Taking the Plunge

Me doing my best impression of a slackliner

Uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh. Can’t sleep. Usually that means excitement and anticipation have defeated my bodies need for rest. I roll over and look at the clock only to realize that I’ve got another three hours before I’m supposed to get up and pick up my friend Dom before heading off to Leavenworth for a couple of days. The time crawls by and eventually I find myself outside of Dom’s new apartment building only to realize his body did not give in to anticipation and excitement and let him sleep. A little too long. He blames it on a broken cell phone and we’re off. We fight through Tacoma traffic and hit 18 and its smooth sailing from there. The sun beats down on the white cement that snakes its way up and over Icicle canyon and carries us to the Lonely Fish boulder where our friends Jimmy and George were warming up on their third day in the ‘dub’. Dom and I make our way back to a problem called Droppin’ the Kirschbaum where Jimmy is attempting a jumpy V.7 at the end of the boulder. We meet and greet and get the number of the campsite they are staying at and plan to meet up at Mad Meadows in an hour.


The lovely Mad Meadows

After dumping our stuff at campsite number 19, my personal favorite at Eightmile, we meet back up with Jimmy and George at Mad Meadows and head back to the boulders. Now I hadn’t climbed in a week, due to a somewhat mysterious and quite painful leg injury that prevents me from heel hooking with my left leg, so after a reintroduction to the rough granite by running a few laps on the excellent V.3 Drugstore Cowboy I squeezed some pads through the mouth of the cave that holds a problem called The Sail. An excellent V.9 that requires some serious hugging with both legs and arms. The start is quite hard to master, you have to get your right heel in just the right spot, a little divot that can be hard to stick accurately. Squeezing with the legs you pull yourself off the ground, already upside down, and stab to a sloper, and then bump again to a crimp. Jimmy and I both worked the problem for a while, Jimmy managed to get quite close to sticking the crimp but we both gave up. So psyched to come back to this problem once my leg is feeling better.


Dom flashing The Undercling(V.5)

From there we went to Jimmy’s project for the last two days, Hanta Man. A superb roof problem that involves some powerful moves and a hugely helpful toe/foot jam. The first couple of moves aren’t that bad, but slapping around and outside of the cave to a jug is the definitive crux. I made some good progress on this problem, but once again look forward to returning when my leg is feeling up to it. Jimmy had really put some good work into getting the sequence wired and after some good tries stuck the jug and pulled out of the cave, adrenaline pumping. We were all psyched to see him send it and gave him a round of applause.


The Hanta Man cave, the best damn hang out on a hot day.

We hung out in the shade of the cave for a while, trying to bring our body temperatures down and escape the weight of the heat of the day. We decided on going out to the Sword boulders where the shade was plentiful and the boulder problems were goooooood.


Dom reeeeaaaching on the Prsim(V.9)

The one problem here at the Sword that I really had worked on for a while and felt really close to sending went the first try of the day. It almost felt easy! The problem is located on a slouching boulder that is the first boulder you reach when arriving at the Sword boulders. It’s called the Prism because of a huge blocky chunk of rock missing in the center where the overhang begins and the slab ends, that resembles an invisible cube or prism. The start is a tad contrived but sets you nicely on a huge foot ledge where you can stare up at the lip of the overhang and figure out what you want to do. You reach inside the invisible prism and grab a good crimpy undercling, which moves a little bit (one day it will definitely break). From the undercling you maneuver your feet on small foot holds and the smooth surface of the slab and slap up to the slopey lip bumping your hand more and more left until you can bump it to the very point of the overhang where a good jug awaits you. It’s technical and balancey but a beautiful problem. The grade it was given is a little bit of a debate, some people say V.9 for shorter people and V.7 for taller people but regardless of that silliness this just might beat out Resurrection for my favorite boulder problem at the Sword boulders.


