Leavenworth Day of Cragging 8.31.13

I had permits for the Enchantments Sunday - Tuesday of Labor Day weekend, so we had Saturday open for some sort of fun activity. The weather looked good in Leavenworth and since we'd need to be out there on Sunday anyways, we decided to go out for a day of cragging. Chris and Ben left Seattle about 6am to try and get us a campsite, with us following at 7am. They lucked out and found one at Eightmile. After setting up camp and having difficulty figuring out where to go, we settled on nearby Classic Crack. Turns out Chris and Ben haven't done a lot of climbing in Leavenworth and had never done Classic Crack, so it was a good choice. With my shoulder still not back to normal, I was a bit limiting in what I could climb, trying to keep things 5.9 or under. I didn't want to overdo it before the long weekend in the Enchantments.

Ben leading Classic Crack (5.8+)

Ben started off by leading Classic Crack (5.8+), while Matt led Twin Cracks (5.8) to the left of Classic Crack. To warm up I went up Twin Cracks first, then jumped on top rope on Classic Crack. I had climbed Classic Crack for the first time last fall and didn't get up it cleanly, and this year it was no different. There's one section in particular that gets me every time. After we all got a lap in on those two routes, Matt walked across the top to throw the rope down on Hornblower (5.10b) in the corner, while Ben led Deception Crack (5.9). I top roped Deception Crack and fell out of the crack once before reaching the top. As I was coming down, Sara was heading up Hornblower but encountered a bunch of bees so quickly lowered off. No one wanted to deal with the bees, so after everyone got a lap in on Deception Crack we packed up. I was pretty hungry and needed some food so we headed into town for pretzels and ice cream.

Matt leading Twin Cracks (5.8)

Sara climbing Deception Crack (5.9)

After everyone had a treat, we drove down highway 2 just out of town to see if anyone was on February Buttress. I had found Groundhog Day (5.6) when I was looking for climbs last fall, but still had not gotten to climb it, so the guys thought it would be a good afternoon objective. There was one group on the rock, just up on the first pitch when we arrived. Aaron had climbed the route with Matt at the spring campout so he let me lead the first pitch and gave me a general direction to head. The group before us had stopped at a bolted anchor, but Aaron directed me to a tree beyond them. I started up the route and then started trending left, looking for easier terrain. The pair in front of us had left a nut in a crack so I placed some gear nearby and continued up, assuming Aaron would retrieve it for them. I found a couple bolts to my left and assumed I had crossed onto the next route over, but I clipped them and continued up. The pair was still at the bolted anchor as they were going to head back down, so they were nice and let me drag my rope right through their anchor area so that I could reach the tree. Aaron soon followed up as Ben and Chris started up the next route over, Aquarius (5.7). They weren't sure how long everything was going to take so they decided to do the next route over, with Sara and Matt following. Aaron took the second pitch which went up and then right around a corner from the tree. He put a few pieces of gear in and set up at the bolted anchor. From there is a system of cracks and ledges that I followed up trending slightly left for pitch 3. I actually placed a decent amount of gear, the third pitch was definitely the most fun. I reached the bolted anchor at the top and sat down to enjoy the nice belay as Aaron followed up.

I wasn't feeling very good throughout the climb. I think it was a combination of the heat and food I just ate, so I was anxious to get down and out of the sun. Unfortunately Groundhog Day and Aquarius don't meet up, but we were counting on at least one other team for a double rope rappel down. Ben led him and Chris up and over the little ridge from the top of their route to our anchor so we could set up the rappel. Matt led over as well so all three teams rappelled the same route. I was first down the double rope rappel to the tree at the top of the first pitch. Before long Sara came down with the third rope for the final single rope rappel down to our gear. There was a little down climbing from the final rappel to reach the ground, but nothing too bad. 70m ropes are a better length for the rappels, but we made do with the 60m. I grabbed my stuff and hiked back to the road to sit in the shade of the car. We called it a day after that and went back into town to get some sausage and hang out for the night. It was a fun, quick day of cragging to get some more time in on the rocks before our big weekend adventure.