This weekend I had the pleasure of exploring one of Washington's best crags-- Leavenworth. This area is home to stellar traditional multipitch climbs, the most famous of which are on Snow Creek Wall such as Outer Space (5.9, 800') and Iconoclastic (5.10c, 800'). With recent sport and bouldering developments, Leavenworth is now a go-to location for any sort of climbing. This weekend I was joined by Richard Kresser, an ultramarathon runner and Outdoor Blueprint sponsored athlete.
In 1962 Leavenworth was struggling from it's loss of the railroad and logging industries. The town leaders came together and formed a plan to turn the near ghost town into a tourist hub. The year round good weather along with a beautiful location nestled in the mountains created the perfect scene for a German Bavaria in the USA.
Now, with the help of various festivals and the tourism industry, Leavenworth is a beautiful bustling town that is well worth spending a few days to visit.
The Leavenworth crag is spread out in two main canyons, Tumwater and Icicle Creek, each with an excellent mixture of bouldering, sport, trad, and multipitch opportunities.
At the gateway of the Tumwater Canyon sits a steep slab of rock three-hundred feet high-- February Buttress. Though the rock was still wet from the morning mist, we decided to power through and started up Groundhog's Day, a popular three-pitch 5.6. The slick rock made the first two pitches tedious, but by the time we started up pitch three the light wind had dried everything out, making for smooth climbing.
Once we reached the ground, we headed to the nearby single pitch wall off Hobo Gulch. Hobo Gulch was recently re-bolted which made for lots of fast, moderate climbs. Many of these routes require a few extra pieces of gear to make the runouts more manageable, but overall they were a great way to get a few laps in at the end of the day.
Plentiful camping can be found in both canyons at established Forest Service sites, which have pit toilets and water, or for free following the rules of the National Forests.
The destination for day two was a newer wall in Icicle called The Pearly Gates. This wall was revealed after forest fires cleared the area out in 1994. The fairly vertical rock, along with numerous crack systems, make this a premier location for hard-moderate trad climbs (5.8-5.10+). We got on some classics including Cloud Nine (5.9+, 2 Pitches), Golden Delicious (5.8, 2 Pitches), Celestial Groove (5.9+), and namesake Pearly Gates (5.10b) complete with a beautifully awkward backjam move. Heavy weekend traffic motivated us to head back down the 40 minute approach and hit up the famous Classic Crack (5.8+, sandbagged) on 8-Mile Rock before making our way back to camp.
On our last day we decided to check out an older, small, sandstone crag 10 miles east of Leavenworth called Peshastin Pinnacles.
Peshastin is an old winter training ground that is often forgotten about in lieu of the new development of Leavenworth to the west, and Frenchman's Coulee (Vantage) to the east. Still, there are some classics to be found, complete with long runouts between bolts and/or poor protection in flaring pockets.
In the morning we climbed Diagonal Direct (5.8, 2 pitches), Windward Direct (5.8, my personal favorite), Skyline (5.5), and a few less notable top ropes. It was worth a visit, and there were a few other classics we wanted to get on, but other parties were there. It is probably not worth spending more than a day or two in Peshastin with all of the lines available in newer, nearby crags.
And the perfect way to wrap up a weekend of climbing is by splitting a pitcher of beer, good conversation, and perfect views of the mountains; all of which Leavenworth has in excess!
