Rain and rock climbing don’t mix well. The Pacific Northwest has kept us running from the rain for the past week.
We left Oregon’s high desert for wet wet Washington. On the way we spent a night in Portland with Dan’s friend Drew. He and his housemates were splendid hosts who took us out to the local food truck park, fed us an entire tray of brownies, and tested our humdinger prowess with a game of Cranium. We also went to Voodoo Doughnuts, a fatty Portland morning feedlot. We have been eating a ton on our non-climbing days.
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Voodoo Doughnuts |
We crossed into Washington on the morning of the 20th. Our primary mission in Washington was to visit our good friend Chris Simrell. Chris is obsessed with five things: Washington state, Seattle, rock climbing, beer, and girls. He talks about all of these with unmatched passion and is a stellar representative of northwesternmost of the lower 48.
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Chris drinking beer
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Introduce Will, Chris’ friend. The four of us took off for Squamish hoping to take advantage of a two-day weather window. The British Columbia coastline is totally gorgeous. On our first day we did a bunch of classic single pitch lines while we waited for the larger walls to dry out.
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British Columbia coastline |
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Squamish |
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Chris on Crime of the Century 11c |
The next day Dan and Will did more cragging while Max and Chris attempted the uber classic Grand Wall. Minimal sleep and sore bodies made the route a bit more challenging than expected. We rapped off after the Split Pillar, one of the most aesthetic single pitches of climbing I have ever done.
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Grand Wall Overview |
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Chris heading up pitch 2 |
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Pitch 5- Split Pillar 10b |
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Coming down |
While Chris and I were up on the Chief, Dan and Will enjoyed tremendously scenic seaside granite.
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Will and Dan in the Canadian sunshine |
The next few days were spent chasing the sunshine. Rain ruled out the most desirable Index, so we went over the pass to the supposedly drier eastern side. Unfortunately, the rain shadow effect failed to keep us dry in the Bavarian themed mountain town of Leavenworth. A rainy night prevented us from exploring the area’s vast amount of crack climbs. We went sport climbing at an overhung area instead. We had no guidebook or previous knowledge of the cliff except for some directions scrawled on a piece of scrap paper at a gear store in Leavenworth. We found the cliff, which was loaded with fixed draws, and climbed several killer unknown routes.
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Bavarian themed Leavenworth |
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Bavarian themed coffee |
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Max, pre unknown route |
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Max, unknown route |
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Dan clipping the chains, unknown route |
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Chris getting pumped, unknown route |
-MAX
Looks like the chance of a lifetime- strong work taking it. Hopefully you get some better weather in the coming weeks. And now for the other part of my comment; YOU MOTHERF*****S HOW DARE YOU SHOW ME THIS!!! I HAVEN'T HAD A DECENT DOUGHNUT IN MONTHS AND YOU POST A DELICIOUS PICTURE ON YOUR BLOG THAT YOU KNOW I AM GOING TO READ!!!! GOD DAMN YOU GUYS!!!! I HATE THIS BLOG I AM NEVER READING IT AGAIN!!!!
ReplyDeletethe best idea ever! love this!
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