Leavenworth - Various [September 19-20]

I headed out with Joel to Leavenworth to meet up with some friends doing a sport leading class, which had been postponed until Sunday. We arrived Friday night and camped at BCCG Group Spot which is a great place to camp. We set up and headed for the fire to have beers and make some climbing plans.

The forecast was 40% chance of rain for Saturday... but it never happened. We headed to 8 Mile Rock, Joel wanted to lead Classic Crack. I had just climbed it last weekend and it's tough, so I was looking forward to taking another burn on it. Joel let it clean and did a great job... it's pumpy up near the top. I followed and popped off near the top, hitting my bad knee... ouch, that sucks. I finished up without trouble, kind of ticked that I actually fell. Here's where my weekend takes a turn...

We packed up the gear and all that and hiked back up to the car. We went to stop by camp and see if anyone had shown up, as we were expecting more people. After a quick stop at camp we headed to Forestland to boulder, and on the way I realized I think I forgot my shoes (Scarpa Techno - Size 11) at 8 Mile Rock. Joel pulled over and I checked my bag... no shoes. Damn! We were pretty close, so we turned around and headed back to 8 Mile where my shoes must be. We got there and my shoes were gone. A large group of "out-of-towners" were still there and said no one had come and gone, but the group of 3 that was climbing next to us when we were there. It was a younger guy, his Dad and Uncle (or Dad's friend, not sure) and his him and 2 dogs. They all seemed pretty nice, but evidently took my shoes, which I had left on the log. Bummer! After looking all around in disbelief for a while, I gave up and headed into town to buy new shoes at Leavenworth Mountain Sports. They were very cool to me and gave me a great discount once they heard what happened. Thanks LMS!

Now that I had shoes again, we were going to get back up to Forestland to boulder. We met up with Josh and grabbed a few beers to take up. We warmed up on some of the V0s and V1s, then moved up to the V3 I've been working on. They both sent it, I think Joel on sighted it. I was feeling inspired, so I jumped on and made it to the crux easier than I have before. Then I made it a couple moves past to a committing friction move that is pretty high up. I went for it, but didn't quite get there and ended coming off pretty high up... Josh gave me a great spot, but it still got to me a little. Since my knee surgery, I've been a little tentative to fall from head high or above. Well that did it for me... I was done for the day, time to drink beer!

We had a great campfire and keg of IPA at the site, with much drinking going on. There was also so much great food, steak, salmon, veggies garlic bread... it was all sooooo good!

Sunday was the Sport Leading class, which I was volunteering as an instructor. Basically I would get paired up with a new leader and climb with them. We headed up to Playground Point and climbed a bunch of the 6s and 7s up there. I didn't really climb anything worth noting. We headed out at 2pm and made it home before 5pm.

All in all it was a good weekend, but getting my shoes stolen did tarnish it a bit. I mean "bootying" gear left on a route is one thing, but taking a pair of shoes you know is someone else's and they WILL be back... that is just theft.

Leavenworth - Classic Crack [September 12]

I headed out to Leavenworth to meet up with Kyle and the group for a weekend of climbing. We stayed at 8 Mile CG and had a nice big site with access for 5 cars. We arrived on Friday night, later than expected, as Velvet was a last minute add on to the trip. We didn't do any climbing, just drinking by the fire... it was fun.

Saturday morning, Kyle and I headed out to do R&D (4P 5.6 trad) while Peter and Joel went to do Outer Space. Kyle and I styled the route and were back to the car in 3:05. We started at about 8:45 or so, so we were back to camp by lunchtime. We ate and relaxed... I had a couple beers, which hit the spot.

Next we headed over to 8 Mile rock via the path... nice walk. We set up a TR on Mickey Mantle, and I gave it a go. It was tough... I guess the beers were more of a detractor than I thought. Velvet got on it next and made it to the crux, but couldn't get past, and Kyle styled it. Next we did Deception Crack and that was pretty tough, as it was hot out on top of the beers. Once we did that, I moved the anchor over to Classic Crack and we gave it a go. Kyle and I both made it clean on TR, so a few more laps and I'll be ready to try to lead it, as the crack seems easy to protect. The Pics below are of me on Classic Crack. After that, we packed up and headed back to camp to get the fire going and get on some beers. Ashley and Hugo arrived right on cue at about 9:00pm or so, to add to the festivities.

We had to leave early on Sunday, so I took Velvet to XY Craig for a quick couple of routes, since she didn't get to do much on Saturday. She did great on the routes at XY. We packed up and headed home, missing the bad traffic on the 2.