Darrington Day Trip

I had a really fun day out climbing at Darrington a couple of days ago. Darrington is a place I had heard about and wanted to visit for a while. I got out there with a new climbing partner Tom, he's a WRG regular and a parent of one of my students. Every parent conference and soccer game we would talk about getting out together so it was great to finally make it happen.

Tom leads the first pitch. The route goes all the way up for 800ft or so, into the trees. It is a lot longer than it looks from the bottom.

Tom had climbed there a couple if times before, but it was my first time. So we opted for the route Silent Running a moderate 7 pitch mixed route. It's a real slab route, by that I mean a lot of pure friction padding on featureless granite. The rock is really high quality and has a surprising amount of texture for granite so the smears feel solid. We swung leads and made good time. On my first pitch I was sweating it climbing above the bolts on 5.8 friction moves, but the higher I got the more confidence I had in the smears. The hard parts are pretty well protected with a bolt about every 10 feet, but where the difficulty  eases you are looking at 40ft+ run outs. Tom who is very experienced on this type of climbing was solid or at least he looked it. I on the other hand struggled a bit more. But by the end I was able to cruise the 5.9+ friction moves. 

A lot of the climbing was pure friction, which takes some getting used to.

The final pitch is the hardest at 10b. It has a more gear placements than most pitches but the crux is a very delicate smearing slab. It was Tom's lead and he cruised up it, with the exception of one grab of the draw on an really thin section. By the time we rappelled back down, we had been on the rock for 7 hours, we figured we better get back for the three hour drive back to Olympia. I can't wait to get back there, there is another route nearby, Total Soul, which is slightly harder and longer, that I really want to get on next!

There were pretty long run outs when the climbing was easy.

Summer Climbs

I feel that my summer has been surprisingly busy for a teacher. In between working science camps, studying for the GRE's, and putting together new curriculum for the fall I've been able to get out climbing a bit. Recently I climbed a "V7" on the She Bear, that Austin and I felt was more like a V5. Took some students out to the far side for a taste of outdoor climbing. Last week I climbed after work with Sierra, Justin and Sara and did a handful of surprisingly good routes on deception wall. And this last weekend I had an amazing weekend in Tieton with Kevin, Austin and his friend Rob.

Butterfly's everywhere

I have been thinking of Astral Wall since climbing there last summer. It's like nothing I've ever climbed on before, and despite talking the wall up the whole drive there, the guys were not disappointed when we arrived. I guess word is getting out on this crag, because we found ourselves amongst a dozen climbers sharing astral wall. Or maybe it was the fact that while it was 90 degrees down below in the valley, it was cool shaded and breezy up on the wall.

Austin on Whitewashed, the hardest established route on the wall.

I did the longest route on the wall, Astral Cloud all the way to the top. What an incredible route! It is the longest single pitch sport route I have ever done. It climbs for over 50 meters (170ft) up a vertical to slightly over hanging wall with jug after jug. Its so hard to grade a route like this since there are so many amazing rests, but it falls somewhere in the 5.11- range.

Austin about halfway up the wall.

We camped at a sweet spot up there and got on a few more routes on Sunday morning, before heading to Honeycomb Buttress to get on the hard line there. I had last been on it almost 4 years ago, but it had stuck in my head and I was even able to remember a lot of the moves. I'd heard it had been done by a local and given 13c, I was skeptical of the grade, but after getting back on it I realized the moves by the fourth bolt are actually very hard. It was really fun taking turns with Austin and Kevin and sharing beta. Kevin made good progress on some of the really hard moves that I just can't do, but even if I can't send it, it's the type of route that you just want to get on and work. I'm sure I haven't seen the last of that route.