Leavenworth Weekend - 03.28-29.09

Ian was having a field trip to get the Intermediate Students leading on gear. He was kind enough to take some of my students along, assuming I would also be there as an instructor.

The forecast didn't look great for Leavenworth, but it did not look awful either. When we arrived in the morning it was fairly sunny in town, but after heading a few miles up Icicle Road, you could see the clouds coming in from the west.

We started with ground work at Mountie's Dome and then on to mock leading. The clouds and precipitation got closer and closer throughout the day until it reached us. It wasn't bad at first, and was barely wetting the rock. By the end of the afternoon, it was full-on raining (and looked to be snowing only about 1000' up from our location.) Once it got really wet, we called it a day.

Sunday started out with cooler, but much sunnier weather. The sun quickly warmed things up as we took the 30 second hike to Roto Wall. Some people started out with their gear leads, while others took some following and an additional mock lead before they got out on the sharp end. Overall, everyone did well, but some people need to practice more.

For the people who finished early, there was even a little free time to climb on their own. Lori and Josh headed up to Givler's Crack for an adventure, and Adam got to follow me up a 5.6 slab climb on the right of Roto Wall. It is always an interesting experience being the first to climb a slab in season. It had a lot of kitty litter on it and the 5.7 to the right of it was even a bit mossy at the start. The 5.6 was also fairly run out at the start, with only two pieces of pro in in the first twenty feet or so. After the free time, we packed our gear and headed home.

My pics are here.