Mountain Squirrel » Leavenworth

Millennium Wall January 9

Laurel — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 04:12:29 +0000

Trying to do stuff in the winter around here involves all kinds of potential annoyances, but today, the approach seemed to proceed smoothly enough. It was only Sketchy and me so my usual tactic of inviting someone with a Subaru or SUV didn’t apply, but despite the white and shiny stuff on Highway 2 there was no annoying messing with chains or annoying driving into ditches. When we got to the Snow Creek Trail parking lot, it was just cold enough that the precipitation was falling as snow instead of annoying rain. We got to leave the annoying snowshoes in the car and boot it up a well beaten trough of a trail. The trail even went directly to the Millennium Wall, saving us from wandering through annoying rocks and bushes to get to the ice.

Supposedly there are three Millennium Walls so we tromped up the trail for another half hour looking for the other ones. We saw some ice dripping off boulders and some ice stalagmites sticking out of the creek but didn’t see anything else big enough to be a “wall”. Meanwhile the clouds blew away and the sun peeked into the valley, which made for some gorgeous views of Snow Creek Wall, but also softened up the trail. Sketchy weighs about 60 pounds more than I do so he got to be the posthole canary as we headed back to the original wall (which cc later informed me was Second Millennium).

Second Millennium Wall

As we were unloading and putting on all the pointy bits and nylon bits (order of operations is important…), I asked Sketchy, “Hey, how many of my screws do you want?”

“You mean, how many of my screws do you want? You’re leading,” he replied.

Uhh… Apparently when he told me the night before that his injured hand would be good enough for climbing, he didn’t mean good enough for leading. Now, I had led about a total of 20 feet of ice, ever. And followed maybe 5 pitches that actually required two tools. And I was pretty sure I’d forgotten everything in the 11 months since I did any of that. Suddenly the wall we were standing under looked a lot steeper.

To make a (seemingly) long story short I somehow cheated my way to the top, notwithstanding a couple of poorly placed screws, feeling totally unable to get my crampons to stick, some unorthodox techniques like throwing a hand jam between some icicles, and some learning as I went (eg. if the ice looks black don’t put a screw in there). I’d spent the summer doing a lot of generally being lazy and doing unchallenging things like single pitch easy trad in the sun, so it was kind of new (and secretly, a lot of fun) to be kind of in over my head. Still, it was quite a relief to reach the snow-covered low angle stuff at the top.

Finished Leading

With the toprope up (off a conveniently located giant dead tree about 29m from the ground) Sketchy took his turn for shenanigans such as climbing dead trees frozen into the ice and climbing by headlamp. I just went up a couple more times on TR so I could climb without having to worry about falling.

Night Climbing

Second Millennium Wall, WI4-5 (lead 1x, TR 2x) 4-5 is the guidebook rating. I was told it was WI3 so I could complain about being sandbagged except I don’t know what any of that means anyway

So yeah, I guess I lead ice now. Kind of.

Leavenworth October 31

Laurel — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 06:47:49 +0000

This time, the weekly “hey, what’s going on this weekend?” email resulted in a day trip to Leavenworth to climb among the turning leaves with Michael, Leah, Mark, and Tony. As usual, the blue sky made an appearance just on the east side of Stevens Pass. The presence of blue sky is not directly correlated to the absence of precipitation so we started the day with standard Leavenworth delaying tactics (Der Safeway, The Alps candy store, etc).

Soon enough we decided that it was “dry” and that we should “climb”. Nobody wanted to do “dry” slabs and “dry” chimneys or endure a “dry” pine-needle covered approach, so by process of elimination we ended up in the Classic Crack area. We threw a TR on Deception Crack and all did some slipping and sliding off it. The TR-setting party encountered an impassable slippery moss above the anchor for Classic Crack. Whatever, I wanted to lead it anyway, a little moisture doesn’t matter for hand and fist jams, does it? I made it look like so much fun that Mark led it on my gear and everyone else TR’d it.

Tony on Classic Crack

Classic Crack may not be the best route for showing that crack climbing is fun and easy. A better idea was going across the street to X-Y, a set of similar cracks at a much friendlier angle (if you have to rake leaves off it before climbing it can’t be that hard). Tony did his first trad lead here and Mark did a nice lead on the 10a slab climb next to it.

