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We got out over the weekend again, this time to Vantage to do some sport climbing. It was Laura’s birthday on Saturday so after climbing all day we celebrated with some beers and cupcakes that Sierra made. Melody, Micah Laura and I climbed on Saturday and we were met out there on Saturday night by Sierra and Ian, and Justin and Sara, and we all climbed together on Sunday. The weather was pretty good for the most part. Saturday was a little overcast, which was nice for us because it kept the temps down, otherwise it would have been very hot, it rained for about 10 minutes in the evening. But we were done climbing by that point anyway. Sunday was a beautiful sunny day, and it got hot towards the afternoon, everyone was applying the sun screen pretty liberally. We climbed on the lower tier of Sunshine wall, which has a ton of excellent short sport routes. I have a slight ache in my left shoulder and wrist, I think its from pushing myself too hard bouldering indoors, so I tried to avoid climbs that would hurt it, but I still managed to get about 20 new routes done total, including a handful of 5.11’s. Laura was climbing awesome, she onsighted a bunch of 10's and flashed another 11a with ease. She is in the form of her life, and the way she was climbing at the gym last night as well makes me think we’ll see some harder 11’s from her this year. Everyone else had a blast, for most of them it was their first time at Vantage, and they certainly got a good first impression. I really want to go back soon and get on more routes I was scoping out, but its only going to get hotter there, so it might have to wait until the fall. Here are some photos that give a better picture of the weekend. They are all mine apart from the last one, which I stole from Sierra.
Horses in the valley below made us feel like we'd stepped back in time to the wild west

Micah checks out more routes at Millenium Wall with The Hen House in the background

Laura and Melody walk out on Saturday afternoon with rain clouds threatening in the background

Sunday morning breakfast at the campsite getting ready for a busy day of climbing

Sara looking relaxed on a 5.9 toprope
Ian belaying Justin on the start of a fun 10a

The whole crew flexing our muscles on the way out at the end of a great weekend!

Weekend Warriors

I didn't think I'd be getting out climbing this much while at school, but its amazing how much work I can get done during the week if it means getting out climbing on the weekends. Micah and Laura picked me up straight after my last class at noon on Friday and we headed out to get our climb on. We headed up Little Si despite a downpour and got on the two climbs that were dry. I got on Chronic, I'm pretty sure I did more pulling on draws than pulling on holds, but it was good to check out the upper part. There's no doubt that this is a great climb, but it seems way above my level for now, theres still sections I don't know how to do. It could be a good summer project though. Despite the rain it was still pretty fun hanging out at World Wall I and having the place to ourselves.

I think this was the only draw I clipped without grabbing it on Chronic (13b)

From there we headed to Laura's Dad's cabin, on Lake Cle Ellum for a night of wine steak and ping-pong, it was awesome. In the morning we headed to Leavenworth, we had a good time bouldering there the previous week so decided to go back for more. I did a lot of easy things, mostly repeats, but did a few new things like The Rib, a great V4 at the Carnival Boulders and projected some harder things, Scrambled Eggs (V8) and Joe's Crimper (V7), a little more core and they should go. Laura was the star of the weekend though, with impressive sends of The Pocket (V4) and a couple of V3's for a very productive day. I said a few weeks ago that I didn't think I'd get out on more overnight trips until the summer, but it looks like I was wrong. This weekend I think Vantage is on the cards.

Me on The Rib, contender for best V4 at Leavenworth

I forgot my camera again, so all photos are courtesy of Micah. Check out his blog for more excellent photos.

Leavenworth Routes

You read right, we went to Leavenworth and climbed routes instead of bouldering for the first time. The brand new Leavenworth route guide just came out which is really good, so the awesome threesome (Me, Laura, and Micah) headed out there and packed the ropes and rack this time. I forgot my camera so I just stole this one off of Micah’s blog.

We did stop off for a quick session at the Fridge Boulder as well, perhaps the best single boulder in Leavenworth? I took care of some unfinished business with quick ascents of the Fridge Center and Right (both V4), problems that had eluded me in the past. The Leavenworth routes took a little getting used to, even leading 5.9 sport routes required a lot more focus than I’d normally expect. I did a few trad routes but nothing harder than 5.8+ (probably around HVS in old money). There were some really nice lines, but a lot of them seemed very samey, slabbly cracks with friction for feet. Not that they weren’t enjoyable, but I think they might get old after a while. Placing gear was great fun I had a few nervy moments, but thinking about it now a day later I really enjoyed the added pressure and heightened awareness of those routes. Locking off on one hand while you try to fiddle in gear with the other, or running it out after a placing a bomber piece to the next good stance. I’m looking forward to getting back there and exploring more crags, but I’m not sure where to go since it seems there are so many options. Does anyone have any recommendations? I’m looking for vertical non-friction climbs with good gear, thin cracks (up to one inch) on good quality rock and footbolds are preferable. Is that too much to ask?

Weekend in San Francisco

Laura and I had a great relaxing weekend down in San Francisco visiting her sister Erin, and Ben. We packed a lot in to a little amount of time. The highlights for me were visiting the California Academy of Sciences, which was really interesting, I could have spent a lot more time there. Playing squash was a lot of fun, Laura and I are complete beginners but it was still fun playing against each other, if there were courts in Olympia I would definitely consider taking it up. We played board games accompanied by some delicious home made food, including spring rolls, and home made guiness-chocolate ice cream. Here is a photo of the four of us at the California Academy of Sciences.

Thanks Erin and Ben for showing us around, its always a lot of fun whenever we visit. For now its back to the books, I've got to get a lot of work done before another climbing trip this weekend.

Another Day Another Dozen

I thought I wasn't going to get out climbing this weekend, then Josh and Chris came to the rescue and offered Laura and I a ride with them out to Vantage. The forecast was for mid-50s and cloudy, but like I say the sun always shines on Vantage, it ended up being really hot. Chris and Josh headed straight for Sunshine Wall to get their trad on. But Laura and I took the long way around to climb first at Riverview Park. I'd climbed here back in 2006 with Doug, but never made it back, maybe because I remembered something about a sketchy approach, but the way we went was fine. At Riverview Park and the areas nearby Millennium Wall, Corn Wall etc. there are probably a hundred sport routes, mostly 5.10 and 5.11, and from what we sampled yesterday, very high quality. I ended up leading 12 new (for me) routes 5.8-11b, Laura led 11 including a 10c onsight and a 10d and 11a flash! We had a blast, among my favorite routes of the day were Heel Higher Crescent (10a), Human Corn (10a) and Crescendo... (10d). Once our forearms couldn't take any more we packed up and headed up to Sunshine Wall where Chris was finishing up his last route, a 5.8 trad route, his hardest to date. It was great exploring a different part of Vantage, and riding out there with Chris and Josh, I definitely want to come back this year. I didn't take many photos of Laura and I climbing since it was mostly just the two of us, but here are a few quick snapshots.

Taking a break in the middle of the day at the base of Millennium Wall

Laura resurrects her really small old five ten climbing shoes, look at the pain on her face

Chris finishes up the day with an ascent of Party in Your Pants (5.8 trad)

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.