Mushrooms, Cracks and Bolts

Skipping out early on Friday afternoon, Kristin and I picked up Moira and headed east on I84 towards Leavenworth looking forward to a couple of days of climbing. This was our first trip of the year to Der Bavarian Crackville, and we were definitely feeling the anticipation of climbing on granite for the first time in several months.

We woke up on Saturday morning at about 5 am and left for Snow Creek Wall. Kristin had never climbed Outer Space, so that was the main objective for the weekend. The last time we hung out with Doug and Moira, we tried the same route and got a late start, getting stuck behind several slow parties at Two Tree Ledge. After rapping off, we started up Champagne, only to get lost high up on the wall wondering where the hell the route went. That led to a late night of rappelling in the dark, which we were hoping to avoid this time around.

The early start helped, and we were racking up around 8-ish.
Snow Creek Wall was looking good on the hike in.

From Leavenworth May 2010

Rockclimbing at Tieton

Kristin and I hadn't climbed together in close to a month because of my travels in Alaska, so last weekend we went to Tieton for some spring cragging.



Dig those cool colors. I love this time of year of the Naches area, long days of climbing cracks and inhaling fist fulls of Rainier cherries. Free camping - good weather - few crowds. Fun fun fun.

We showed up a bit early for the fruit, but we enjoyed the rest of our weekend anyway. We spent most of our time at the Bend, warming up on Ed's Jam. As I rapped down Sugar Kicks, I started salivating over the sweet looking finger locks and friendly little edges and decided I wanted to climb that route. Fun!


Sugar Kicks, 5.10c

A couple of face holds for the right hand unlock the short crux sequence, protected by pretty good gear.

After that we stepped to the left for Pure Joy. I cruised through the first two thirds of the route, but the top felt more like Pure Anxiety as opposed to Pure Joy. The pro pretty much runs out for the top 1o-15', and with a decent pump on it felt kind of scary. Your options are kind of limited other than firing for the top once you leave your last manky piece, but the climbing eases off if you can keep your head together. All in all a great route!






Pure Joy, 5.10c

It rained a bit in the afternoon cutting us short by an hour or two, but we had a great day before retiring to the Walkabout for beers and Stanley Cup hockey. The next day we went back to the Bend and then went over to the Royal Columns so Kristin could do a little leading. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics but had another great day! Good times in Tieton.