Leavenworth Route Suggestions...

[TimL]

SK,

 

Try Duty Dome next to Icicle Buttress. There are a bunch of fun moderate mixed bolted and gear routes mostly single pitch. You can either make a day of it or spend 1/2 day there and its pretty fun. Also, beware of Leavenworth 5.8 & 5.9's.

[sk]

thanks for the warning I believe I have heard that some where else too.

[jkrueger]

Sandbags and snakes - sounds like the perfect mix for a little adventure!

 

All those cracks are bolted, right?

[mattp]

I don't think very many of the routes are sandbagged so much as they involve a style of climbing different from what you experience in most sport climbing areas, or even on more "normal" granite. There are few postive edges, even on the sides of the cracks, and many cracks are dis-continuous, flared, or shallow. Also, many of the older climbs were developed in an era where bolting was practiced with greater restraint, so you will find them protectable but not necessarily easy to protect (as in the start of Canary, discussed above).

[erik]

i will slightly disagree with the ratings comments.

 

first of all the as previously stated, they are subjective. also keep in mind tim, is weak and afraid to step out of the car most of the time.

 

seriously though i have not felt that the .8's and .9's in lworth were any harder then other granite climbing places. ie: yose and index. compared to squamish yes. but in that case we are taking into account the exchange rate.

 

everyone has listed many of the classics in the icicle. enough to keep you busy for a long time.

 

sk for leading you can check out x/y crag and above that j/y crag has a couple cool routes.

mr tremendous is cool and so is ski tracks crack and some .9 arete over that way....

 

erik

[mattp]

Lest somebody hastily point out that just a few short months ago I was arguing that the climbs in Leavenworth are rated stiffly, I should add that I believe it is true that some of them are. But the real distinction, I believe, is the climbing style. Take Classic Crack, for example: it has solid hand and foot jams so it is rated 5.8, but the jams are deep inside a crack with rounded outside edges so you can't cheat it by lying back or face climbing the edges of the crack. For someone who isn't fluid with crack climbing, it seems a lot harder than 5.8. Or Canary: I doubt there is a move harder than 5.8 on it but it is overall a hell of a lot more insecure than some 5.8 at Vantage where you get postive holds, stemming rests, and perfect pro every step of the way.

[jkrueger]

Thanks for the clarification, MattP! I believe being an adept climber involves being able to adapt to different types of rock and styles of climbing. Hopefully, I've been exposed to something similar enough that I won't be completely out of my element!

 

I will be sure to give Leavenworth 5.8s & 5.9s their due respect!

[mattp]

And enjoy. I don't think there is a better 5.6 than Midway, or a better 5.8 than Canary, on any crag in Washington. In my view, Outer Space is slightly over rated, but those last 2 1/2 pitches are certainly some of the more spectacular around and well worth the effort required to get there.

[Dru]

quote:

---

Originally posted by mattp:

Lest somebody hastily point out that just a few short months ago I was arguing that the climbs in Leavenworth are rated stiffly, I should add that I believe it is true that some of them are. But the real distinction, I believe, is the climbing style. Take Classic Crack, for example: it has solid hand and foot jams so it is rated 5.8, but the jams are deep inside a crack with rounded outside edges so you can't cheat it by lying back or face climbing the edges of the crack. For someone who isn't fluid with crack climbing, it seems a lot harder than 5.8. Or Canary: I doubt there is a move harder than 5.8 on it but it is overall a hell of a lot more insecure than some 5.8 at Vantage where you get postive holds, stemming rests, and perfect pro every step of the way.

---

You can't cheat it by laying back....um...the FA was done as a layback cause Washington Climbers didnt know how to jam yet back then!

[mattp]

I won't question your history there, but I think it remains true that Classic Crack is not like a straight-in crack where I routinely see sport climbers liebacking the edges. Have you tried to lieback it (to me, it seems to make the climb quite a bit harder to try to do it that way)?

 

[ 08-09-2002, 10:09 PM: Message edited by: mattp ]

[RedMonk]

leavenworth is stiff? hmm... what do you call index?

[Uncle_Tricky]

Yeah you can lieback it, but I think it's easiest to jam it straight on. The jams are so positive you can just counterpressure/friction your feet up without even using the crack. It's a good test because it makes you choose between jamming or liebacking without a lot of options in between.

 

Hell, I'd pay good money to watch a sport climber lieback (on lead) a straight in jamcrack!

[plexus]

Erik, don't forget about the exchange rate for Squamish?! Too funny. 11worth grades are pretty right on. It's tru the granite climbing is a little different than other places, but you could say the same thing about a lot of places, including Joshua Tree.

 

My biggest beef with JTree was getting to the top of the climb and having nothign for an anchor (WTF ). So set up an anchor with gear, well then how the hell do you get down and keep your gear. So there was a lot of downclimbing going on. I just wished the guidebook could have said something along those lines about those lines.

 

BTW, everybody have fun in the mountains this weekend, sk hope youre first trad multipitch experience goes well. I'll be out rafting and then heading down to Tuolumne and Yosemite for nine days. Woo-hoo!!!!

[richard_noggin]

[/qb]

You can't cheat it by laying back....um...the FA was done as a layback cause Washington Climbers didnt know how to jam yet back then![/QB]

Don't be talk'in shit about Becky here in the states they keep his book in the motel night stands.

[mattp]

Monk - I was called names for suggesting that I also felt Index was rated stiffly. However, I would say roughly the same thing: more than the rating scale, it is a matter of style. At Index, the style is steep rock with crux's that tend to continue for quite a ways, and one has to hang on to crux or near-crux moves while placing pro unless they want to run it out. Climbs like Toxic Shock and Thin Fingers, with brief crux's protectable from stances and with rests in the middle of other hard sections, are the exeptions and people say they are the only "giveaway" ratings at Index.

[sk]

Thank you all for the great ideas and suggestions. We leave tomorrow and are SOOOOOOO excited to get on our way. Hope you all have a great week, We will be thinking of you working away while we are camping and having fun

 

sk

[texplorer]

Watch out for cougars!