Jenna Kwon

When the pandemic began and the gravity of it sank it on March, it was quite depressing. When outdoor recreation opened back up in June or so, I began to find solace in climbing outside as much as possible. My partners and I climbed before or after work on the weekdays and on most weekends. This post contains some photos taken on the cragging days. Omitted are the photos from multipitch routes that are in other posts. Also, many short sessions before/after work at the Exit 32/38 crags are not represented, since those sessions are spent cramming as many route burns as possible.. :)  June Fellow climber on top of P1 of Zig Zag  (5.7, Trad) @ Mt. Erie Nate on... I forgot which route, they all kind of look the same @ Vantage My stick clip, stuck on 2nd bolt while projecting  Crescendo of the Sarcophagus Bleeding  (5.11b, Sport) with Nate @ Exit 38. Don't ask how this happened.... Zoomed in photo of my stick clip July Me on Gotta Keep Dancin'  (5.9, mixed, 4 pitches)...

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...

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 ons...

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 defi...

I took the "Avy 1 course" - officially called "AIARE Level 1" course with American Alpine Institute! The course dates were March 13-15, 2020 at Mt. Baker, Washington.  Course link:  http://www.alpineinstitute.com/catalog/avalanche-training-aiare-1/ Movitation As I progressed in my snowboarding, I had been quite comfortable with trying side-piste, off-piste boarding and some tree runs. Naturally I began learning more about what real backcountry traveling was, and how essential avalanche training would be for that. I found backcountry to be pretty appealing - the uphill travel on snow and getting away from the crowd and all.  Preparation All winter, I was so split (pun intended) between choosing splitboard vs. skis for backcountry. I'm a boarder, yet it seemed unanimous amongst the backcountry communities and a few friends that skis were more versatile for traveling in the backcountry - especially with handling flats and varied terrain. At the end, I d...

We spent 5 days skiing in Zermatt! (with a rest day in between!) Skiing details We weren't blessed with the weather the first couple days; it was stormy and very windy, so the Matterhorn side was closed. We could ski in the Sunnegga side though! We were definitely anxious to see the Matterhorn but it was nowhere to be found in those two couple cloudy days. From the fourth day (third day skiing), the weather became great, and we were able to see the Matterhorn! One day was spent just enjoying skiing near the Matterhorn glacier. Another day was spent going to and back from the Italy side. And another day was spent taking an off-piste lesson with Bruno who was great! He showed us some good off-piste run near Rothorn that we could not have found on our own. He also equipped us some avalanche transceivers although avalanche risks were pretty low that day.  My favorite part was just the mere fact that I was skiing with Matterhorn so close by. I also very much enjoyed learning abou...

Route Details:  Mountain Project:  https://www.mountainproject.com/route/107730934/prime-rib Difficulty: 5.9-, 11 pitches, Grade III Report:  This summer, we did several other multi-pitch routes - a few at 2-3 pitches and one at 7 pitches ( Condorphamine Addiction @ Leavenworth). Prime Rib was definitely the longest out of all at 11 pitches. How the day went- I found that the climbing itself wasn't difficult at any sections of any pitches. All of it was very enjoyable. It was pretty cold though (low to high 40 degrees throughout the day) which added to the difficulty. My hands and feet were a bit numb at some parts of the climbs. It also had been raining so there were some wet sections which made some slab sections pretty slippery.  I was worried about walking along the ledges to find the base of pitch 3 and 6. It turned out to be no problem though; it was pretty obvious where to go, and the "ledge" actually felt more like a hiking trail with plenty room from...