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Kris Haskins Staff Webpage |
Exit 38 - Cragging |
| May 17th, 2009 |
With the first forecast for some really good weather here in a while, we decided to take advantage of it by heading out to exit 38 for some cragging. Most everyone else was busy with something else, or on another trip so our small party was comprised of Mel, Annelisa, and myself. Annelisa had to leave a bit earlier than we wanted so she could go to work, so we decided to drive separately and meet her up there. We had a little bit of a struggle making it to the freeway due to the beat the bridge race traffic and the U-District street fair, but got to I-5 and had smooth sailing from there.
We got to the parking lot to discover numerous other vehicles, so we guessed we wouldn't be having the crags to our selves. Annelisa had to stop in a couple of different places for gas(broken pumps), so Mel and I tossed the football around for a while as we waited for her. Annelisa arrived and we were off on a short hike to write-off.
The plan was to have Mel do her first lead on something easy, So I set off to climb it first and chose Flammable Pajamas(5.5). I don't know what the deal is with the second edition of the guide book which says there are 4 bolt, but I only found 2. I found none on the one next to it which lists a couple. Not wanting to climb a route with super spaced out bolts, Mel opted for what she thought was Mom, there's pink in my burger(5.6) but was actually a new line not listed in the book or online. This was her first lead, and after a little bit of jitters at the bottom she made rapid progress to the chains and the top of her first lead! I lead it afterwards and thought it was probably a bit more difficult than 5.6 but who knows.
Annelisa on Flammable Pajamas
Mel gets ready for her first lead
Mel clipping bolts
Mel at the chains
Celebratory Kiss
After Mel's lead, Annelisa lead out on knife in the toaster(5.9). I lead it next and found it to be a pretty fun route. Mel took a turn on toprope, not wanting to jump into harder leading on her first day. After that, we decided to head down and check out substation because the sun was beating down on us. Substation is still kinda wet in some places, but Annelisa found another route to lead in Hurley Burley(5.9). This one kind of has a bouldery start and some more powerful moves. After leading, Annelisa had to take off and we bid her farewell as we decided to go check out Nevermind.
Annelisa on the start of Hurley Burley
Annelisa near the top
We hiked up to nevermind to find it crowded and the route I wanted to do was occupied so we turned around and headed for We did rock. More of the same as there were tons of people on all of the routes there so back to write off for us. We ended the day with Mel leading her second route Bottoms up(5.7). I then lead and cleaned it and we decided to call it a day.
We made a stop at the Snoqualmie grill and taphouse on the way home and had a celebratory beer and pizza(the greek which was fantastic). I'm super stoked that Mel was able to get her first leads in and look forward to having a new rope gun :). She said that she really likes leading and is excited to get out and do some more!