For various reasons I’ve had some free time on my hands the past couple of months, so when Jon Glassberg mentioned to me that he was going to central Washington at the end of April to check out the bouldering at places like Leavenworth, Index and Gold Bar, I jokingly mentioned that I should go with him. One thing led to another and at the end of April there I was, checking out the bouldering in places like Leavenworth, Index and Gold Bar.
Leavenworth felt like a bit of a mini-Yosemite with coarse granite boulders lining the two river canyons leading out of town. Over on the other side of Steven’s Pass, Index and Gold Bar had a totally different feel due to the differing climate and the finer grained granite. Access issues have put the main boulders in Gold Bar a healthy 2.5+ mile hike from the parking lot so we never checked those out, but by all accounts they are pretty amazing.
Coming shortly after my first visit to Joe’s Valley, the climbing in these Washington areas could not have been more different. Instead of desert there were alpine forests that ranged from bone dry to tropical. Whereas Joe’s Valley’s sandstone creates what in many ways is the ultimate “vacation” bouldering area due to the relatively straightforward, almost gym-like style, the granite bouldering in central Washington required much more subtlety and, frankly, a lot more effort from yours truly to figure out.
In the end I was able to re-learn how to climb on granite and send a handful of problems that were classic, hard or some combination of the two. As a bonus, it only cost me one sprained knee, five split tips and one tweaked pulley. A small price to pay I say1.
While it may have taken me a while to get adapted to the climbing we were doing, the same cannot be said for Jon. Watching him climb on this trip was an invaluable learning experience for me. Climbing 8 out of 9 days, Jon went on a rampage of ruthless efficiency, climbing just about every problem he tried in a small handful of tries. No wasted effort. No punting on topouts. Just another stop on the World Compression Tour 2013™, coming soon to a bouldering area near you.
Here are a few pictures from the trip as well as a pair of videos we made:
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- Leavenworth
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- Leavenworth
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- Jon Glassberg flashing Coffee Cup
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- Jon Sending Cotton Pony
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- Jon sending Turbulence in Leavenworth
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- Attempting The Prism in Leavenworth
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- Index
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- Jon Sending Leggo My Eggo in Index
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- Jon Attempting Hagakure in Index
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- Jon Attempting Hagakure in Index
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- Index
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/65436627 w=600]
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/65748633 w=600]
- Actually, I’d rather not have sprained the knee or tweaked the pulley, but what are you going to do? ↩
Oh man, you guys really should have checked out the boulders in Gold Bar at the top of the hill! The hike is super casual, just long. The hike is way worth it, you guys missed out!
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So many boulders and so little time!
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you missed a good little party at the Icicle cleanup too that was going on while you were here. Next time.
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I was pretty bummed that we didn’t find out about that until it was over
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unQz4kFJ2Tg
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Hi there,
My name is Jane and I’m with Dwellable.
I was looking for blogs about Gold Bar to share on our site and I came across your post…If you’re open to it, shoot me an email at jane(at)dwellable(dot)com.
Hope to hear from you soon!
Jane
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