Leavenworth is pretty much the place where I started trad climbing. While I had plugged in the odd stopper or poorly placed cam before I came to the Bavarian village for the first time, these domes and cracks are where my love of granite really started. I drove from Pullman about every other weekend while I was in college, and I climbed in the canyons every afternoon when I worked as a river guide and lived out of my truck. The crags lining the Icicle River are the site of my first 5.9, first 5.10, first 5.11, and first lead fall on gear. The last time I climbed there was about nine years ago. It was like a different lifetime.
Since leaving Washington I’ve moved to Utah, climbed in Peru, Ecuador, Alaska, the Northwest Territories, Yosemite, Indian Creek, and on and on. I’ve climbed a ton of longer, harder routes than anything I ever thought of attempting back in the day, but Leavenworth has always held a special place in my heart. Coming back after being gone for so long was a strange experience. Just the smell from driving up the canyon brought back a flood of memories, but as I looked around my memories didn’t quite match the landscape. In some cases, like the nice flat boulders in the Snow Creek parking lot with a great view of the river where I would often cook dinner at night, it was exactly as I remembered it. But the crags all seemed smaller, and the climbs seemed less intimidating. My condition on this trip was exactly the opposite as it was when I left. Back then I was super strong, regularly sending hard sport climbs, but not very experienced. Now I have a ton of experience, but recent life events have cut into my climbing and I’m pretty out of shape at the moment. Basically, the things that were hard for me back then were still pretty tough, but they didn’t scare me like they used to.
We did very little climbing on this leg of our Washington trip because temperatures were somewhere between frying pan and surface of the sun. However, we did get to take a run up the ultra-classic Outer Space. Our day was a great example of differences between then and now. Not wanting to climb in 102-degree temps we decided to skip the 5:00 alarm and climb in the afternoon when the rock went into the shade. It started raining when we started hiking, but we weren’t quite persuaded to turn around, so we kept going. After about 45 minutes it started really raining, but we kept going because we wanted to see the wall. By the time we got there it had stopped and the rock had dried out. We flopped packs at the base precisely as the climb went into the shade. Sitting below the wall (which was once the biggest thing I had ever climbed or even seen in person) I looked up and had the sensation that it was shorter than it ever was before, or even was right then.
I took the same wrong turn on the first pitch where I always do, and after another rope length we started up the crux. I have to say, after leading this pitch nine years later I have much more respect for myself as a younger climber. I must have been wicked strong, because I sure didn’t know much and I don’t think it was any harder for me back in the day than it was was this time. I’m sure my gear was better and my rope was running straighter than it ever did before, but there was still a bit of real-deal climbing on that thing. A couple pitches higher were were swimming up sinker hand cracks and more differences came into play. For one, the exposure no longer got to me. I remember sitting at the final belay way back when and being so freaked that I started second guessing my anchor. On this trip it felt spacious and comfortable. After doxens of trips to Indian Creek, the cracks themselves were cruiser, and I kept forgetting to stop and place gear.
Utah has me a bit spoiled when it comes to good climbing, and I have to say that these days the classic nature of the route isn’t quite what it used to be. For sure those top two pitches are amazing, but there’s a lot of hiking and climbing of less-quality rock to get there. Basically, the return on investment isn’t quite what I’m used to, but it was still nice to repeat a classic.
The rest of our trip was pretty chill. We did a lot of hanging out in the rivers and eating good food in town (which I can now afford but could not back in those days) before heading back to the East side of the state to chill with the fam and do redneck things.
