharp Grand Wall Boulders on a fall afternoon. I’d be imagining what it might be like to conquer my fear and send that tricksy 10c I’ve been too afraid to try at Chekamus’ Main Event wall.
I need to unlearn my fear.
I stared gym climbing in Ontario. The idea was to get over my terror of heights – trial by fire sort of thing. While I fell in love with the movement, the poetry of balance, precision and endurance that is route climbing, I never really did get over the pesky fear part.
And it’s been holding me back – I won’t climb something if I think I might fall, which is silly, because the rope will catch me.
After my first season of outdoor sport climbing and my first season in Squamish, I’m tired of getting the Elvis Leg (when your calf shakes uncontrollably with fear and tension, ultimately cramping your performance and bruising your ego).
I’m ready to calm my mind, unlearn what I have learned, a get a bit more serious about doing this right.
And so, I’m getting up at 5:20 a.m. twice a week to get to the Edge for 6 a.m. sessions with Wilson and his coaches, plus 20 other aspiring climbers of all abilities. They say we’re going to get worse before we get better as we take a bit of time to evaluate the bad habits that hold us back. This will be interesting.
Wish me luck.
kmcmanus@northshoreoutlook.com
Coming back the hard way October 29, 2008
Posted by outlookreporters in Uncategorized.add a comment
SAM COOPER
Staff Reporter
If 62-year-old Karioka Mirski and her 24-year-old son Marcin hadn’t been rocking out on a Friday night with gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello at the Commodore Ballroom, they might have got an early start on their planned two-day hike of the Howe Sound Crest Trail, a challenging backcountry route arching from Cypress Bowl past the Lions to Porteau Cove.
The music was wild, Marcin hit the mosh pit, Karioka clapped from the sidelines and they got home early Saturday morning, slept a bit, and launched their hike at 2 p.m. that afternoon.
They dropped the Porteau Cove pick up plan and decided to travel as far as possible before looping back to the Cypress Bowl parking lot Sunday evening.
The weather was beautiful, the 40-pound packs and trail were a “bit ambitious” for Karioka, but sailing was smooth. Saturday evening they made it to the bottom of Unnecessary Mountain, which guards the Lions, and camped out for the night. They rose and summited the mountain by 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
They decided to push the pace coming back down, and Karioka passed Marcin on a steep rocky section while he stopped to take a picture.
She slipped off the path and felt a sharp pain in her left ankle.
“What was that, a branch?” Marcin asked, after jogging up to Karioka.
“No that was my leg,” she said, smiling through the pain. “I think it’s broken.”
Marcin carried his mother to a flat area and got her leg elevated and called 911. He wasn’t a fan of cell phones, but fortunately had caved in and bought one a few weeks before the hike.
They were stuck, but Marcin knew they were lugging tents, a good amount of food, Tylenol 3s, thermo blankets and warm clothing, so he was calm.
Karioka was alternating between “shivering like a jelly in pain and shock,” and periods of calm.
After a bit of a phone delay Marcin got hooked up to Lions Bay Rescue, but it was too dark for a helicopter flight, and it was decided an advance team would meet the pair and stabilize them for another night camping on the trail.
Marcin didn’t have a GPS system, but said he was sure they were near the top of the Lions trail.
Hours later it was pitch black and raining, and still the team hadn’t reached them.
Marcin took a call from one of the rescue team. “We’ve already passed you, where are you?”
The Lions and Unnecessary trails start and finish in the same places but diverge in the middle, and Marcin now realized he’d got the two mixed up.
“I’m going to come up right now, let’s meet where the trails start,” he told the rescuer.
Karioka trusted her son’s instinct and skills but was still scared.
“I was praying to high god, it was pouring rain, it was completely dark, it was steep and the boulders were big,” she remembers. “Marcin could have slipped like I did.”
An hour later she shouted for help, and finally heard a voice in the distance, “We’re coming, we’re coming!”
