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.

Leavenworth - August 21, 22, 23

I headed out to Leavenworth with Chrissy, who came up from San Diego to see the NW and climb. We packed up on Friday and were in Leavenworth by lunchtime. All the spots were taken at BCCG, so we ended up at 8 Mile CG... not bad, but BCCG is so much nicer. After securing a spot (they were going quickly), we headed into town to rent gear and get brats at Munchen Haus. Both of those tasks went well, then we stopped at the store for snacks, beer and ice and got wood on the way back to camp.

Saturday, we hit some of the easier areas, so Chrissy could get warmed up. It had been about 10 years since Chrissy had climbed (in the gym in SD with me and Shawn), but she picked it right back up. We did climbs at Bruce's Bolder and Barney's Rubble, which she kicked butt at. On Sunday there was a little "shin incident" on the 5.8 crack at Barney's Rubble. It can be hard to get into, and she didn't quite get there. The mouse and scrape were pretty bad, but she took it like a champ. Then we headed to 8 Mile Rock and did Mickey Mantle, a tough little route, and she sent it. I finished off with a clean send on Deception Crack right next to it.

One last trip to Munchen Haus ended the weekend in Leavenworth. It was a fun weekend with an old friend from San Diego, showing what the NW has to offer.

Castle Rock - Midway -- July 18

Ashley and I had planned to get an early start at Castle Rock to avoid the 90 degree forecast temps, but with the late night Friday night and a last minute addition to our party (Velvet decided to go and get in some climbing at Leavenworth), our early start became a normal start. We were on the road to Castle Rock by 8am and arrived just before 10am. We got our gear together and headed up the short hike to Loggers Ledge and the start of Midway (3P - 5.5 Trad). Upon arriving at the obvious start of the climb, I was a bit stressed out once I got a look at the first pitch. It was a chimney that gained the top of Jello Tower and it looked very intimidating... harder than 5.5 for sure. I gave the start a good "looking at". There was really no protection placements until about 12 feet up or so, but the holds seemed like they were there, so I started to relax a bit and get mentally prepared to lead the pitch.

I geared up with a pretty standard rack, 10 cams (up to 4) and 10 nuts (standard sizes) and started up. After reaching the first stance and getting in a bomber cam, I started to feel better. I placed another piece pretty quickly and kept moving up. It seemed a bit awkward, but I kept making good progress toward the top. The crux seemed to be the last 10 feet or so before the top of Jello Tower, after which I had to catch my breath for a minute before topping out on the tower. There were nice chains here, so I built an anchor from the rap chains and brought Ashley up. He had to grunt-fuck his way up it as I did, but finally made it up. This pitch seemed harder than 5.5 to both of us... more like 5.7 but oh well, we made it.

Pitch two starts off with the infamous "step across" move to gain Castle Rock proper. There was a perfect foot ledge for your right foot and a sloping shelf for your left foot once over. For hands, there was a nice under cling for your right and a weak sloper for your left. After planning the moves, I stepped on over and moved up a few moves until I could place a piece, which felt good. I moved right, then down climbed a few feet and traversed under the roof and up the crack system. The climbing and protection were very straight forward, although the rope drag increased as the pitch went on. This pitch felt a lot more like the advertised 5.5 rating. I arrived at a belay with a weird "angle iron" bolt, which I clipped into and built an anchor with two cams and a nut. Ashley followed without any issues and soon joined me at the top of pitch two.

After exchanging gear and doing a little rope management, I was headed off on the final pitch. It continued up the crack system, which eventually petered out and led to easy face climbing with plentiful holds and seems everywhere. Once I topped out, I spent a while looking for chains, but there were none... must be due to the walk-off, no one needs to rap down. I ended up slinging a huge boulder on the summit for an anchor. The wind and road noise made it impossible to communicate, so we did a bunch of rope tugs and eventually I was able to haul up all the rope and get Ashley on belay. He joined me on the summit soon thereafter at about 1pm, where we enjoyed our time on the summit. We finished just in time, as it was really starting to cook out there... it was probably 90 degrees as we prepared to get back down.