We still had a bit of daylight left after this. Just a bit — but the cool temperatures, fall colors, and the snow line creeping down the peaks across the valley were making the point that this could be the last Leavenworth trip of the year. We couldn’t just leave! The closest crag was J-Y and there would be time for just one more route for each of us. I picked Armed Forces, a nice (IMNSHO) thin crack to a not so nice (IMNSHO) slab, and Mark led Dirtbag Direct, a slab route that turned out to be better than I remembered. Armed Forces already needed a bit of nut-tool action to clean out the crack for gear, but there were two good surprises at the top — the slab wasn’t wet and there were shiny new chains instead of the webbing/rap ring set up that was there last year.

Winter and Autumn

I wasn’t quite ready for the trip (and the entire Leavenworth rock climbing season) to be over, but we had to pack up and hurry down in the fading light. I was glad to have concluded the season with Armed Forces, since I’d done it on TR a few times but had never gotten around to leading it.

8-Mile Rock, Deception Crack, 5.9 trad (TR) more difficult when wet
8-Mile Rock, Classic Crack, 5.8+ trad (lead) not too much more difficult when wet
X-Y Cracks, X Crack, 5.7 trad (lead) recon so I could give Tony gear beta for his first trad lead (oops, I told him it was 5.5)
X-Y Cracks, Unnamed Slab, 5.10a sport (TR) I have problems with slab climbing, good thing Mark does not
J-Y Crag, Armed Forces Crack, 5.10b trad (lead) new chains at the top, nice surprise
J-Y Crag, Dirtbag Direct, 5.9 trad (TR) this is the kind of slab I like

Leavenworth, June 20

Laurel — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 04:15:21 +0000

The Purina Crag is not hard to find if you read the detailed description in the guidebook. If you just look at the map it’s a little confusing though (it looks like the trail is between the parking lot and the houses, but it’s really the 3rd-or-so driveway). You do have to walk up a private driveway (the correct one has a sign saying “Climbers and Hikers Enter At Your Own Risk” and another sign saying “Cabin and Campsite For Rent”). Needless to say we did not read the detailed description in the guidebook (or rather, the one of us who did read the detailed description was ignored because others saw an “obvious trail”, etc…). So first we found Madsen’s Buttress and a cute cabin made out of rocks and skis, then went back down and and found the driveway and the real approach.

It’s all part of the charm of the domes of Leavenworth — crashing through tick-infested brush, slipping on pine needles, rereading approach descriptions (the new book has better maps and directions, but this seems to only make me feel sillier after getting lost). All in pursuit of unfamiliar rock to climb — squinting up to catch the flash of sunlight off the anchor bolts, figuring out the sequence for the route, and maybe discovering a new favorite spot.

Soon enough we were up at Planet of the Eights. It’s kind of typical Leavenworth foldy-bulgy slab, protected by a couple tricky gear placements and a couple bolts. I kind of like slab climbing but I don’t think Sketchy and Denny were in the mood for more after their leads. Anyway, it was easy to lure me away by offering me the first lead on Poison Ivy Crack, a clean curving finger-to-hands dihedral (which we passed on the way up).

Poison Ivy Crack turned out to be as fun as it looked (too bad it was so short). And yes, there is poison ivy at the bottom (leaves of three, let it be…). After we all had our turn (and I did some TR flailing on the 11b slab next to it — note to self, helmet cams and featureless vertical slab climbing do not go well together) we wandered over to explore the rest of Purina Crag.

El Caliente, 5.9

We only did one route. There was definitely more that looked good, including a bolt-protected 11 that looked a bit exciting but not too hard. Careno Crag is just a little further and looks way better on paper — multiple-starred multipitch routes in the 10- range, and lots of starred single pitch stuff in the 9s 10s and 11s.

Planet of the Eights, Surveillance of Assailants, 5.8 mixed (TR) kind of dirty, fun slab
Planet of the Eights, Make Mine a Bold One, 5.8+ mixed (TR) more of the above
Purina Crag, Poison Ivy Crack, 5.9 trad (lead) fun!
Purina Crag, El Caliente 5.9, trad (lead) seemed easier than 5.9

Leavenworth, May 2

Laurel — Sun, 09 May 2010 04:00:58 +0000

This weekend was supposed to be my first time climbing at Index (except for the Great Northern Slab). We ran in to Jack at the gym during the week and invited him along; it was going to be his first time ever at Index! Of course, the weather wasn’t really cooperating so we kept on driving east until we found the sun in Leavenworth.

