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 -- June 25, 26

After wasting two days of my week off (car issues and rain), I decided that even though I couldn't find someone to climb with I was going to head to Leavenworth to boulder and camp for a night. I was all packed up with my car camping essentials and Lilly by 8:00am and headed east on Highway 2. I arrived at Bridge Creek CG at about 10:15am and as luck would have it, I got a good spot there. I unloaded all the gear and set up camp. I was done quickly and off to climb.

I decided to hit up the Forest Land Boulders. I've been there before and figured since I didn't have a spotter, I would work on some easier problems. I did a bunch of V0/V1's I've done before and a couple new problems including Tahitian Moon and Moondog. I was working on Bad Moon Rising, a tough V2 slab, but decided against going too high, as the landing was slopy and I didn't feel like tumbling down the hill if I came off. I'll be back for that one with backups. The afternoon was progressing, so I decided to head back to camp for beers and a fire before dinner.

When I got back to camp, there were people setting up next to me. They were there for 5 days for a softball tournament, and turned out to be totally cool. They had a mountain of wood and a fully stocked bar with booze and beer... offering me all I could handle. Shots of whiskey and kamikazes wee flowing freely. We hung out by the fire... ate, drank and were merry. I stumbled back to my tent around 11:00pm. They were still going, but I couldn't take anymore.

I was up early and had slow cooked oats with brown sugar & banana for breakfast before I broke down my tent and packed up the car. I was out of camp and headed to Mad Meadows at about 8:00am. There I got on Woolly Mammoth V0, The Dish V1, Pruning Sheers V1 and worked on The Break V2. I will need a couple more pads and spotters before I send The Break. I can't wait to get there with some people and give it a better shot. It was approaching noon-time and I was ready to get back on the road and get home to pack for my upcoming weekend adventure, Mt. Rainier. Little did I know that we would change to our backup plan due to a marginal weather forecast. (Which ended up being wrong.)