Interview: Gabe Lawson On Proposing Canada’s Hardest Boulder Problem

This article originally appeared on Climbing

Last August, I wrote a profile about Lucas Uchida's ascent of Tim Clifford's mythical Squamish testpiece, Singularity (V14 or V15). While working on that story I was told (and subsequently reported) that the climb's third ascent was made by "an undercover crusher who wants to remain anonymous." Turns out, that crusher has a name (Gabe Lawson) and an age (29) and a quiet track record of hard Squamish climbs. It also turns out that he never really intended to be anonymous; he just didn't have Instagram at the time.

"I'm not a super outgoing person," he told me over Zoom, "I don't really need to display everything to the world. When that article came out, a bunch of people started sending it to me, saying 'Hey, they're calling you an anonymous local, what's up?' I definitely developed a bit of a reputation for it. A lot of people thought that I specifically didn't want it to be known, when I really didn't care."

Well, on Monday, January 23, Gabe Lawson launched himself into the wider climbing world's consciousness by making the first ascent The Megg, a longstanding project below Squamish's North Walls, and becoming the first person to propose the V16 grade in Canada. This time, he had Instagram to help spread the news.


Lawson started climbing at age 14, while attending high school in Edmonton, Alberta, and made annual summer pilgrimages to Squamish, during which he climbed exclusively outside. He made fast progress, dispatching his first 5.14 at 17 and his first 5.14 trad route (Sonny Trotter's Sugar Daddy, 5.14a R) and a handfuls of V12s at 18.

After finishing high school, he moved to the Squamish area to pursue climbing. But then, in two separate heel hooking incidents, he "kind of shattered" his knees--a bucket handle tear in the meniscus and a partial ACL tear in one knee, and a torn ACL and MCL in the other. The injuries effectively sidelined Lawson's climbing ambitions, and he spent much of the next six years focusing mostly on his work--he's a web designer who, to this day, has no sponsors--and climbing only recreationally, which for him meant up to 5.14 and V12.

Then, a few years ago, after making a few large-scale dietary and lifestyle changes (discussed below), his knees began to recover and he realized that he might "have a second chance at climbing hard." So he moved back to Squamish, dispatched a number of hard problems, and then sieged Singularity, eventually making the third ascent (from the original high start) in April 2022.

After that he started trying The Megg.


Located at the Farm, a popular bouldering zone under the Chief's North Walls, The Megg had rebuffed a slew of local climbers, including Tim Doyle and Tim Clifford, and several strong visitors, including Nalle Hukkataival and Keenan Takahashi, before Lawson began trying it early last summer.

The Megg is in many ways the quintessential Squamish boulder: tiny, sloping holds, subtle positions, skin-wrecking crystals. Its name is a reference to The Egg, a classic V11 that, when it was first established by Chris Sharma in the late 1990s, constituted a big step up for Squamish bouldering. The two climbs also share some stylistic similarities: both are blunt aretes with miserable holds and intense left heel hooks.

In an excellent interview with Xa White of UKClimbing, Lawson says that the climb felt like a four-move V14 into a vertical V11 or V12. "The wide span move out left felt like the hardest single move I've done in 15 years of climbing. ... I probably climbed into the upper wide bump move more than 50 times before linking it. In total I'd guess it took me more than 400 attempts."


In the following interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, Lawson and I discussed his knee injuries; his comeback to hard climbing; his processes on Singularity and The Megg; his thoughts on grades and whether his lack of a traditional grade pyramid disqualifies him from proposing V16; and his plans to leave Squamish to pursue some international climbing goals because "I want to make sure that I don't have any regrets. That's my biggest fear; I don't want to be old and wonder what I could have done."

For exclusive access to all of our fitness, gear, adventure, and travel stories, plus discounts on trips, events, and gear, sign up for Outside+ today.