Friday, July 29, 2011

20 Days on the Road: One Day in Leavenworth

Camping in Tumwater Canyon
One day in Leavenworth, wasn't nearly enough. In hindsight, maybe we shouldn't have been in such a hurry to move on. We expected heat, so we spent our day at the Swiftwater sector. It has a lot of shaded problems, and each of the three types of stone found around Leavenworth. We warmed up on a large schist boulder, and then checked out Hate Rock which is just below the parking area.

Ashley climbing "Hate Monger"


The Hate Boulder has granite similar to that found in Little Cottonwood Canyon, so it's really good. But I had no idea that granite existed so fine as what we found across the road. It's granite with crystals so small it feels like sandstone. Absolutely solid, with the best friction I've ever experienced. Features that look impossible to hold onto, turn out to be good holds. The friction is that good. Here are a couple photos of Ashley on the end of "The Footless Traverse." Click the photos to see the texture up close.
Ashley's swinging, but her hands are sticking.
I climbed 11 problems, and Ashley did 9. The highlight of my day was sending "Raging Bull." A lot of my photos were taken in dappled sunlight, and didn't turn out well. If you're interested in Leavenworth bouldering, I recommend the video 5000 Miles-Part 1:Leavenworth by Max Moore. It documents the style and quality of the area's bouldering very well. As we continued our journey towards Squamish we saw many rocky canyons obscured by the thick forest. I wondered "Could an American Fontainbleau be hidden in the state of Washington?"

3 comments:

dom said...

Glad you liked Leavenworth. There is so much more to it than just Swiftwater though. Next time you'll have to stay longer.

I'm enjoying following your blog.

BLOCHEAD said...

Nice post! Looks like you got a lot done in just one day. Raging bull is a tough little bugger, way to get it done in the dead of summer.

Thanks a lot for the shout out as well!

Safe travels and happy sending,

Max

Lloyd Family said...

Thanks for the nice comments! I agree that we definitely need to plan a longer trip, and visit more areas during our next visit. Great work on the video Max!