boadman
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Posts posted by boadman
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I haven't found the rock quality to be suspect at Royal Columns, and I still think it offers the most concentrated collection of moderate crack climbs I've encountered in the NW, but YMMV.
Be honest, do you fall on gear there? I've only climbed there a couple of times, but I definitely was not falling.
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Hi - We left my son's climbing shoes (yellow and green La Sportivas) at the SBP a couple of weeks ago and someone (mistakenly, I assume) took them home. They haven't shown up in the lost and found yet. I thought I'd post here on the off chance that someone might notice an extra pair and post up. Thanks!
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Looks pretty incredible!
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The OP didn't mention grade, but I think you'd be hard pressed around here to do better than a trip to Royal Columns in the Tieton. Lots of cracks, though the nature of the rock sometimes makes protection a little more thoughtful than straight granite cam plugging: its not uncommon for the crack to open up more on the inside, and your best placement may be a hex.
Day one, do all the 5.7's at the crag, you'll do at least 15 pitches of all sizes. I you can still move, do all the 5.8's the next day. I guarantee First Blood will be educational. All in all, an excellent compact crag for crack school, and I think the overall crack mileage really matters if you're learning. Pick the Index plums when you've got the skills.
Tieton & Vantage cracks have never really felt like crack climbing to me. I feel like I'm pulling and standing on face-holds as often as I'm jamming. The quality of the rock is also pretty suspect, which might not be the greatest for a beginner learning to place pro.
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Well, it is at the end of the list for a reason. :-)
It's really more of a face-climb. It's too fun to leave it off.
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Oh, and I think that Bill's rant about safety is good cautionary information, but probably applies more to the "rock" that he likes to climb in oregon. Granite protection is more straightforward and reliable.
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I think one could probably quibble about the order of the first 4, but they're all pretty mellow.
I forgot to mention a few more good ones:
1. first pitch of jap gardens
2. first pitch of thin fingers
3. Tatoosh
4. first 3 pitches of davis-holland
There are also a bunch of recently cleaned moderates out towards Private Idaho that are fun, although not quite as cool.
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If you make it up to Index, there are some great intro crack climbs, in order of difficulty:
1. Godzilla
2. Breakfast of Champions
3. Princely Ambitions
4. Toxic Shock
5. Sagitarious
6. Rattletale
7. Zoom
That would be a pretty great week if you're breaking into the 10s.
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In my 5 years of living in Western Washington I have learned to take what the weather gives you and let that guide your winter recreation.
For example, Sunday was supposed to be Sunny but very warm. That led me to go rock climbing at index (50 degrees) than hit some ice, the alpine, or ski mush.
Index was wet (surprise!
but we still had fun. Amen.
On any given weekend in a year in Seattle you could be sport climbing, ice climbing, in the climbing gym, skiing, or alpine.
The Gunks are a pile of crap. I've climbed their a ton with locals. If the Trapps were in Yos, it would not have any routes on it. As for the east coast chestbeating, the 11s and 12s are way softer than out west.
Tvash,
Fossil has one long aid route and lots of secret sport climbing in the woods.
To have good sport climbing, you must have small micro features and overhanging walls. Fossil has these and almost nowhere else in WA does (I have not been to China Bend or Marcus).
It's hard to take you seriously when you say that the gunks are a pile of crap. I don't think there are many places that can compare if you like steep trad climbing. It's especially good in the moderate grades.
The pictures I've seen of fossil make it look pretty uninspiring compared to little si.
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Cool vid. There's also a cool video of J* sending at Little Si on Andy Mann's vimeo site.
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are the habaneros velcros or lace-ups?
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SOLD
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Tons of people rock climb outside in the winter if the weather allows. A lot of people switch to bouldering though, because of short days and quicker drying times.
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I've got doubles in aliens, blue-red, and I've taken large falls on all of them in granite. I also wouldn't be excited to fall on them in tuft or soft sandstone. Vantage even creeps me out.
I've also got gray and purple metolius TCUs that see a lot of use.
My personal opinion is that the u-stem cams often suck in the small sizes for pin-scars, because the stem forces the cam into a horizontal orientation, so I'd away from the u-stem options.
The cam angle on the metolius cam annoys me. In the really small cams, range is paramount, as the placements are already delicate.
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I imagine you aid climb a lot? I find off-sets have limited utility when free climbing, unless I'm head pointing a pitch where I have time to fiddle with placements. I wouldn't recommend such a large array of offsets for your average free climber. The totem basics, which are alien clones, shouldn't work any better than aliens with a single set of cams engaged (i.e., not very well). The non-basic Totems supposedly work pretty well with only two lobes engaged.
The patent for the alien internal springs design expired, so Totem didn't need to buy the design to start copying them.
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I'm pretty sure it's in the guidebook. The 11 is orgasmatron. I don't think it requires any gear anymore.
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Climb outdoors more that 4 times this year.
Hey that's my goal! I'm just not sure how anyone with toddlers gets out much!
I don't have toddlers anymore, but my main climbing partner and I get up at 5 on saturdays during the summer and usually make it back to town by noon after getting in about 6-8 pitches. It leaves the rest of the weekend for family time.
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1. A new long route in Squampton this year. I didn't manage to get up there at all this summer.
2. Send a couple of long-standing projects at Little Si & Index.
3. Continue to indoctrinate my children into the climbing life-style.
4. Finally make it up to Colchuck Balance Rock and check out some of the granite up there.
5. Get to Smith at least twice.
6. Get back to Midnight in Leavy at least once.
7. Avoid debilitating injuries.
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Charles - Did you see my pms? Thanks.
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I would recommend living as close to work as possible. You will inevitably spend more time commuting to work than you will driving to the mountains. Driving in Seattle is a real soul-sucking activity. Depending on what you're looking for, the Beacon Hill, Mt Baker, or Ranier Valley neighborhoods all have good access to I-5 and I-90 and would be a 10 minute commute to work and you could probably bike pretty easily. Capitol Hill, or the Central District would also work. Capitol Hill can be annoying to get in and out of.
The Seattle Bouldering Project is also very convenient to all those neighborhoods and is a really fun gym. Good luck!
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I think that a lot of "climbers" don't actually ever fall on their gear.
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Sunny and 40 is just about perfect at Index.
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I might take the Katanas if I could try them on. Are you in the Seattle Area?
Best routes to learn to climb cracks in the NW
in Rock Climbing Forum
Posted
That's just silly. Tieton is no where near as solid as any of those places except maybe some of the softer sandier stuff at red rocks. I've climbed at all of those locations pretty extensively. Devil's Tower is the only columnar basalt area I've climbed at where the rock seemed really bomber to me. I've also pulled of more "holds" in my 4 days of climbing at tieton and vantage than in the rest of my climbing career. That might have to do with my chunky proportions, but it still seems telling.