Leavenworth June 13,14

I headed out to Leavenworth to meet up with a bunch of friends taking a Trad Leading class. Everyone was staying at the group camp ground at Brideg Creek, which is one of my favorite places to camp in Icicle Creek.

On Saturday, we had a leisurly start and hit a couple crags with Marcin and Lisa. We were going to do a couple routes at XY Craig, but it was full with two other parties practicing trad leads. We then headed to Stones Throw, which is just 1 minute off the road, about 300 yards east of XY. It was a small area, but turned out to be fun. I led a 5.9 face climb that was fun, but skirted around the crux a bit on the lead. I did it again on TR and went right through the crux, which was disapointing since I couldn't sack up and do the moves on the sharp end. I still haven't taken a signifigant leader fall since my surgery which seems to be getting in my head a bit. After that we did a fun 5.8 route.

Next we hit up Playground Point to meet up with a few other people we know that were going to be up there. I did a few routes on the upper slabs and led Fathers Day which was an easy fun climb. Soon we were heading back to the campsite for food, beer and fun. I broke out the guitar at the fire and played a few songs before handing it over to Hugo, who tore it up for the rest of the evening, including some sing-a-longs and fun parity songs. A great time was had by all.

Sunday brought us to the Upper Clamshell area. The group was going over Aid Climbing two students at a time, so the rest of us just worked on a few routes, including GRTC, which is a touch 10b slab route. I made it clean, so next time up there I plan on leading this one. It is very thin on the hands and feels a bit scary... I can't wait! I also did the 10a route on The Cube very easily, which was a good thing since the last time I did it, it seemed very hard for me. I also did the .8 crack in the cube without the rock to stand on at the start. This makes the starting move very tough... a hand jam way up high with the right hand and a mantle with the left, then a high step with the right and then pull into the crack, burying your left foot in the crack and up from there. It seemed as hard as the 10a climb to me. We then headed up to do the routes next to Noisy Oyster and after sending a couple of them, the thunder and lightning came in and chased us back down to the cars. After wrapping up with the group, a bunch of us headed out to Christine's Cabin about 18 miles up the Chumstick Highway towards Fish Lake. It was an incredible place and we had a great BBQ and conversation over beers. I can't wait for the next climbing trip and BBQ at Christine's.