Trip Report: Seattle/Index 25-26 July 2009
I thought I hadn’t been climbing outside in a good long while, then my Uncle Joe let me know that he hadn’t been outside in at least 10 years. So, when an opportune weekend to visit Seattle came up I knew I had to take a day to go climbing with him. After spending Saturday in the city watching the Sounders with Campo, I walked on over to the ferry terminal and caught a boat to Bainbridge. For the rest of the night, Joe and I hung off of his porch and messed around with prussiks, autoblocks and etriers, and got excited for climbing the next day.
Campo's got some sweet Sounders season tickets.
We got a thoroughly gentlemanly start (read: opposite of alpine), since I wouldn’t get out of bed until 8 am. That put us at Index by about 11 that morning. We racked up at the car, and headed to the base of the Lower Town Wall, an area known as the Great Northern Slab. Despite not having climbed for longer than I had even thought about climbing, I let Joe take the first lead because he had more cumulative experience than me. We started out on Sickle Crack (5.7), which is shaped like it sounds. Slightly larger than a finger crack, it requires a slightly tricky smear before a high step brings your feet into the crack. Joe protected the move well, though, putting in two pieces of gear! We headed up around a 5.5 block that required a slightly airy step-over. The second pitch was a pretty nice hand crack, the first pitch of Pices (5.6). I’d never done a straight-on crack climb before, but Joe sent it easily and I somehow managed to make my way up. Joe said it looked smooth, but I think he was just being nice.
Uncle Joe...and he even wore a helmet.
We rapped down, grabbed some lunch, and then Joe handed the rack to me. It was, after all, supposed to be an opportunity for me to get some practice leading. As I slung some massive old-school Hexcentrics over my shoulder, I was getting a little bit nervous. We were headed up the Gully Approach (5.0) which led to the wall’s namesake Great Northern Slab (5.6) a pair of super-fun finger cracks. As I’ve said before, cracks aren’t really my thing, but I had to try sometime. Plus, I wasn’t about to let Joe lead all day long. Instead of doing the Approach unroped, I took the opportunity to practice placing gear, and put in an egregious number of nuts, hexes and cams along the way. GNS started with a small roof before leading to the face with the twin cracks. The whole route felt very natural, and I was surprised at how comfortable I felt. I even ran it out a little bit at the end (which Joe commented on).
Me on lead.
Once again, we rapped down, but stopped to put in a top rope for the 5.8 (now rated 5.9) fist crack over a small bulge that is the start of Aries. Joe remembered trying the pitch 15 years ago, and remarked that he kept skating off of it then. After getting my forearm stuck once, and falling twice, I managed to swing my way up the roof. On Joe’s turn, managed to send the pitch after falling once (and using way less energy than I had).
Feeling thoroughly sweaty, satisfied (and running a bit late) we took a quick, but very refreshing, dip in the Skykomish River, sorted out the rack and hit the road back to Seattle.
Find out more about the routes on SummitPost: Great Northern Slab (5.6) Aries (5.9)
And, as always, check out the galleries or head straight to my Flickr for more pics.