Buildering Spots

[monkeyboy]

Anybody know of any good buildering in the Seattle area? Nothing too extreme just small and fun. One place I used to climb once in a while is in Bellevue just north of the transit center on 108th Ave. It used to be the Honey Bee ham place. Pretty darn easy but kinda fun anyway.

[pope]

Check the NW section of the special collections at the UW graduate library. There's a guide to UW campus buildering, written satirically to poke fun at the tone of traditional guide books.

[ScottP]

Buildering: The excellent handcrack/expansion joints of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the water tower traverse at Volunteer Park are fun little diversions.

Intown bouldering (besides the UW rock):Just north of the U a block or two east of 25th Ave NE, between 65th and 75th is a glacial eratic smack dab in the middle of a residential area. It is 3-4 steps from the curb, and is situated as though it is it's own little park, with the sidewalk on one side and the street on the other. I don't remember the exact cross streets, but if you polk around a bit you can't miss it. It is the size of a small house. There are some wicked hard problems on it.

There is another erratic at the north end of the private airport slightly north and west of Martha Lake up by Mill Creek. It doesn't have the difficulty of the Seattle boulder, but it is worth a visit. The airport is soon to become sports fields, so the boulder will probably continue to be accessible.

I know of a third on in the Edmonds area, right at the entrance to a trailer park across from the vetrinarian office as you are driving to the ferry. It's on private property and access is sketchy.

Does anybody know of any others?

[ 12-09-2001: Message edited by: ScottP ]

[johnny]

Well, it is not exactly Seattle, but the Tacoma Community College campus near the Narrows Bridge has a ton of cool climbing.

All the buildings are finished with approximately 1 inch thick flat stone. It is all pretty solid. The walls themselves are pretty easy as long as your forearms hold out but the coolest bits are the entrances. Many of them are squarish archways that call for some fairly gymnastic manuevers. There is even traversing to be had in said archways in the rain!! Go at night (most of the place is at least partly lit so you can climb pretty easily without a headlamp) or on the weekend though, you WILL be chastized if caught. If you must play during the day/week, check out the back of the gymnasium as noone can really see you there.....

[Scott_J]

Some of the local high schools that were built early in the century and some that were built in the last 15 years have good stone & brick work. The only problem being security. Its tightat some schools since 9/11 as some individuals has found it fit to threaten these schools.

[mmcmurra]

ScottP mentioned the hand cracks on the Alaskan Way viaduct; I thought I'd mention the equally excellent cracks on the I-5 supports just north of REI (Mercer St. off-ramp). There are trails crisscrossing the area underneath the on/off-ramps (large homeless population), so approaches are easy and you can get out of sight pretty quickly. There are perfect hand cracks of various lengths up support columns, and some tough-looking fist cracks I haven't checked out yet.Also, when you're downtown, there's the short wide hands cracks in the pedestrian mall on 5th and Pine.Finally, more perfect hands on support columns for pedestrian overpass (above bus stop) on NE Pacific St on UW campus between the Health Sciences Center and main campus. These top out on the overpass, so easy walk-off.

Have fun,Michael

[Alasdair]

Take a look at the Federal building downtown. Perfect hand cracks for 40+ stories. could easily be protected with some cams also. Enjoy the jail time on that one.

[Dru]

oh yeah. homeless guys + buildering = plenty of cardboard sleeping pads for buildering mats.

a friend of mine was scared to fall on those cardboard mats once. i told him he had "hobo -foamia."

[JRCO]

There is a nice finger crack at the NW corner of the pedestrian bridge crossing Montlake Blvd from the UofW campus to Hec Ed.

[klar404]

on the ave about at 41 st on the east side. A GREAT stem/counterforce problem in a parking garage entrace. The heat wells up from the depths of the car cave and makes it a nice winter problem.I haven't done it in 5 years and you might need to kill some ivy. Weeds = Death!

[monkeyboy]

Thanks for all the good beta. I checked out the house sized boulder north of the U. It looks pretty fun. I will definitly go back when it isn't soaked. BTW anyone else interested it is at the cross streets of NE 72nd and 28th Ave.NE

[ScottP]

quote:

---

Originally posted by monkeyboy:

Thanks for all the good beta. I checked out the house sized boulder north of the U. It looks pretty fun. I will definitly go back when it isn't soaked. BTW anyone else interested it is at the cross streets of NE 72nd and 28th Ave.NE

---

I own an ancient book on climbing in the kascades that shows this boulder with a bunch of guys and ropes and stuff on it. The caption says it was "buried" by a housing development in north Seattle. Buried but not covered.

