I am loving Washington State. Ever since I arrived at Seattle on June 13, the experience has been very pleasant and positive. The weekend of June 14 and 15 at Discovery Park was the staff training of my summer job; it was sunny and many wild flowers were in blossom. Summer had officially made her entry to Washington. My colleagues are all passionate outdoor educators; I felt warmly welcomed from the first second I met them.

We then ran a 4-day rock climb skill training and site scouting trip at Tieton River Rocks near Yakima. Even though our schedule was quite busy, we still managed to squeeze in some personal climbing here and there. The scenic drive back to the city was also one of the highlights; we overlooked Mount Rainier from a good distance and she was resting there peacefully under the soothing snow. What a gorgeous picture. Even though all of us have been to many cool places, our breath was still taken away immediately by it and we exclaimed our appreciation with wonder.

We discovered that Royal Columns was a good top rope site for beginners: relatively easy approach with many mellow routes for selection. In order to feel the reality rather than blindly follow the description in the guidebook, as well as to assess the top rope site management for various routes, we climbed the following routes: Western Front (5.3), Rough Boys (5.5), Mush Maker (5.7), Double Trouble (5.5), and Twin Cracks (5.6). I led Rough Boys & Double Trouble and top roped the rest.

My favorite one was Twin Cracks. Basically the climbing area of this route is between two thin cracks and therefore it engages the climber to utilize different techniques. Sometimes she has to climb the face, sometimes cracks; being competent on stemming and jamming techniques is essential. Mush Maker also won much praise for its consistent fist jamming from half way up; however I remember Rough Boys better because it was my first lead after over a month of inactivity on rocks. In addition, I haven’t become intuitive on crack climbing moves yet, and the rating of this area is a bit harder; therefore Rough Boys did play rough on me. Double Trouble didn’t create much trouble, but its crux was a little tricky.

We also explored some non-driving possibilities. Since we stayed in the Windy Point Campground, we walked across the road and checked out two areas called The Oasis and Windy Point Columns. The rock quality there didn’t look too good; many routes were covered in dirt and posed potential rock fall hazard. Some routes in certain shady areas in Windy Point Columns looked mellower than the ones we climbed: a promising option for students to break into this sport. We decided to climb a seemingly easy route—possibly the first ascent. The lower 90 percent was a cruiser; a little dusty but we of course can do some cleaning if we need to. However the crux move near the top was too much for the first-timers; therefore we had to abort this option.

The last area we scouted is called Moon Rocks. Perfect trail system; super short approach. Too bad that the bridge crossing the river was bare; that means a wooden bridge on top of a rapid current without any hand railings at either side: not that great for kids. Good news is that Moon Rocks is wicked awesome for personal climbing: the rock is clean; there are many burly routes; easy access to the top to set up top rope anchors; the geology is intriguing. I love this area more than Royal Columns.

We didn’t have much time left, so we broke into two teams. One party led a 5.7 route called Internal Bliss. It was satisfying for them; that was a tunnel vision experience. While they were crawling in the chimney feature right behind the rock face, the arrangement of neighboring standalone pillars still allowed enough sunlight for them to navigate. My party set up a top rope for Straight Talk (5.10a). Oh, it was difficult; 100 feet of sustained 5.10a crack climbing. The good news is that you can always find tiny footholds on the face, since this non-smooth crack in a right facing corner did not take toe jams too well. Looking for an ideal foot position in the crack was exactly how I wasted much energy and therefore failed to send it.

The crack starts as a tiny crack which barely takes one’s fingertips and gradually widens up to hand jam and then fist jam and beyond. It then narrows down to fist jam and back to hand jam till the top. As I mentioned earlier, the crack was not smooth, taping your hands will be a wise decision.

Tieton River Rocks area doesn’t seem to get much of a crowd, even though it totally deserves it. In the guidebook, the authors encourage climbers to establish new routes over here. On our way back to the city, we did see many virgin rocks waiting for exploration. Perhaps it’s time for me to think about the art of bolting and… maybe pick up a drill?

Photo: Top-roping Straight Talk
Photo Credit: Craig McKibben

Just got out of the NOLS AKIC (Alaska Instructor Course) a few days ago. The course went well; however, I will not work for NOLS until next year because my calendar is very booked for this year. Currently I am at Pacific Northwest working for YMCA Seattle for three summer courses. I will have some in-town days between courses and I’ll try to throw some articles online because I have had thoughts storming in my brain for a while and I cannot wait to share them with you all.