We started at Fish Wall, a bunch of moderates with some bolted routes with “optional” gear and some gear routes with couple of bolts (making full use of the color coding in the new guidebook). At Leavenworth that usually means nicely textured slabs with some short cracks of unknown funkiness.

Jack on the Fish Wall

We started out on a slightly mossy 5.8. The one moment of excitement was when Sketchy was leading, Jack was belaying, and I was laying in the sun a bit away from the rock. I saw a round dark shape come over the edge right above us. I yelled “Rock!”, Jack tried to get out of the way, I sat up and grabbed my helmet/pillow to actually put it on my head… and the wind carried the pine cone a few feet over us. Apparently the top of the crag consists of huecos completely filled with pine cones.

One thing I like about less traveled mixed gear/bolts routes at Leavenworth is that they aren’t completely covered in chalk marks, so I get to actually think about how to climb them. What I don’t like as much is that sometimes the difficulty and protection are kind of inconsistent, so it seems like arbitrary wandering around rather than a logical route.

Sketchy saw a chimney that he wanted to TR around the corner. It was right next to a bolted slab, Bottom Feeder, so I managed to convince him to let me lead the slab. I was glad that I did; it was my favorite route that day. The chimney was pretty uneventful climbing because I only did it on TR. Sketchy wanted to lead it, so I set myself up at the anchor so I could take pictures from above.

Sketchy leading out of the unnamed chimney

One unexpected treat was the brilliant yellow monkeyflowers and other plants growing in the moss cushions formed around seeps in the wall. Many climbers may only think of the granite in Icicle canyon in the cleaned and playable state, but I think the micro-ecosystems formed by rock and water are fascinating (and sometimes delicious — try the wild onions and miner’s lettuce).

Monkeyflowers

After leading a couple easy slab routes, I finally felt like I’d (almost, maybe) gotten used to the Leavenworth style of climbing again. There were a couple of possibly more difficult routes at the Fish Wall that I wanted to try since we were there anyway, but somehow we ended up having to leave. Leavenworth is kind of an odd place to climb for me because I love climbing there so much, but it seems like usually we leave as soon as it’s starting to get fun.

Fish Wall, Bohemian Blowfish, 5.8 trad (TR) kind of wandering and mossy.
Fish Wall, Sardine Routine, 5.9 trad (lead) also wandering, less mossy.
Fish Wall, Bottom Feeder, 5.9+ sport (lead) book says “a small piece can be placed before the first bolt”, I’m short so I needed two
Fish Wall, Unnamed chimney right of Bottom Feeder (TR) led by Sketchy. He had two #4 Big Bros which were just barely big enough

Hubba Hubba, January 17

Laurel — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:01:17 +0000

We hadn’t had enough the weekend before, so we went back (with a different pair of crampons for Sketchy) to sample the other lines of Hubba Hubba. We even got organized enough to get there there Friday night and camped in the snow in the abandoned Bridge Creek campground.

Saturday morning we woke up to a bunch of new snow. Not a good sign because the route would be buried. But we had bacon:

These ice tools are good for something

After a leisurely breakfast we hiked up to Hubba Hubba and found it doing this:

We took our packs off and waited in a debris-free area and watched more snow come down. After an hour of dawdling it looked like the sloughs were slowing down and getting smaller, so Sketchy decided to go for it and started up Hubba Hubba Center (the line with the pretty icicle curtain). It worked out fine — the only showers he took were after flipping off the route while tying in and after he had set the anchor and was belaying me up.

After we finished the first pitch there was more snow coming down around us, so we decided to bail to a tree anchor a short traverse to the left. I managed to place one screw in decent ice and sling the ropes over a horn to protect my traverse, but the after that was a slab covered with a thin sheet of ice. Oops. Nothing to do except scrape across it to the tree. When Sketchy got to that part he was a little nonplussed, especially since I had scraped some of the ice off, but he found some mossy crack to wedge his pick in so he was fine.

