Working on my tan at Tieton and Vantage

For the last few weeks I’ve been super busy with school work, but I’ve still managed to make time for climbing on the weekends. Two weeks ago a group of 10 of us made our way down to Tieton, and last weekend we rolled 14 deep at Vantage. It was actually really nice hanging out in a big group, there were plenty of ropes to hop on and lots of wood to feed to the fire.

Joe flashing a really good 10c at Vantage

In Tieton I definitely felt like I was filling in the gaps in my guidebook, doing the climbs I’d overlooked before. At Lava Point I finished up a couple of routes I’d skipped over in the past, so now I have the crag ticked which is a little sad knowing there’s no new routes for me to do on this awesome wall, dream wall nearby just doesn’t compare. I also climbed at The Chunkyard for the first time, a crag so new it there were some guys bolting a route on it out left as we were there. The rock doesn’t look the most appealing but it is actually pretty fun climbing. I’m getting to the point at a lot of crags in Tieton where I’m running out of new routes to try. I repeated a few routes, but I don’t get the same enjoyment from repeating routes as I do from climbing something for the first time, partially because I know its not contributing to my long term goal of climbing 10,000 routes. But its something that I probably have to get over if I’m going to climbing at the same crags in Washington. I actually think there is a lot of potential for new routes at Tieton. There is so much rock there, not all of it is solid, and some of it would be a bit of a hike, but I’ve got a feeling there are a few quality crags still waiting to be discovered there, particularly sport routes. Just walking around the Cave area, which is one of the more popular areas I could see potential for new routes. I would love to get a drill and put up my own routes sometime, for now the cost of it and the time involved seems prohibitive.

Not sure what climb this is, they all seem to blend together

At Vantage there are a lot more routes to get on, so even though I’ve already done a lot there, there is still plenty to get on. On Saturday I teamed up with Joe, we got an early start and before we knew it we had climbed 6 routes and it was only 10am. We figured we’d try to keep up the pace and see how many we could rack up. Fatigue caused by the blazing sun and running out of water slowed us down towards the end of the day, but we still managed 19 routes that day, 16 of which I had never done before, I onsighted or flashed them all including a few trad/mixed routes. My previous record was 13 routes in a day at Post Falls last year. It was one of my best climbing days in a while, Joe and I seemed well matched in terms of our drive to get a lot of mileage in. We were talking about how at the right crag, and with the right preparation 30 routes in a day is probably possible. Laura had a pretty good day flashing another 5.11, to add to her long list, she did a couple in Tieton the week before as well. We topped it off with a big fire, some music and a lot beer. Sunday was understandably a little more subdued, but I still managed to get a good amount of climbing in, including a few 5.11s at the awesome Jigsaw wall. The warm-up Jigsaw Direct may be the best route I’ve done at Vantage, I’d highly recommend it. On the way back we stopped by a brewpub for a well deserved meal, we were all glowing from a great weekend outside in the sun. I tried to absorb as much sun as I could that weekend since I don’t think I’ll make it outside climbing for a few weeks, I’ve got way too much schoolwork to do. But in just a month I’ll be graduating with my Masters degree which is pretty exciting/scary.

About to head home after an awesome weekend at Vantage