“The next thing I heard was those wonderful cheerful voices,” she remembers.
The advance team set up a fire for the night and got Karioka comfortable, and Sunday morning about 40 members from Lions Bay, North Shore, Coquitlam, Squamish, and Ridge Meadows SARs fanned out across the trail, ready to tag-team Karioka’s wheel-mounted thermal wrapped stretcher down near vertical belay sections with rope lines and over moderate but muddy stretches.
NSR head Tim Jones arrived, delivering morphine and ample doses of reassurance and cheer.
Eight hours later Karioka was picked up in the Cypress Bowl parking lot and ambulanced to Lions Gate Hospital for surgery.
“I was getting a bit of panic attacks on the trail,” Karioka remembers. “(But the rescuers) were so kind and cheerful and positive. It was amazing, that made all the difference.”
Jones points out that hypothermia could have easily caused a fatality, as happened last January to a man who fell in the same area, but the Mirski’s were so well prepared that the rescue never reached a state of urgency.
“The boy and his mother were very responsible and very calm,” Jones says. “They made it very easy for what was a long rescue.”
Following a successful surgery, Karioka says she plans to be out skiing and hiking again in about six months.
“I’m not going to be sitting on the couch and knitting,” she says, laughing. “I’m a young woman of 62.”
samcooper@northshoreoutlook.com
Thanksgiving recap October 14, 2008
Posted by dhpi in Uncategorized.add a comment
The Thanksgiving long weekend saw me camped by Garibaldi Lake where I had my sights set on hiking to Panorama Ridge. After arriving by the lake Friday, I spend a cold night in the tent, and was the first to head up towards the summit.
There was about eight inches of snow to plow through. It was beautiful, lonesome white landscape.
Saturday night, lakeside turned into a bit of a zoo. I was up and packing early Sunday and I made it to the parking lot before noon. After bumming around Squamish for a bit, I met up with Kelly and Devon at Cheakamus Canyon where climbing ensued.
Devon attempts to escape the Well of Souls.
Tracking: ON September 29, 2008
Posted by dhpi in Uncategorized.add a comment
I now I have another piece of equipment to carry with me when I head out into the backcountry. Besides the “10 essentials” and my camera gear, I’m packing a shiny new GPS.
So far, it’s been out on three adventures, and I’m loving its tracking capabilities — although I still wonder if I need the device since I mostly stay on established trails.
Being the gearhead, I’ve been fascinated with the track log. With it on, I’ve recorded several trails in the Elfin Lakes and Garibaldi Lakes regions of Garibaldi Provincial Park, including off-trail excursions to the top of Opal Cone and Columnar Peak. Those were both epic daytrips and I’m glad to have them stored for future reference.
Now if I can only remember to turn the tracking off when I’m taking breaks, and remember to turn it on again when I start moving. I’ve lost a couple tracks for some trails because of that.
On the positive side, it means I have to head out to those areas again to re-record the tracks. That’s something to look forward to next season.
Dan rocks the crimpers September 24, 2008
Posted by kellyleemcmanus in Uncategorized.add a comment
Dan rocks the crimpers. Kelly McManus photo
It was a rainy day in Squamish on Saturday, but a few of us donkeyed our way to the boulders anyhow. Remarkably a few of the problems were (mostly) dry. Dan proceeded to cruise them….
Woe, the Equinox; Hourrah, the Cheakamus Challenge September 19, 2008
Posted by kellyleemcmanus in Uncategorized.add a comment
POSTED BY KELLY
It’s that time of year where the adventures might have to slow down a bit until the snow comes… Making a run for Squamish this weekend, hoping to get in a bit of climbing before the heavens open up on Sunday to announce the rainy season. It’s a tough thing to wrap my brain around, actually — coming from a province that stays pretty sunny, even when it’s 30 below. Bring on the vitamin D.
Muffin! I’ll get over it. That’s what trips to Skaha are for.
