Non-bouldering Leavenworth

The view from the crag of the enchantments
Yeah, that's the road and creek waaaayyyyy down there

Awesome but slightly dirty wall

I finally deiced to check out what all those other people do who go to Leavenworth and wonder why we 'play' on the short stuff. This weekend was dedicated to doing Outer Space on Sun. and trad/rope stuff on sat. with Keenan, a trad junkie from climbing team. Saturday we started at the sword boulders because keenan wanted to try the old school 5.11 the Sword V3. He sent after a few goes and a commitiing move to the top! Meanwhile I walked around the corner and flashed the Tree Problem, V8. A simi-cool short thing by the boulders down climb. Afterwards I played on zorro and found beta that works and I'm looking forward to sessioning this one in the future. So, now time for the ropes. We decided to check out a new crag called Lucky Dog. 1.5 hours and 3 ticks later we arive at the base of the 'alpine' sport crag. This so far was the farthest I've hiked for climbing. 'Hiked' is used liberally since the trail disappeared halfway up so we bush wackked up to the white wall. The first clmbed we did called JBT something and it was a good 5.11b/5.9. Super soft with a small coating of sand on every hold. Besides that though the route was very city of rockish and if roadside would be very popular. after slipping our way to the top we decided to move on to another, more clean area. As it turned out the clean area had a scary runout out the beginning so we called it quits and headed over to the offwidth Carnival Crack 5.10d visible from the boulders.
After some effort to set a Tr Keenan attempted the first moves but got stuck there. Next I tied in and managed to pinch the right side, palm the left side, and scoot my thigh jam(which left some marks) up the crack to the mid level slab. To get to the slab i busted my right heel out onto a ledge and heel hooked up to the last 8 foot section. This i decided to lay back off a good foot, hit a crimp on the face and slap to the top. 1st go! I was almost more surprised than Keenan, who knew?

Day two crux was the second class pitch of the classic Outer Space 5.9. It killed me but I managed to do it with a few falls. When we arrived at the base Snow Creek Wall it seemed smaller than what I imagined. The first two pitches we simuled and Keenan lead us too high. so after an impromptu belay and down climb we arrived at the base of the crux pitch. We broke up into 2 seperate pitches and I took the first. After a slip an' slide layback I reached the mid belay below a roof and built my first ever rad anchor. It consisted of two bomber nuts and a 3/4 lobed #2 Camelot. It held Keenan's slip so I think it passed...
Next I followed the curx and it seemed easier than I was told but the holds were flexin' more than any boulder I've done (Don't know how they're still there). Up next was the 5.6 pitch I lead to the Library ledge with a natural seat!
I (heart) Grigri. Self portrait on library Ledge.
Later Keenan brought up a good point that we were both constantly doing 15-25 foot run outs. The rock is so good up high and placements so bomber it didn't really manner. (Now I know how the Marc guy solod it) The final headwall was awesome sans my untaped hands which got destroyed. I loved the unreal chicken heads and only used the crack a few times (whatever). Keenan had the great idea to summit and we hiked an extra 50 yards to the top and the view was impressive. I could see the Straightaways to Forestland To Madmeadows, the town of Leavenworth, and out towards Pesachtin Pinnacles. Pretty damn awesome!

Now the tricky part was the descent, basically 3rd and 4th class scrambles where slippinig isn't recommended. After a short random rappel we hiked on out and headed on home. It's cool cause now I can point and say, 'yeah, I've been up there' I'm looking forward to doing some more trad and learninig how to properly jam(I would be screwed in Indian Creek). But all in all the past weekend was very fun and adventurous to say the least. It's Tue and I'm still recovering getting ready for either a sport sess. in spokane or (almost better) Weekend in Leavenworth WITH the pads being the main focus (Lisa doesn't know yet but she'll have to belay me on some trad though). I'm getting pretty exited for squamish, boulder and sport then easy trad on the rest days(or swimming weather permitting)