Ice climbing is surprisingly time consuming (especially when we have to wait for a night’s snowfall to clear off the route), so when we got down it was already time to head down. We hung out with a friendly husky mix named Solstice who was loitering around our campsite and then went to the Munchen Haus in town (they have heaters in the winter). When we got back to camp we had a surprise.

Bacon Thief

Someone stole all our bacon and eggs! And then walked on the picnic table, leaving his big paw prints so we knew exactly who it was! At least he left us some coffee and a jar of salsa.

When we woke up the next morning we had high hopes for another day of ice climbing, but we had another surprise. Rain! Ice climbing under snowballs is bad enough but ice climbing in rain is a bit much. So we had our breakfast of coffee and salsa and left. At least the rain meant that we wouldn’t have any trouble driving on the unplowed road…

Hubba Hubba, January 10

Laurel — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:22:48 +0000

Sketchy, Denny, Megan and I headed out to Leavenworth for some ice climbing. On the way over it was interesting to see our usual summer rock climbing destinations covered in snow and icicles. We got to Hubba Hubba and found the entire contents of Stone Gardens there. We ran in to Genevieve and Jeremy on the trail and caught up with Mike and Matt as they were unpacking at the base.

Seattlites

There were 8 of us and 3-ish lines so things got split up pretty reasonably. Sketchy and I got an anoymous line between HH Left and HH Center. Unfortunately Sketchy broke a crampon about 3/4 of the way up the first pitch, had to downclimb to his last screw, and then lower down so I could give him my left crampon. Trying to do the higher pitches with 2 people and 1.5 sets of crampons didn’t seem like a great idea, so after I followed the route we rapped down. Everyone else was still finishing their routes and descending, so I did get to lead about half of the pitch to a tree, my first lead on ice (though it probably shouldn’t count, since I spent half the time digging out the tree so I could get to the trunk and set an anchor).

Hubba Hubba Left/Center

Leavenworth, October 10-11: Oktoberfest with Cara and Travis

Laurel — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:34:12 +0000

Travis was kind of hobbling along on a twisted ankle related to jumping up to bridges (yep, not off, up to) so we didn’t want to go too far from the road. Fortunately Leavenworth has quite a few drive through crags. Our first stop was X/Y. It’s got some easy cracks, and we could set up a nice little nest for the belayers, since it was about 60F cooler than it was a month ago.

Cozy Belay

Sketchy and I set up ropes on the X and the Y so Cara could do some mock leading.

Cara

There was still plenty of time in the day when we had exhausted the possibilities of both the X and the Y. There was talk of going to town early, but it was not hard to convince Sketchy to visit his favorite climb, Classic Crack.

Classic Crack

I managed to redpoint it this time, after never being able to do it in any way remotely resembling clean on toprope. Turns out it is a lot easier on lead when the rope isn’t stuffed in the crack trying to knock my rattly fist jams out. And the gear is quite solid (even if I did stuff the blue and silver DMM cam where the plain blue one would have gone — Sketchy and my merged rack is a little confusing color-wise around the 3 inch size).

After everyone else got a run on it, it was time to head to town for Oktoberfest. We didn’t even mess with the backhoe that someone had left the keys in.

This was the first time I’ve been in Leavenworth during actual Oktoberfest. The usual state of Leavenworth on a sunny weekend is a low level Oktoberfest, so it was extra extra crazy this time. There was even a line with a bouncer letting people in two at a time at the hat store. We managed to squeeze in to a table at the Munchen Haus with 19 other Oktoberfesters and a large hanging planter.

Cara and Travis

Due to the crowds (and the special smaller 12 oz plastic cups brought out for the occasion) it was fairly difficult to obtain quantities of beer, so we actually woke up at a reasonable hour and were up for more climbing the next morning.

We had brought all our car camping luxuries for breakfast, including eggs, frying pan, cheese, salsa, stove, ceramic Melitta, and fresh ground Vita coffee. The only thing we forgot was fuel. Fortunately the Eightmile campground comes with sturdy grates over the fire rings, so cooking eggs over a fire was not that different from cooking on the gas stove at home, with the added feature that eggshells could be conveniently disposed of by dropping them into the fire right next to the pan.