The scramble to Black Tusk. Daniel Pi photo
In the mean time, here are a few pics from recent adventures to Black Tusk and the Cheakamus canyon. Speaking of the Cheakamus Canyon, be sure to check out the Outlook cover this week, about the Weekend Warriors from the North Shore who drag themselves through the Cheakamus Challenge, a gruelling 70-kilometre mountain bike slog from Squamish to Whistler.
I had an excellent time interviewing a North Shore contingent of riders: Dave Howells, Melissa Pace, Andreas Hestler and Dean Payne. We talked about the high philosophy of adventure-race pain, and why they keep coming back for more. So, good luck North Shore mountain bikers. May the force and the sunshine be with you this weekend on the trails.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
Intrepid North Shore mountain bikers head to the Cheakamus Challenge this weekend.
“We call it Tales from the Big Ring,” explains Hestler, a cycling legend who has been to 13 World Championships, holds five National titles and a podium finish above the hallowed Lance Armstrong. “After every ride you go back to a coffee shop or a restaurant and you debrief – tales of woe and dismay. Every weekend I go away it’s a story. I’m a warrior going to battle.”
Melissa Pace doesn’t quite look at racing like going to war. To her it’s even worse. It’s like going into labour, and the training part is a lot like being pregnant: “You’re thinking ‘this is all fun,’ but in the end the result kills you.”
She compares people post-race to women post-partum. While the chilling memory of delivery is fresh, they shake their heads and shudder, “never again. But you do it again because you forget the pain, and it’s fun.”
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Garibaldi: hail and a baby bear September 2, 2008
Posted by kellyleemcmanus in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
(posted by Kelly)
Dan and I had an eventful day trip in Garibaldi this weekend. We headed up to Elfin Lakes to check out the cabins and then made our way up the Saddle for a view of the Gargoyles.
This was my first time hiking up this way and I was floored by the views. You ascend into the Alpine areas pretty quickly for sweeping 360 degree views of the peaks.
Even with the hail, we had a great day trip in Garibaldi this weekend.
The overnighters told us that Friday and Saturday were rainy and littered with hail. We even enjoyed a 30 minute hailstorm during our lunch break. Very cool to watch the symphony of white ice balls jumping in the grass.
Saw a baby bear on the trail between the first lookout and the parking lot, which was a bit concerning, because we’re talking baby bear. No sign of mumma bear though, although Dan did spot a few piles of bear scat at various points on the trail.
Distance covered: about 30 km
Elevation gained: about 900 metres
Time: with breaks about 9 hours
Can’t wait to head up this winter for some snowshoeing! I’m sure Dan will have some notes to add regarding his nifty new GPS trip planner.
Welcome to our blog August 28, 2008
Posted by outlookreporters in Uncategorized.add a comment
Sure we have day jobs, and we love them.
But when we’re not covering community news on the North Shore, we are Weekend Warriors.
Welcome to our website, part weblog about our misadventures in the outdoors, part homage to the glorious Coast Mountains and North Shore, part insider’s guide to the training scene and the adventure communities that live here.
Kelly McManus (second from left) and Daniel Pi (far right) pose with the iconic Yeti mascot at last year
We hope to be your source for the latest about routes, trail stewardship, safety issues, adventure races and insider tips.
Last year we placed teams in a corporate ski race. We gleefully slogged the Yeti Snowshoe events. We enjoyed the local slopes after work, the city-lit views from snowy Seymour or Dam Mountain, the smokey cheeses of the Hollyburn Lodge.
This year, we’ll be out there even more: enjoying the classic routes on the Apron, snowshoeing to Second Peak, running the Grind, paddling the local rivers. We plan to be the top team of reporter-weekend warriors covering snowboarding and skiing and all manner of Olympic goodness ramping up in our local mountains.
Check us often. And email us any time with tips, questions or feedback at outlookreporters@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