BTW: Du bist welkommen

[mmcmurra]

This thread made me wonder: what are the legal issues regarding buildering in Seattle? Trespassing is an obvious one on private property or "after hours" in a public park, but let's use the Alaskan Way/I-5 columns as an example: what law would you be breaking by monkeying around? Reckless endangerment?I know there are some lawyer-types out there -- what do you guys think?

(A friend of mine was arrested for rappelling off the Montlake bridge, but the "charge" was that where he landed was a public park but was "closed" because it was late at night. Jail time ensued and equipment was confiscated! )

[hakioawa]

I work right next to the Alaska way viaduct and have often wondered about the cracks there. They are PERFECT hand cracks. Has anyone ever tried leading them on trad gear? Is one likely to get arrested? How do you get down? Rap? I'm curious!

[EWolfe]

Resurrecting a great thread!!

 

Those cracks are sweet! Downclimbing is a bit harder.

 

The watertower in Volunteer Park is a good traverse, as well.

[catbirdseat]

I work right next to the Alaska way viaduct and have often wondered about the cracks there. They are PERFECT hand cracks. Has anyone ever tried leading them on trad gear? Is one likely to get arrested? How do you get down? Rap? I'm curious!

I think there is a fixed anchor ban. As long as you don't place any bolts, you're golden.

[Distel32]

The walls outside of campus services here at WWU have yet to see an FA, cool long crimpy traverse, I'll have to go try it.....

[EWolfe]

There's also a hundred-foot ladder in Seattle that is a blast! And it is hidden pretty well from prying eyes.

 

A few laps up and down that will give you a good workout

 

 

 

PM for info

[lummox]

The walls outside of campus services here at WWU have yet to see an FA, cool long crimpy traverse, I'll have to go try it.....

'ascent' and 'traverse' are mutually exclusive.

[willstrickland]

The MAX stations in PDX often have some wicked hard shallow cracks boulder problems. The ones I remember best are at the first station after the tunnel on the west side (Sunset?...I can't even remember the names now and I rode that thing everyday). The difficulty is size...thin hands and off-hands, but probably more of an issue is they are shallow.

 

I found a 7 story expansion joint on a building here, at

-35F it was off-fists, I bet in the summer that mother's perfect hands!

 

I'm going looking for some ice-buildering tonight, with appropriate topo/beta map in hand

[cj001f]

This guide to UW buildering was previously posted here:

http://students.washington.edu/dbb/uw_buildering/index.html

 

For PDX buildering check out the road cuts. Sylvan and Canyon Rd offer a number of nice traverses, and some highballs.

[dylan_taylor]

what about the floating bridge support with the sport route. Is that still around? I've always wanted to check that out when I find a boat.

 

As for the hand cracks on the I-5 supports near the mercer exit, maybe an old #3 friend could be donated in order to facilitate expedited descents? I'll look around...

[tivoli_mike]

How about the old water tower in Volunteer Park? Excellent traversing... the walls are covered in chalk.

 

http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/UrbanFreeFlow/frontpage.htm

[EWolfe]

How about the old water tower in Volunteer Park? Excellent traversing... the walls are covered in chalk.

 

[lunger]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by monkeyboy:

<strong>Thanks for all the good beta. I checked out the house sized boulder north of the U. It looks pretty fun. I will definitly go back when it isn't soaked. BTW anyone else interested it is at the cross streets of NE 72nd and 28th Ave.NE</strong><hr></blockquote><p>I own an ancient book on climbing in the kascades that shows this boulder with a bunch of guys and ropes and stuff on it. The caption says it was "buried" by a housing development in north Seattle.

Buried but not covered. <p>BTW: Du bist welkommen

 

i've been by that Ravenna rock--it looks like it's been partially coated with some sorta grey paint. perhaps there's been graffiti; but, makes me wonder if the locals--for real or perceived liability reasons--are discouraging bouldering there. recently moved to the area and would like to clean that thing up, but don't want to rile the locals. does anybody know if there's been trouble in the past? TIA.