After our somewhat smoke- and ash-flavored breakfast and coffee were consumed, we headed over for R&D, a nice moderate multipitch that was close enough to the road that Travis could wander a short way up the trail and find a sunny spot to watch us from. With three climbers on a pair of half ropes, the only way to not have a major hassle is to have one climber lead all of the pitches. I didn’t mind giving Sketchy the lead at all, that meant wouldn’t even have to take my socks off (it was still cold). There’s something really nice about climbing in really comfortable shoes.

R&D

X-Y Crag the X, and the Y, not the Z…
Classic Crack, 5.8+ trad (lead) finally lead it clean, after not even being able to do anything but fall up it on toprope several times
R&D + Cocaine Connection, 5.7 trad (followed) There’s nothing mellower than following an easy multipitch climb in approach shoes. So mellow I forgot to clean a piece and the team of actual authentic Germans behind us had to pick it up for me.

And of course we had to go to Munchen Haus again for lunch/dinner. Oktoberfest is only Friday and Saturday nights, so on Sunday afternoon it was even emptier than usual. The night’s frost had wilted a lot of the foliage in the giant hanging planters, which added to the morning-after look of the whole place, but we did get our wursts and our beer a lot quicker this time. And Travis still had his crazy hat, so it was like our own Oktoberfest.

WCN Leavenworth September 11-13

Laurel — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:48:40 +0000

This was supposed to be the second annual WCN Leavenworth trip I’ve organized. This year it turned out to be only 4 people, so we rattled around a bit in the group campground.

Laura and I got to the Icicle Friday afternoon, after stopping at Leavenworth Mountain Sports in town to pick up a guidebook (note: if you ever misplace your guidebook (or two of your guidebooks), you can borrow the shop copies for $2 a day). We decided to take advantage of the lack of weekend crowds to get on the moderate, multi-pitch, multi-starred Givler’s Crack. It is as delightful as it looks, even with the awkward semi-hanging belay I managed to get in there.

There are quite a few moderate multipitch routes in the area, so when we were done we went looking for another one. As usual for the Leavenworth book, finding stuff is not quite as obvious as the nice black and white line drawings (it would be overstating things to call them maps) make it seem. We ended up finding Fit and Trim. It’s very different from Givler’s — it’s all friction slab with knobs — but also a lot of fun. The start seems a little height dependent, but Laura figured out some sort of flying leap to an undercling. From there it was mostly knobs to the top.

The sun was setting as we got to said top, so we got to descend in twilight. We got back to our gear while it was still plenty of light, but soon we were looking for gray cairns on gray dirt with rapidly darkening gray light and one headlamp. The only way out is down, and all ways down lead to the road, so we couldn’t have actually gotten lost, but we lost the trail, found another, got cliffed out, followed a clump of trees, found another trail, and finally found ourselves pushing our way through a grove of white barked aspens and ended up on the road 20 yards from the car.

Givler’s Crack, 5.7+ (I led p1 and p2, Laura led p2.5) I think p2 is leadable in one 70m rope length, but the crack eats gear and I only have a single rack so I got to practice building a 3 piece equalized gear anchor without a cordelette.
Fit and Trim, 5.8 (Laura led p1, I led p2) Fun route, exciting start.

Saturday was the big day in the shade at Pearly Gates. Pearly Gates is one of the rare shady crags at Leavenworth — in both Tumwater and Icicle Creek canyons, most of the walls are on the north side, which means they’re south facing. The packed Snow Lakes trailhead parking lot is not immediately a bad sign, since it’s mostly used by backpackers and day hikers getting in to the Enchantments, but we did see quite a few people unloading rope bags and trad gear. However, once we did the always-more-exciting-than-I-remember stream crossing, we didn’t see anyone else on the trail, and when we got to the always-farther-away-than-I-remember wall, we found it empty, except for a group of shaggy free soloists.

Goat watching us climb

Laura and I were still the only ones there, so we started out taking turns leading/cleaning the moderate cracks on the left side. It was really nice to climb with someone with about the same skill level and objectives, especially at Pearly Gates which is a 5.8-10 paradise. Soon, Clare and Michelle showed up (accompanied by a couple more goats). Right around when the afternoon sun went around the ridge and started baking the granite, we ended the day on the right side. Clare and Michelle did the full Dog Ate My Topo (including Clare’s first real lead fall), and Laura and I did p1 of Milky Way — all four of us and a baby goat met at the shared belay ledge.

