Leavenworth Suggestions

[miladugga]

Hey All;

I'm going to have 3 days in leavenworth midweek, trying to improve my gear leading and crack climbing. My skill level is beginner, best leads so far have been Ed's Jam at Tieton and Aries at Index, lowered off First Blood at Tieton crying like a baby. Any suggestions for routes to try? Favorite areas? I plan on Classic Crack (TR'ed it last year, no problem) and Givlers, I've got the guidebook but would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks, Doug

 

[sprocket]

First Blood sucks, scariest I've led to date, not really a fist crack when you can get your knee and shoulder in the thing!

 

For Leavenworth try the Pearly Gates, at least 3 good 5.8 gear pitches, a decent 5.9 gear pitch and two 5.9+ pitches I haven't tried yet but they have several stars in the book. There is also a 5.8+ climb there I haven't found the start to and some fun bolted slab routes. Icicle Butrees has two pretty easy 5.8's by the road, The Arch and Spagheti Sauce. Alphabet Rock has Dogleg 5.8+ and you can also lead or toprope Meat Grinder 5.10a gear, Hind Quarters 5.10- sport and Z-Crack 5.10c or d.

 

There are a lot more on my list to try like Poison Ivy Crack 5.9.

[miladugga]

Thanks, Sprocket, I will check those out.

[sprocket]

Have fun and let us know how it goes.

[Stewart]

Castle Rock all day!

 

Stewart

 

[111]

I second Castle Rock. Icicle Butress also has some nice 5.6 and up. Once you top out on icicle, you can climb at B.O.B. Wall above it for some easy schtuph. try the 5.9 on the right on BOB if you are feeling up to it; bottom is a little run out but the top is fun.

Edited June 1, 2007 by 111

[Dirtyleaf]

Pearly Gates is an awesome place.Cloud Nine would be a good lead. You should also try classic crack, Givlers crack, Dogleg crack at Alpabet Rock, Canary and the Catapult @ Castle are good ones too.

[miladugga]

Thanks all, I appreciate the ideas. Now if the weather will just cooperate...

[Dannible]

Ski tracks crack is fun

[Drederek]

[FFCS]

poison ivy is also worth a look, if you can do all these suggested your ready for Outer Space.

[Jens]

Midway 5.5 and Outer space 5.9 are some of the best multipitch routes anywhere.

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

And to throw this in:

Washington's best multipitch trad route: Leavenworth's Outer Space

Washington's finest trad climbing: Leavenworth's- Midnight Rock

Washington's finest granite sport or face climbing-Leavenworth's Nason ridge (It ain't gneiss).

Washington's finest alpine rock route: Leavenworth's Colchuck Balanced Rock

Washington's best bouldering (defined as having the most areas that are clean, with good rock): Leavenworth (various-spread out)

Washington's finest ice climb: Leavenworth's Drury Falls

Washington's finest individual trad pitch: Leavenworth's ROTC

Washington's most historical rock route: Leavenworth's Midway

 

[Blake]

 

 

My take on this:

 

Washington's best multipitch trad route: Davis-Holland Lovin' arms at Index (with Dodd's linkup at Beacon a close 2nd)

 

Washington's finest trad climbing: Index's Lower Town Wall

 

Washington's finest granite sport or face climbing-Leavenworth's Nason ridge (It ain't gneiss).

 

Washington's finest alpine rock route: NR Stuart, West Face Gunsight

 

Washington's best bouldering (defined as having the most areas that are clean, with good rock): Leavenworth (various-spread out)

 

Washington's finest ice climb: Leavenworth's Drury Falls

 

Washington's finest individual trad pitch: Complete Thin Fingers -Index

 

Washington's most historical rock route: Leavenworth's Midway

 

[miladugga]

I'm almost starting to think three days may not be enough to climb all of this

[miladugga]

I'm going to wait until I'm a little more solid and a little faster to try Outer Space- I don't want anyone to kick my ass when I get to the top...

[miladugga]

Thanks all for the suggestions, we had a great trip. Weather was a little cool and windy, but dry. It was my son Zack's first time there and he had a blast. Due to my beginner level gear placing and crack/slab climbing skills we didn't push too hard, but every route we did was fun.

 

After a late start, we started with Givler's Crack, no problem, then TRed Dogleg Crack, which Zack cruised and I fell out of the crux.

 

Day Two was at Pearly Gates, cold but we had the place to ourselves. Led Loaves of Fun, and Scene Is Clean, Zack led the 2nd pitch of Milky Way (?? bolted route to left of Scene Is Clean??) and Dog Ate My Topo. Then we spent the rest of the day at Forest Service boulders.

 

Day Three we TRed Classic Crack, Twin Crack, and the two climbs to the right side of Classic. Packed up camp and headed to Castle Rock, where I led Midway, other parties were on Midway Direct and Angel. Great route but I made some gear placing errors at the traverse that led to horrific rope drag at the top.

 

Even when the climbing was easy I took forever to place the gear, so obviously I have alot to learn, fun working on it though and the feeling of satifaction from protecting it myself is pretty awesome. I can see it would be easy to get hooked on trad. Thanks again to all who suggested routes and those who PMed me with ideas.