Index - GNS [October 4]

Josh and I decided to hit Index for a half-day. He arrived in Monroe chilled to the bone from riding his bike... hit 522 and the temp dropped to about 40. Summer is over. After loading up and getting on the road, we stopped for the best coffee ever at the place just east of Index on HWY 2. I got a dark chocolate mocha with hemp milk, which was the bomb. With super triple shot energy drink in hand, we killed it on the 3 minute aproach... 2.5 minutes on the dot. We took a quick tour of the lower town wall, then scrambled up to the ledge to start GNS.

I led the pitches and everything went fine... it was my third time leading it. There was a guy soloing the route, which was a bit odd. He rambled on by, and then a few minutes later came down-climbing back by. After rapelling the route, we dragged the rope over to a 5.8 crack on the lower level of the slab and burned a few laps on it. We headed out of there with ideas of getting the the Mountaineer's Salmon Bake, but we hit traffic in Gold Bar and that put a stop to that, as the ride home took longer than expected.

Index - GNS -- August 19

I headed out with Tamber after work to do Great Northern Slab at Index. Traffic sucked for Tamber coming from Seattle to Monroe, but we were loaded up quickly and headed east on the 2 at about 5:15 or so.

We arrived in short order and geared up for the 3 minute approach. The scramble up to the start was fun as usual, and Tamber quickly led the first pitch up to the huge bolts. I followed her up and cleaned the few pieces she put in. We quickly swapped gear and I took off to lead pitch 2. I made it up through the slot and gained the cracks, when my right leg started to shake uncontrolably. It was like elvis leg, but I was just standing on it. I haven't been able to completely straighten it since I hurt it a couple weeks ago, so I guess something weird was going on. I waited for a couple minutes and decided to just finish up the pitch. At the belay I ate some gel blocks and it seemed fine after that.

Tamber followed on up and took over for the last pitch. I met her at the top and we started raping down... it was already starting to get dark. We reached the bottom of the third rapel just as it was getting really dark. Another fun after-work session at Index.

Index - Lower Town Wall -- July 3, 4

I had Friday off, so I headed up to Index to climb with Dave for the morning. We met up in the parking lot and headed to the LTW area with another guy Dave knew (who's name I'm forge ting). We started off on P1 of Japanese Gardens which was pretty tough, but a fun climb. Next we moved over to Godzilla and gave that one a go. Another fun, uber classic route. I still can't make it clean, but I feel like I'm getting better at it every time. After Godzilla, we left the rope up and TR's Bat Skins (.11a). It was a fun traversing roof, to a bouldery crux move right below the chains. I actually had a lot less trouble on this than I was expecting. Dave did a couple laps on it, preparing for a lead on it soon. After that it was time to head out.

I came back to the LTW area on Saturday morning with Ashley and Joel. We has plans to climb the Great Northern Slab route (3 Pitches, 5.7). The scramble up to the start of the route was a bit spicy, but we all made it up with out too much trouble. Joel let the first pitch to the RR Bolts, which was very easy, basically a roped up scramble. I led the second pitch, which seemed to be the most fun. The pitch goes up into a corner, then into an awkward chimney move (we called it the beached whale move). Once through that, you gain two really nice cracks and work up towards the chains. The cracks take pro well for the first half or so, but once you get beyond the tree with a sling on it, the cracks get shallow and don't take cams well, so I had to find a couple good placements for my nuts... (haha, I said my nuts). I got the the chains and belayed Ashley up and then Joel. Joel led the last pitch, which has some fun run-out slab action at the top. We did a single Rap down to the top of P2 then a double rap down from there. There were about 8 people either at the chains or headed there when we rapped down... quite a Charlie Foxtrot (CF or cluster fuck for those who don't know the lingo). It was a fun climb and I look forward to doing that one again soon.