Alex standing at the base of the climb, showing Jello Tower to the left.
It's been a non-year climbing so far, between crummy weather and other obligations. In fact, this was the first time I'd been out since September! Weather Underground promised good conditions Saturday in Leavenworth, and so I picked Alex up around 6:30, hardly getting lost at all finding his house.
The drive went more quickly than usual, maybe because of the incessant drizzle keeping the outdoors types home. There was actually a smattering of snow going over the summit! The drizzle slowed down but never really stopped. I was so desparate for some climbing that I would have gone up there even in rain, but Alex is more sane than me. But by the time we got to Castle Rock, the drizzle had just about completely stopped.
We walked up the footpath to survey the route. I've never completely believed in Jello tower, since I've never seen a photo that shows it as anything more than part of the face of the rock. But, it is in fact a separate feature.
Back down to the car to get the gear, and back up the trail. Still not raining, but the clouds, if anything, looked even less optomistic than before.
I took the first lead. I'd heard that the start is the crux, since the route is so frequently done that it's all polished, and in fact it did seem to be a bit stiffer than 5.5, but on the other hand, it's been six months since I've had rock shoes on. A bit of chimney technique does make for easy going up the lower portion.
Alex followed after me, a bit more awkwardly since he had a backpack with our shoes, etc, so he couldn't use his back on the chimney. Then, I headed on up.
You can do the climb as either two or three pitches. From the top of Jello Tower, I did the rest of the climb in a single pitch, since once you get past the fractured bits, the top pitch is just fun cruising, and I didn't want to stop. On his web report, Matt Perkins says "The pitch above this optional belay is one of the most enjoyable in Leavenworth. Wildly exposed but easy, wide cracks and ample ledges zig zag to the summit of the Rock. This is a climb not to be missed!" And it was, beautiful! I didn't put in a single piece of pro after the top of Jello tower, just clipping rusty pins on pitch 2, and didn't bother protecting pitch 3 at all.
The problem with doing the upper part in one pitch is that it puts you well out of earshot, between the river, the cars, and the wind. And, not having climbed in a while, we were out of practice with the rope signals.
By the time we summited, the weather was quite nice, and sort of sunny. On the way down we watched a party of four doing Saber, which I'd planned on doing next. Instead, I started off on Winter Solstice, which started out pretty fun, but I got to a point where I just couldn't continue. Probably I could have made it, but I didn't have adequite confidence, and my arms were getting pretty shot. I ended up spending the better part of an hour cleaning the route; Alex had to send up the nut tool so I could pry out a cam I stuck in over-extended.
Meanwhile, the leader of the party beind us on Midway stepping over from Jello Tower. (Alex' photo.)
Many of the holds were covered with what I assumed was chalk, but it was so thick and slimy that the holds had no friction value at all. I wonder if it was actually chalk; it was not in locations that looked like they'd accumulate bird poop, like at the crack at the back of the chimney you traverse beneath, but there seemed to be so much of it that it was hard to believe people used that much chalk -- and did that route so much. But it was pretty well sheltered by the roof, so rain wouldn't wash it off.
We bailed from the rock, and went up the Icycle to Mountaineers Dome so Alex could practice crack climbing, running laps on the 5.2 crack on there, which is really quite fun, until his family showed up. Then, after a beer and a bit of visiting, I headed on home, up over the pass before sunset.