Pearly Gates, Cell Phone Posse, 5.7 (lead) short, just ok, but you can TR and/or take a look at Celestial Groove from it
Pearly Gates, No Room For Squares, 5.8 (follow)
Pearly Gates, Celestial Groove, 5.9+ (lead) took a few tries to get the first few moves without some aid falling
Pearly Gates, Milky Way, 5.10- (lead p1) easy but exposed traverse along the lip, then some real friction slab

It was still only 4 of us in the campground, but we had the usual (over-)abundant WCN potluck dinner.

Sunday was just as hot as Saturday. Conveniently, the only shady north facing crags, Snow Creek and Pearly Gates, are also some of the longest hikes, so we thought we’d give some of the sunny south facing stuff close to the road a try. Also I wanted a rematch with Dogleg. We said goodbye to Laura, who had to get back to Seattle early, rearranged gear into Clare’s little car, and headed to Dogleg. Breakfast and rearranging had taken some time, so by the time we got to Alphabet Rock, the only shade to be had was behind small rocks and scraggly bushes at the base. I deposited my pack there and started racking up so I could get it done before the rubber on my shoes started to melt.

Dogleg Crack

Fortunately it is not a terribly long route, and I managed to beat the heat and finish the climb. The heat did catch up to us while we were TR’ing Dogleg and the face climb variation next to it. I had to sit down to belay because the ground got too hot to stand on with bare feet, and I actually dropped one of my cams while putting it in my pack because it was too hot to touch. Climbing more that day, at least in the sun, was pretty much out of the question.

The only upside of 100 degree weather in Leavenworth is that you can actually swim in the Icicle River (as opposed to putting one toe in and going “Eeeee, cold!”). Conveniently, one of the nicest sandy swimming holes on the Icicle is right across the road from Alphabet Rock, so we traded harnesses for bikinis and spent a pleasant half hour or so swimming (or rather mermaid Michelle was swimming and Clare and I were more like wading and sunbathing on rocks).

Alphabet Rock, Dogleg Crack, 5.8+
Alphabet Rock, bolted route next to Dogleg, 5.10

Leavenworth June 6-7: J-Y Crag

Laurel — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:55:05 +0000

short and sweet at J-Y Crag

Sometimes a climb is a novel — a multipitch climb with headlamps at the start and headlamps at the end or a long weekend snow slog with 10,000 ft in elevation gain. But sometimes you get short stories, where plot, conflict, and theme are packed into 30 meters and it’s all over in a few minutes. On a single pitch cragging weekend, I hope for some good stories, and often end up with quite a few among some forgettable ones.

This weekend was Rockfest in Leavenworth, put on by Feathered Friends, so there was quite a bit of hanging out and catching up with climbing friends and acquaintances, and not a lot of climbing. But we did get a chance to spend a few hours at J-Y Crag. I got one lead, on Janetors [sic] of Justice, which I greatly enjoyed (despite some inconvenient unsolicited advice). To completely strain the literary metaphor, leading has more tension, conflict, and uncertainty about the outcome so it’s usually more memorable and enjoyable for me than toproping, so of course that one is my favorite of the weekend (and we forgot the stick clip, so I even got to lead it from the ground).

J-Y Crag, Janetors of Justice, 5.8+ trad, lead: Opens with a 2 bolt slab, ends with a crack, quite a bit of variety in the middle. I won’t ruin the plot for you…
J-Y Crag, Ragweed, 5.9 trad, follow: another crack + bolts thing
J-Y Crag, Armed Forces, 5.10b trad, TR and follow: I actually found the key holds in the top slab section this time, makes it seem easier. Maybe next time I’ll lead it?
J-Y Crag, Six Digits in the Hole, 5.10c, TR: Slipped off a blank slab, pendulumed over to Ragweed and had to finish on the top half of Armed Forces. J-Y is a good place for TR pendulums since the whole right side is on one anchor

Leavenworth May 9-10 2009

Laurel — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:07:09 +0000

We have a routine for a Leavenworth weekend trip: drive, climb, beer and sausage at Munchen Haus, gelato at Viadolce, car camp, breakfast at Renaissance Cafe, climb, Munchen Haus, gelato, drive. So this was just another Leavenworth weekend. But of course, we go for the endless permutations of granite.