Take care my friends and enjoy your cool summer!

After Constance left, I took a rest day on April 7 because my new partner would not arrive until the evening. I had a couple brief phone conversations beforehand with this new partner, Ted, and I was looking forward to his arrival. He had been traveling and climbing for a few weeks already and he was up to doing some moderate routes, which coincided with my goals. Moreover, he planed to stay in the area for a couple weeks, which meant if we developed a good partnership, I would not have to find new partners and I probably would be able to give Crimson Chrysalis another shot.

I spent most of my rest day in town; I did some laundry, bought some groceries, surfed a long while on the Internet, and had a refreshing shower!! It felt like my stay in Red Rocks was going to enter another brand new phase. This six sense appeared to be quite true. From a voice mail I received from Ted, I learned that his friends, Graham and Peter, were currently in the canyon and they happened to stay right next to my camp site. Right after I went back to the campsite after my luxurious Vegas side tour, I went ahead to greet them. What a surprise, they were the ones climbing Black Magic the day before and we already had a thorough conversation regarding desert weather on Lotta Balls Wall. I had to admit that the world was quite small. They offered me some deserts and hot drink, which injected a warm current into my body.

Ted arrived shortly after. I had to say the combination of Peter and Ted equals a never-ending story. They never ran out of topics, were always enthusiastic about people and affairs around the globe, and had a lot of life experience. I was very much intrigued by their story telling, as I grew up in a totally different region and never lived their eras. Graham seemed to be very mellow; he was always listening to his fellows actively and always displaying his comforting smile. I later learned that Graham had done much great alpine/rock climbing all over the place, no wonder I sensed reliability from him.

Ted and I agreed to do Olive Oil as our get-to-know-each-other climb. Olive Oil is an easy multi-pitch, and various guidebooks mark it as a must-do classic climb. The descent is a hike down, so we did not have to worry about the common and notorious rope-got-stuck issue in Red Rocks. The best thing is that the route gets much sun in the afternoon, and I was longing for warmer climbs.

On the way towards Rose Tower in which the route is located, I could see Crimson Chrysalis. I couldn’t help but detail my accident that happened not long ago and express my desire to finish the unfinished. Ted understood and responded with his willingness if our partnership turned out to be a positive one. We took our time hiking in and chatted quite a bit; at some point, we took an unexpected detour and had a snack break underneath a cool natural cave—that could be quite a nice emergency overnight site if necessary.

It took us a little longer to get to the base than that was estimated in the guidebook. At the base, some people left some warnings with chalk, such as “no bolts” and descent might be an issue and so on. We learned from the guidebook that in perhaps 2002, some unknown party added some bolts to the route; however, the bolts intruded the originality of the route so they might had be removed. It turned out there was in fact no bolts along the way, at least I did not find any. All the anchors we built were either pro anchors or natural anchors.

I started out leading the odd pitches; Ted the even ones. Since we couldn’t find any bolts we only loosely followed the topo and built an anchor to belay the follower when we found the best fit spot. The climb was not as good as expected, in my opinion; I felt that if a route is described as a classic, it should have offered a lot more. There were indeed some highlights: When I followed the second pitch, the finger and hand crack was beautiful, even though it was in fact a face climb; however, if one wants to practice some crack climbing, he could throw in some crack moves. There was a short section of chimney-like feature in the last pitch I led; since it was also a bit overhanging, the move required some commitment—short and sweet. The psychologically haunting part was the last section of the same pitch; it was a run out and I had to step on sketchy hollow flakes, and therefore I walked as careful as a cat.

During the climb, I was also looking across at a route locating in Jackrabbit Buttress, Northeast Face. It was the 8-pitch Aquarium (5.9). The line looked fun and seemed to contain many features, and the top must have sweet views. Only the first two pitches are 5.9s, and the rest is easy. However, the first 5.9 is a overhang and the second 5.9 is a 5.9 run out and the 5th pitch has some off-width 5.8. I had to be realistic so I jotted it down in my to-do list.

The hike down was kind of tedious. And because we had to hike down another gully, not the one leading to the base of the climb, we had to hike back up to gather our left-behind stuff. The approach and descent combined was much longer than the climb and I felt that the climb was not worth the effort; Ted agreed. If I were the author of the guidebooks, I would rate the climb as a 2-star rather than a 3. In any rate, Ted and I enjoyed each other’s company and we both felt confident that our team would grow to be a solid one.