I hit up Exit 38 with Joel, Jian and Jeremy for some climbing on Saturday. Everyone met at my house at 7:00am and we were off to the I90 corridor. Jian and I wanted to stop and get food to go on the way, but couldn't find anything open worth getting on 203, and ended up at the Safeway in North Bend.
Once we arrived at the Far Side, we hiked up to Interstate Park. After a sweaty 20 minutes or so, we were kickin' it in the shade looking at climbs to warm up on. Joel led Nocturnal Remission (5.8) and I followed. Jian had only got 1/2 way up on Midnight Scrambler (5.7), so Joel finished putting that one up too, and both Jian and Jeremy climbed that one... I didn't, not sure why but I guess we were ready to move over to the fun short 2 pitch route of Eating Rocks (5.6) and Insomniac (5.8). Jian and Jeremy went up first with Joel and I following up after. I let the first pitch so Joel could do the better pitch since I have led it a few times. While at the belay, we noticed Jian off route. He didn't bring enough draws to finish the route, so ended up at the anchors for Bicycling to Bellingham and brought up Jeremy to get more draws and finish. While he was bringing Jeremy up, Joel led up the pitch and passed them to the correct anchor. Jian went up next, and was about ready to bring up Jeremy as I passed him on my way to the top. It was a nice sunny day and quite hot at the top, but the views were spectacular. We rapped down the back next to the Block of Doom. It's a committing repel with a couple tough places where you tend to pendulum and it's overhanging where that happens. I went first and Joel followed without incident. Jeremy came next, and had a bit of trouble getting over the lip and fell a bit, scraping his leg up in the process. He made it down fine and Jian followed last.
We then headed up toward Eastern Block, but it was pretty busy from the middle on up the hill. I noticed a route right below on a wall and realized it was a small area I've never climbed before called Off-Ramp. It was only 4 routes (.8,.9 & 2-10.a), but all were in out collective range. We climbed all the routes there, with Joel leading the two 10a's, Girls Rule and Boys Drool. I led Hit and Run(5.9) and Jeremy did his first sport lead on Jersey Barrier (5.8). We all climbed all the routes and I will be leading the 10a routes next time I'm in the area.
After that, we went back up the short trail to the left side of EB. The routes in the middle and left of EB were being used by a "small army" so we just got on the fun traversing route, Impartial Eclipse (5.8) which I led. Everyone followed on that, then we set up a TR on Space Face (10c) which was fun. Joel made it up with a bit of struggling on the thin slabby face. Jeremy tried, but couldn't get past the crux, and I didn't get on it, as I noticed I blew out the toe in my shoes again! I've only had this pair for about 5 weeks or so... total BS. I am going to return these (Evolv - Defy) a to REI and not get another pair, as I feel they just don't hold up. We had an uneventful trip back to the car, with a quick stop at the river to cool off and wash up a bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment