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Kris Haskins Staff Webpage |
Leavenworth |
| May 9th-10th, 2009 |
There was much talk about what to do this weekend, and most people were pretty intent on getting out into the alpine which is always a great thing to do. However, the weather systems that have come through dumped a bunch of snow which made for a pretty sketchy avalanche forecast for most of the places people wanted to go. So, with that option kind of out, a bunch of us(Mel, Brian, Evan, Frank, Sarah, Sylvain, Melanie, Jim, Obadiah, and myself) headed out to Leavenworth for some cragging and other multipitch fun.
After figuring out the ride situation and a way to work it out so Mel and Brian could come out for just the day, we all left from Seattle around 7AM or so Saturday morning. Arriving at various times to Leavenworth, we all managed to meet up at the snow creek(I think) parking lot, and decided to go as a group to the pearly gates area for day one.
The hike up to the pearl gates is quite scenic, and took about a half hour or so on some pretty nice and well defined trail. With multiple ropes and racks, we spread out along the wall. Brian, Mel, Sarah, and I went to the far climbers left, and I started out the day by leading the chimney between bring your weedwacker(5.7) and cell phone posse(5.7). My original plan was to climb bring your weedwacker, but it was a quite appropriate name so I just stayed in the chimney. After setting up a toprope, Sarah followed and cleaned my gear.
Next up, Brian lead cell phone posse(5.7) and had a good time with me telling him to jam more while he worked his way up the route. Fortunately, he was able to finally set a good cow bell(hex) on the route, but he also managed to get another one stuck below it while setting it and shred his hands getting it back out(ouch!), I guess you gotta love granite for that. He came down and Mel cleaned and followed it up. I took a lap on it and then rapped over so we had a top rope set for celestial groove(5.9+).
Brian leading cell phone posse
Mel Following cell phone posse
Me taking a lap on cell phone posse
The bottom of celestial groove was dripping wet, but undeterred I got on it and after a couple of wet hand jams was past the dripping part and on to the rest of the climb. It was fantastic with hand jams, fist jams, finger locks, and even a bit of offwidth. I would highly recommend going up there to climb it. As others ran laps on it, I went over to check out some of the other routes that people had put up and took a lap on both last rights(5.10a) and lost souls(5.9). Last rights was a hand to large OW crack that was strenuous but fun. Lost souls was far more technical with some hands, finger locks and lie backing(nice lead sylvain!).
Me starting up celestial groove
Me high up on celestial groove
At this point, Mel and Brian decided to leave so we bid them farewell and a safe journey home. I was feeling a bit tired at this point but Evan convinced me I needed to lead no room for squares(5.8). Solid jams and great pro made for a very enjoyable route thanks to Evans urging. He then went up and cleaned the route, his third time climbing it for the day. With energy for one more, we went over and ran up a 5.8 that Frank put up which was gear for the first half and bolted slab to the top. It had a very interesting and airy transition to the slab portion and would have made an exciting move on lead.
At this point, everyone was pretty tired so we all gathered up our stuff and headed down. Frank and Sarah went to find us a camp site while the rest of us swarmed safeway for some food and beer to take back. At the camp, we broke up the pallets Jim and Obadiah had acquired and made a fire. Evan had brought falafel for all and cooked it up. It was a serous operation as we had prepared a ton of fresh toppings including onion, tomato, cucumber, avocado, red and orange peppers, and hummus. It was fantastic and enjoyed by everyone. Sarah had brought along some delicious chicken which also went well in the pita bread, Obadiah cooked up some brats and I cut up a watermelon and (expertly) open up some cookies. We had a great time eating, drinking, slackling, and talking around the fire until we all turned in for the evening.
People started waking up around 8AM and we had a leisurely breakfast while we packed up and decided where to go. For Evan, Sylvain, Melanie and I it was up to condor buttress for Condomorphine addiction (7P 5.10b bolts). For the rest, it was an earlier stop on the trail to condor for assorted multipitch routes on bathtub dome. We all hiked up together, and split off at the base of bathtub. About 20 mins later, we were greeted by Sarah and Frank who had missed the original turn off for the lower routes, whoops!
All geared up, Evan took the first lead and managed to get on the correct route thinking it was the variation start and traversed over (in a weird manky way) to the wrong set of chains. No big deal though and I was able to just lead up and through for the second pitch. I got to an awkward place and had to hang on a bolt so I could continue up a lieback crack but found the rest of the pitch to be very straightforward. The next pitch Evan lead which was a short east 3 bolt pitch necessary to get to the next section of climbing. I took pitch 4 which was super fun and well bolted with good climbing and a few sequency moves. At this point, we stopped to let another party rap down past us and they informed us that the next pitch was the cruxier of the two 5.10b pitches and it was Evan's lead.
Evan looks for the proper place to go
Evan coming up pitch 2
Sylvain leading up pitch 2
Evan coming up pitch 4
Evan made rapid progress to the crux and then just flew throught it with no problems(sick dude!). At the top he let me know that it was indeed cruxy and as I came up to it I saw why. It was kind a blank bowl that you had to get a foot up high and palm a section of rock them move the palms over to get your other foot up. after that, another tricky move and foot shuffle to get to some better holds out left. I had to tug a bolt to get through the second move then made it up to Evan. At this point, my feet were on fire and I was ready to take the shoes off but wanted to give the second 5.10b pitch a go. I made it a couple of bolts up with some difficult slab moves until I got to a point where I couldn't figure out what to do. Not wanting to waste too much time with Sylvain behind us and my feet in bad shape I pulled on a draw to get past a move then was able to figure out the rest of the pitch. At the chains, Evan asked if I could run the next pitch together and I agreed I could. with only a couple draw left I skipped the next 3 bolts on much easier terrain and was quickly to the top ledge where I promptly took off my shoes. I brought Evan up and we waited at the top for Sylvain and Melanie. Now that it was done, Evan asked if I regretted pulling the bolts, and I said not really. I was really ready to have those shoes off, and I know that I need to get better at slab technique if I am going to be able to do something that hard. A big thanks to Evan though for his excellent encouragement and for leading the weird crux of pitch 5.
Evan high on the 5th pitch(after the crux)
Evan tops out
Sylvain on the top belaying Melanie
View from the top
One rap on Evan's rope then three more double raps on Sylvain's ropes brought us to the base of the climb. We walked back down the trail to the car and had some celebratory beers before leaving to search for the others at domestic(?) dome. By the time we got there, it was starting to rain so we all headed off. A quick stop once we were over the pass at zeke's for some burgers and fries and then home. This was a fantastic weekend with great climbing and great friends!