Jimmy flies through the air on the less statically inclined version of the Prism

Jimmy literally threw himself at a dyno version of the problem which looks desperate if anything else, yet pretty sweet. We all had a good time trying the problem and I even managed to repeat it for the camera. We also gathered some wood, breaking some of the bigger logs ‘caveman style’, utilizing a large granite rock to smash them into smaller logs, below is a video of this chicanery:

After dropping the firewood off at the campsite we stopped briefly at the Starightaways, more specifically the WAS boulder where I repeated it a couple more times for the camera while Dom climbed halfway up a rather large tree to get the ‘best’ angle.


Jimmy tries on WAS(V.8)

Laura, I swear I tried to talk him out of it!

From there we hit up the Forestland where I repeated a few more classic problems and we all sat around as the sun retreated behind the ridge of the canyon. We headed to Gustavs before it got too late and indulged our stomachs with a bit of fried fish, and chicken. We then headed back to the campsite where we fed the fire mightily and waited for it to get cold enough to enjoy the orange and yellow blaze.

The next day I was ripped from my dreams by the campground host yelling into my tent to pay him for the extra vehicle. Oooops! I guess that somehow slipped our minds. The morning hours passed slowly and we eventually got up and ate a bit of food before deciding to make the hike to Clamshell Cave. The approach was steeper than I had remembered but the boulders were just as hard. We all got our nerves pumping by warming up on the classic highball of the area The Cube, a stout little V.1+ that forces you to commit to a small crimp halfway up over a sloping landing.

Dom enjoys the victory jug on The Cube(V.1+)

It was quite good but definitely made me think for a while before getting some beta from Dom and making the committing move to the top jug. Jimmy and I got shutdown cold on The Octopus, a one move V.7 that felt a little too sharp for the beginning of the day. We walked around and showed Jimmy and George another classic of the area, Crimp Crimp Slap Throw, a hard V.3 that has a perfect landing and climbs like a gym problem. The sun started to reach it’s apex as we headed back down the steep mountainside, jumping over the creek and strolling through the meadow only to be spat out by the roadside and back into our temperature controlled cars.

Winatchee river

Some kind of crazy colorful lizard

From here we said our goodbyes to Icicle Canyon and headed to the Beach area in Tumwater canyon. We laid around in the sun on the banks of the Winatchee river eating lunch and planning our assault on the boulders to come. We strolled along the path to the Beach area with the Winatchee on one side and the forest on the other. We eventually broke into the forest and headed back to a rather nice boulder that has many good V.3’s on it and a pretty good V.7 called the Terrible.

Dom lunges for the crimp on The Terrible(V.7)

We tweaked on nicely textured crimps, grabbed gaston slopers, lunged for grainy lips, and bore down on sharp crystal dykes. When we had had enough of the problems in the forest we headed even farther down the path, spotting a topless sunbather and her boyfriend on a rock in the middle of the Winatchee, her large breasts on display for us as well as everyone driving down route 2. We finally made it to the Beach bouldering area, which really doesn’t have a lot of bouldering but is an excellent playground for anyone who loves jumping off giant boulders into deep pools of cool water, getting freaked out on highball slabs, dangling from juggy arêtes over a retreating river, and doing one of the best dynoes ever while feeling tiny grains of sand squish between your toes. The Beach area is one of my favorite places to not only boulder but to have a blast just hanging out.

Castle Rock, Tumwater Canyon

Dom on the Beach Arete(V.2)

Jimmy decides to campus the Beach Arete

Taking the plunge

After jumping into the Winatchee over and over again we packed up our things, now soaking wet, and headed back to the cars. We ended our trip at the Hueco Crimper boulder where we all had a good time doing some excellent problems, working on a unknown problem, and watching as Jimmy sent the Hueco Crimper and almost sent the low start. He’ll definitely get it next time he’s there. I was glad I was able to repeat it and Dom discovered a quite difficult problem just to the left of the Hueco Crimper that seems to have never been climbed before. We finally called it quits, said goodbye to Jimmy and George and made a beeline for the greasy smell of fries and cheeseburgers at the Heidleburger before disappearing in a cloud of exhaust.