A short hike down, with a quick stop to pick up my pack, and we were back in the parking lot. We met a couple cool climbers (names??) who were finishing at the same time as us, and one guy pulled out a hookah... sweet! We hung out for a few, drank a few cold beverages and took a few pulls from the hookah (loaded with flavored tobacco of course... triple apple). Ashley and I were starving, so we headed over to the burger place in Leavenworth and had a bacon cheese burger... it was so good. After eating, we decided to find a spot on the river and cool off in the water. We found a good spot near where you launch and pullout of the river and hung out in the water watching people float by. It was hot but the water was freezing! It took a while but I was finally able to get all the way in... for a second. It did a great job of making the heat of the day pleasant, which was very nice.

Once the afternoon started winding down, we decided to pick up a few things at the store and head back to camp for a few before getting in a little session at Bruce's Boulder. We got there at about 7:30pm and the heat was backed off to an acceptable level, but the wind had kicked up a bit. We started off on the 5.6 slab route on the east face, which is a great climb to practice slab technique. Velvet was feeling a bit apprehensive as she hasn't climbed much lately, but she roped up and jumped on the climb. She made it up to the crux, but burned herself out figuring out the sequence. She lowered off and Ashley and I sent the route, as she gather beta on the crux. She roped back up after we did it and sent the route clean.

It was starting to get dark, but we had time for another quick route, so I ran up and moved the TR to the face route next to the crack on the other side. Ashley went up first and Velvet followed him, sending the route on her first attempt... and quite quickly at that. I skipped it as the wind was picking up big time! We headed back to the camp and had beers by the fire.

My alarm went off at 6:30am, but I turned it off and went back to sleep for a while... it was nice. I got up at about 7:30 and made coffee before starting to organize gear and pack the car. We ended up getting out of there by about 9:00am or so and headed to Barney's Rubble.

We did the fun 5.6 slab route on the north face. Velvet tore it up... made the climb no problem. This was a big step, as she had never finished the route before. After that, we set up a TR on the 5.6 crack to the left of the gully. I went first to show beta. It's a fun 1/2 crack 1/2 face climb with a fun under cling section to finish. I breezed up it... I like my new shoes that are geared for crack climbing. I can tell my crack climbing is getting much better, as I felt this pitch seemed much easier than when I had done it in the past. Ashley made it up with no trouble... he's done the route a few times as well. Velvet gave it a shot and got about 1/2 up before coming back down. She did great for her first crack climb... once she gets the technique down, she'll send it for sure.

Next we headed over to the XY Craig near 8 Mile CG. There we did a couple 5.7 routes. Velvet made the climb on the first route without incident. She really has started climbing a lot better. One the second route she hit the wall at the crux and gave it a number of attempts before coming down. After that I TR'd a 10a that was there, and was going to lead it, but the run-out between the 2nd and 3rd bolt was too much... a deck if you fell for sure. I made the route clean, but didn't figure it worth taking a fall. After that we packed up, as it was 1:30 and it was getting hot again! We had a beer at the car, then headed to Munchen Haus for our usual done with climbing ritual... brats and German beer. You can't beat a perfect weekend climbing.

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.)

Leavenworth, Pearly Gates -- June 22

It's been a while since I posted anything, but I've been having too much fun with my week off work climbing to get anything up here. Now that I'm back to work and into my normal schedule again, I can get back to it.

I had planned on climbing with Dave at Index on Monday, but the weather was not cooperating, so we headed to Leavenworth with John and "J" another friend of Dave's who's name is escaping me at the moment. We got to the Snow Creek Trail Head and hiked up to Pearly Gates. The Hike included a sketchy creek crossing over a fallen log, but was mostly uneventful.

Upon arrival, I paired up with Dave and we did a 5.8 crack (on the right side of the left area) which Dave strung together with the pitch above which was 5.9 and pretty fun. Next Dave cleaned a 5.9 J had led, which I didn't do... I'm not sure why? I then belayed J on a 5.9 crack and followed him, it was fun. I then decided to do a trad lead, and there were not many easy routes... none under 5.8 for me, so I sacked up for my hardest trad lead to date. The lead went well and I on-sighted my first 5.8 trad lead, nice.

Next J led another 5.9 crack which I followed, then moved the rope over to the next crack, a .10 I think and we climbed that to finish off the day. It was about 8:30 and by the time we arrived at the car it was 9:30. We headed off to the Munchen Haus, but it was closed, as was Gustavs. Damn! We settled for Ducks and Drakes for a quick beer and meal, which lasted way longer than we planned. We got back to Index at about 1:00am, and I was home about 1:30. Day one of my week off work in the books.