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.