where's the best top-ropable ice near Leavenworth

[pete_a]

Hi all,

I've done lots of steep snow/ice alpine climbing, but minimal water ice climbing.

A few friends of mine who have similar experience and myself are looking at heading over to the Leavenworth area from Seattle this weekend to get a little more familiar with steep water ice.

With the avy danger being rather high can any of you out there recommend some good places to go that have rather safe approaches,are top-ropable, and/or are single pitch, rather easy ice climbs.

Thanks.

Pete

[whillans]

Drury Falls. It seems to be some sort of climb you just run laps on according to everyone that's climbed it.

Whillans

[This message has been edited by whillans (edited 02-06-2001).]

[TimL]

Pet A,

I was in the Leavenworth area Sunday 2/4 looking for ice myself. The spring across the street from the Snow Creek parking lot was a cascading waterfall. There was a little formation to the left, but it looked really thin. There was another small thin formation in the Air Roof area that we checked out that looked like you could tope rope if it were "in". While the upper section of Hubba Hubba looked fat, from the road the lower part looked barely formed. If it gets cold these might be "in". Cross your fingers and good luck!

[Alex]

Hi, despite the sarcasm of the previous post, Drury really is just about the only thing that is going to be "in" with the current warm conditions.

However, it is not exactly top-ropeable, and has some serious potential avalanche danger that you will not see from below, until you are in the terrain trap.

So I would suggest you do not try to go into Drury Falls for a practice session.

In a typical winter, Hubba (H)(B)ubba is well-known and a good bet for practicing.

I would go rock climbing, this weekend, personally

Alex

[Rodchester]

Go to Canada...Liloeet...Marble Canyon area.

Closest good place to top rope ice....no avalanche danger and cheap hotels.

------------------

Have a nice day.

[BigWallBigBallsRocky]

If you get a real long rope I bet you could TR Hubba Hubba Hill. I once set one up on Outer Space. You should have seen the line waiting to jump on that one.

Rocky

[This message has been edited by BigWallBigBallsRocky (edited 02-06-2001).]

[CaptainCrag]

CaptainCrag sez:

The longest TR I ever saw was the one Mike Massey had once at lower Index near the old explosives storage cave. That rope must have been 500ft long and weighed 90lbs.

------------------

Captain Crag

Super Hero Extra Ordinary

[BigWallBigBallsRocky]

I plan on hitting Drury Falls this weekend and will line up a TR on that. Maybe I should charge.

 

[David_Parker]

While I appreciate sarcastic humor as much as anybody, I don't think some of these posts are very appropriate, especially since they are coming from people with an alias. This is contributing to the general downfall of what could be a great website. Perhaps we can just start a thread to contain all this stuff. Then when someone like Pete, (who appears to be a "real" climber), tries to get some serious beta, he doesn't think we're a bunch of Mark Twights!

DPP

[Andy_Bourne]

Pete,

I think Alex was right, with the current warm temps most of that ice in the lower part of the canyon will have melted.

However, last I heard there may be a cold front coming down from Canada the end of this week and may prove to be enough to form some things by the weekend. The last time we drove through Leavenworth there were several places that appeared top-ropable, and a few which people were climbing, all visible from the road. If it gets cold, I'd take a chance and make the drive.

[This message has been edited by Andy Bourne (edited 02-07-2001).]

[Charlie]

Umptaneum falls just outside of ellensburg is very in. It is only about 30' high and has a bomber tree above for toproping. By setting directionals, we were able to climb about 6 routes of varying steepness.

[sendordie]

I live here, and for the last two seasons we've been asking where is the ice. Sure, you can truck up to Drury Falls and stick some screws in to lead or top rope but its a bit of a pain with the winter rafting trip and all. We can hope for good ice this 2004/2005 season along the corridor from Soap Lake to Coulee city Where the whole 25 mile corridor will have ice here and there and is a veritable wonderland for lead and top ropeing, about 45 minutes from Leavenworth. Leavenworth proper good topping is rainbow falls, The smear and a number of assorted near Leavenworth ice. We just need it to get cold again! It has sucked, for the most part, the last two years...

[catbirdseat]

sendordie sounds a lot like Geordie, seeing as you are from Leavenworth.