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Kris Haskins Staff Webpage |
Leavenworth - Cragging |
| June 2008 |
On Saturday Evan, Annelisa, Mel, and I headed out to Leavenworth to do some climbing. On the way there we were trying to decide what to do and Mel was keen on the idea of Midway. We got to the base of Jello tower and there were two parties in front of us, one on route and the other waiting at the base.
We chatted with party #2 as they did what I assume is their pre-climb routine of drinking PBR and smoking bowls. Once the route cleared, one of them started out the lead with a cigarette in his mouth. It was pretty awesome. Finally, with the route clear I lead up and Mel followed me leaving the gear behind for Annelisa to lead and Evan to follow. We did each of the 3 pitches(we broke the second into two to ease communication and rope drag). When we got to the top, Mel was all smiles and pretty stoked on the idea of multipitch climbing(it wasn't more than 2 months ago when she wouldn't go to the top of the wall at stone gardens). She is coming along rather quickly :)
After finishing up, we moved on to the XY cracks which Evan and I both led. We then used the low angle slab to teach Mel how to rappel. Another group came by wanting to use the cracks there, so we moved on to Barneys rubble where I lead a 5.8 crack that had perfect hands down below and kind of moved into OW up above but was on much lower angle slab so not too difficult. We also set up a top rope and did some weird slab route, and the lie back crack(5.7) which was super fun.
After the day spent climbing, we got some food and beers and played a game of trivial pursuit the 90's edition which Mel and I ended up winning(our collective useless knowledge is second to none). It was a great trip, and a fun way to spend the day before I was to go off to Rainier ....
Mel and I on top of the first pitch
Annelisa leads P1
Evan Follows
Mel on the lieback crack
Evan on the lieback crack
