48 routes later

What a good Spring Break, 8 days out east climbing and camping with friends was just what I needed after a busy quarter at school. We climbed a lot of routes (I managed 48 new routes clean on lead, hence the title) and had a lot of laughing and joking around the campfire. In the end we visited four different crags; Deep Creek near Spokane, Post Falls just over the border in Idaho, and Banks Lake near the Coulee Dam and Goose Lake near Moses Lake in Central Washington. We sport climbed at all of the crags but they each had a very different feel to them.

Micah on a warm-up at Deep Creek, check out the sandy landing!

Laura, Micah and I drove out Spokane and headed straight to the camping in Riverside State Park near Deep Creek, it was only a 4 and half hour drive (hmm weekend tripable?). I had heard a lot of good things about Deep Creek, but even so I was blown away by the atmosphere and climbing there, especially at the Main Wall. Gently overhung routes up to 80 feet tall, but they feel even longer because they are so sustained with very little rests. The holds are generally pretty good, but there are so many of them its often hard to know what sequence to use which makes onsighting difficult. We spent two full days climbing there which was enough to give us a good taste of the area, but there's still so much more I want to get on there. Micah onsighted some 11s, Laura couldn't have been closer to redpointing a hard 11a, but just couldn't clip the chains, and I managed to onsight or flash everything I tried including a 12a which was a real fight. I would love to come back to this crag sometime, I really like this style of climbing.

Micah about a third of the way up The Lizard, an amazing 11a.
Micah showing Laura the beta on a short 11a on the Mushroom Boulder (how come all my photos are of Micah?)

On Sunday we packed up camp and headed west to Banks Lake, it was a beautiful drive through a part of the state I had never seen before. Coincidentally we drove through the town of Rearden, WA which is the setting for a book I just read for my class over the weekend The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I'd definitely recommend it. Anyway, we arrived at the campsite at the same time as Melody, Erica, Sarah and Megan our friends from Olympia and got out climbing straight away. We started out at Highway rock, which had something for everyone, the 5.8's were really good, Micah swears the 11c he did there was the best route of his life (it was pretty good), and I did a 12a second go. But I almost got blown off the top when a freak storm hit and chased us away to a bar, it didn't last long though we were having a campfire a few hours later, and that was the only rain we were to see the whole trip.

The crew on a few routes at Highway Rock, Banks Lake about an hour before a storm hit.

The next couple of days we climbed at Golf Course Rock and Northrup Canyon. The routes were really good, but the setting was incredible, and amazingly we had the whole place to ourselves, we didn't see any other climbers the whole time at Banks Lake. For the most part we stuck to easier climbs, which were a lot of fun, if not a little grainy. But Micah and I both managed a fun 12c as well, Baptism by Whipper. It climbs a well bolted overhung wall with good in-cut holds and a few big reaches. It was a really fun route, but to be honest its probably the easiest 12c I've ever done, but there has to be one right?

Megan on a fun 5.7 arete at Golf Course Rock

Micah headed up the long and exposed route Dr. Ceuse

Erica about halfway up an awesome looking 10b, that I didn't get around to trying in Northrup Canyon, Banks Lake

Once we got sick of Banks Lake we headed back east to climb at Post Falls, which is just over the border from Spokane in Idaho. I didn't really have much expectations, but this crag really impressed me, I just wish it were closer to Olympia. The rock is a much more fine grained granite that sometime seems a lot like the rock at North Bend. The routes are never too long about 40-60 feet, but always really good quality. Its the type of crag where you don't want to stop, you just want to climb route after route, and thats exactly what we did. I got in 13 routes that day, which is a personal best for me I'm pretty sure. Everyone loved this crag, especially Laura who managed 8 leads, all flash or onsight up to 10d. We would have loved to climb at this crag again, but the forecast didn't look good, so we headed back west again, this time to check out a new crag, Goose Lake.

Micah on a fun 10b at Post Falls with a steep crux

Laura flashing a really good 10c at Post falls
Me warming up on a steep 10b (that felt more like 11a) at Post Falls

Goose lake is a new bolted moderate sport crag similar in style to the Feathers at Vantage. Most of the climbing is up basalt pillars, but unfortunately since the crag is so new and doesn't get much traffic there is still quite a lot of loose rock, which made it hard to enjoy the routes. Nevertheless we did manage to get up quite a few routes here. We were thinking about camping at nearby Vantage and getting one more day of climbing in, but by this point we were all pretty worn out, so decided to head home, but not before stopping for dinner at the North Bend Bar and Grill for one last celebration dinner. All in all it was a really good way to spend my spring break, I can't wait for my next big climbing trip, and I wouldn't be surprised if I made it out to some of these crags again this year.

Micah doing his best not to shower rocks down on Erica at Goose Lake
Micah on a 10d at Goose Lake, probably the best route we did there

Group Shot. Starting with Micah looking disgruntled on the left and going clockwise, Micah, Me Laura, Sarah, Melody, Megan and Erica.

Looking Ahead and Looking Back

I just finished up with my second quarter in the Masters in Teaching program here at Evergreen. I'm really enjoying it but it is a lot of work. Last Saturday I managed to get out climbing with Dave and Lisa, and her son Sky to Vantage. It was too nice a day not to be outside climbing, I managed to get in 7 routes out in the sun. It was a really mellow day which is just what I wanted. Vantage is a really fun place to climb, and there is still so much there that I've yet to do. Here are a few photos from last week.

A busy day at The Feathers

Dave clipping the chains on a 5.9

Dave belaying Lisa up a really fun 5.5 chimney

Now that I'm done with the quarter I can start thinking about our spring break trip more. We leave tomorrow to Spokane. We're going on a 10ish day tour of some of the best crags of Eastern Washington, from Banks Lake to Metaline Falls up north to Post Fall, just over the border in Idaho, and a couple other places in between. I've looked through the guide and made a ticklist of all the classics that I want to get on. I'm not sure what my expectations should be. I've been climbing a lot of routes in the gym, so hopefully I'll have decent stamina. But my overall fitness feels pretty poor since for the last few months I've done a whole lot of nothing in terms of other physical activity. I'm going to get on some 12+ routes and try to onsight some 12- routes, maybe I'll get lucky but maybe I wont. There will be a big group of us out there so I'm sure we'll have a great time. I think what I'm looking forward to the most is hanging around the campfire under the stars with a good group of friends.