We started at the Clem’s Holler area. It’s a nice piece of rock with a good spread of mostly slabby routes with some interesting flakes, cracks, and roofs thrown in. Wenatchee Outdoors has a detailed post about the area. The first time I went there last year, we got on the wrong trail and bushwhacked around before randomly stumbling on the real trail. I marked up the map in my guidebook to avoid doing this in the future.

Trail is between deer sign and seatbelt sign.

We ran in to two other groups containing people I knew from Seattle there. I think I run in to more people I know in Leavenworth than in Capitol Hill.

Clem’s Holler, Nettlesome, 5.9 sport, lead: A little thin slab, a little slightly overhanging sidepull swinging. I lead it 3 times without falling last year so it was disappointing to not be able to do it clean this time. My climbing partners fell and complained about it to make me feel better
Clem’s Holler, Honky’s Lament (1st pitch), 5.8 trad, lead: (Clem’s Holler) Fun and easy for a Leavenworth 5.8 (see also Classic Crack, Dogleg Crack, Canary…)
Special Spot, Cracked and Peeled, 5.9 trad, followed: Surprisingly slabby for a trad route. Sketchy lead it and didn’t like it much. Looking at the guidebook again, I think he might not have liked it because he went past the first anchor, which meant he was on the 5.10a Special Olympics. Which would also explain why we couldn’t rap to the ground from the anchors with a 70m rope even though Cracked and Peeled is only supposed to be 90 feet long.
Retardant Rock, Seven Seas, 5.7 trad, lead: I wanted to get one more lead in before dark, but nothing too exciting. This fit the bill perfectly, except for a slightly annoying wet slimy spot right before the crucial hand jam.

Sunday, we got up earlyish for breakfast in town, and an attempt at beating the rush to Castle Rock. When we got there at about 8 AM, we saw two other cars in the lot, but as we were reorganizing gear and getting our packs on, two other cars and a van showed up and started disgorging climbers and gear. Time to hit the trail… When we got there, Canary, the climb that Sketchy wanted to do, was open, but Denny and Carlos had to wait in line for Midway. This is the second time I’ve been here and the second time someone next to me on the Sabre ledge has dropped a belay device (sorry for not catching it). Sketchy and I had time to chat with a pair of bird watchers (peregrine falcons are nesting on Midnight/Noontime Rock, which is another long hike past Castle), walk back down to the base, play with a dog, and walk back while Carlos and Denny were waiting and climbing. The Castle is not a great place for getting a lot of pitches in, but you can’t beat the view.

Denny and Carlos topping out Midway

There was plenty of time for more climbing, so we headed down the Icicle to X-Y Cracks. The two easier X and Y shaped cracks here are a great place for beginner leading since the climbs are short and easy and the gear is obvious. Carlos got in a mock lead on a 5.5 while I tried the partially bolted 5.10 next to it. If the cracks are called X and Y I call the 5.10 WTF (as in WTF am I supposed to step on? or WTF, this crack is no good!). I have a (possibly falsified) memory of doing it last year, even remembering placing a small cam in a horizontal crack, but I could get nowhere this time. Soon it started to rain, giving me an excuse to give up on it and call a retreat to the Munchen Haus.

Upper Castle, Canary (1st pitch), 5.8 trad, followed: Sketchy lead the first pitch of Canary. Very fun to follow, lots of interesting moves. The pro is not the best, it seems that the pieces that protect the crux moves have to be placed right where you might step on them. It gets an R rating in Weekend Rock (but no skull in the Leavenworth book).
Upper Castle, Sabre (2nd pitch), 5.easy trad, lead: When it was my turn I didn’t want to try the “Scary Canary” step-across move, so I went up the second pitch of Sabre instead. I would say it has two or three mid fifth moves in a wandering 5.0 gully. Managed to avoid rope drag by running it out in the 4th class/5.0 sections.

Balsamroot Sunset