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Showing posts from August, 2020

[Climbing] (08/30/2020) Silent Running (5.10b, 7 pitches, Grade III) @ Darrington, WA

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Route Details Mountain Project:  https://www.mountainproject.com/route/108263566/silent-running Difficulty: 5.10b, 7 pitches, Grade III It was supposed to be a "nice, casual Saturday outing on a slab multipitch!" Well, only the "slab multipitch" part was true. For more details, read on..  Getting to the base of the climb... We left Seattle around 7AM! Driving to the TH took about 2 hours, where the last half hour was pretty gravelly on a dirt road. Our Suburu Forester did just fine though. Approach hike was short and pleasant at about 30 minutes. There were some impressive old growth trees en route!  Climb Details  There was a party in front of us, so we waited a bit and began around 11:00AM. We set our turnaround time to 4PM.  I led 5 pitches - 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7. The first pitch (which I followed) felt like a walk in the park - more like incline walking at about ~45-50 degrees. When we began on pitch 2 though, the steepness snuck on me pretty quickly. Suddenly I fou

[Climbing] (08/16/2020) Mile High Club (5.10a, 7 pitches, Grade III) @ Morning Star Peak in North Cascades, WA

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Route Details  Mountain Project: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/112553808/mile-high-club Difficulty: 5.10a, 7 pitches, Grade III Report Chris and I woke up at the crack of dawn and departed Seattle around 5:30AM. We got to Sunrise Mile Trailhead around 7:15AM Approach The approach was definitely not the easiest climbing approach I've done :-) It was steep at first then we crossed a couple talus / boulder fields. It was a beautiful approach though - we were walking in the valley with great ridgelines around us. It was slightly confusing as to when to depart the trail get to Morning Star Peak base. It was a left turn right before Headlee pass but we couldn't really spot any obvious cairns. We just used our Gaia maps and ended up sorting it out in a few minutes or so though. All in all, the approach hike took us 2 hours - ~2.3K elevation gain @ 2.5 miles. Climbing Climbing was great! All pitches felt pretty easy and smooth. Chris and I swung leads quite efficiently and onsi

[Climbing] (08/09/2020) The Ascentionist (5.10b/c, 6 pitches, Grade II) @ Exit 38, WA

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Route Details 5.10b/c, 5 pitches, Grade II Link: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/114778289/the-ascentionist Climbing Sometimes you are just feeling the climbs that allows you to be lazy in the morning. I got up and took plenty time to make myself some nice breakfast and coffee. We left Seattle around 9AM and got to the base of this climb around 10AM (40 mins driving and casual 20 mins approach!). Jay led the first pitch and I led the rest. Every pitch felt smooth with the exception of a couple thought-provoking moves on pitch 2 and 3.  On pitch 2, there was a boulder problem off the belay then pretty easy climbing to a big ledge. The ledge had some rap chains which I knew to not belay from and it took me a minute until I found a bolt way to the right of it. Getting off that ledge felt like the crux!  Pitch 3 was very cool - it was very traversey. Traverse to the right, pull off roofs, then traverse back to the left. Cool moves combined with airy-ness made it definitely my