Leavenworth & Gold Bar 2011

The famous Leavenworth sign

24 hours after leaving Berkeley, we arrived at our destination: Leavenworth, WA. Lured 800 miles from home with the promise of granite boulders and loaded up with many crash pads, camping gear and our faithful dog, Lucy, we were excited to explore a new area. Our first order of business was to find a place to camp and we lucked out when guided by intelligence gathered by our friend, Justin, we found a perfect, shady spot at the end of an untraveled road near one of the many rivers.

Lyn on The Sword, v3

What we discovered immediately is that Leavenworth in August is hot. Consulting our guide, we decided to head to the Sword area since it was one of the few areas recommended to us with all day shade. Highlights of the day were doing the highball classic, The Sword (v3), seeing a cool beetle on the crashpad and finding a rubber snake on one of the topouts! I was a bit concerned when Lucy came to meet us on the top of the boulder and seemed oblivious of the snake as it didn't bode well for her awareness of rattlesnakes which the guidebook warned were plentiful in the area. Paul also managed to climb the rest of the 3-star v-hard problems that found me lacking in power and span. Yay for vacation!

A Rubber Boa at The Sword Area

Strange bug

Paul Trying the move on The Practitioner, v11

After our first day climbing, we decided the best way to get good temps was to do early morning sessions since the rock was so heated by baking in the sun all day that afternoon sessions seemed pointless. Despite being on vacation, we set our alarm for 6AM hopeful that we could get at least a few hours of climbing before the sweltering began. This was only partially successful.

The view from Gold Bar

Late on our second day of climbing in the heat, Paul suggested we head to Gold Bar, "only a 45 minute drive from Leavenworth" as our trusty friends assured us. An hour and a half later we found ourselves at the boulders wondering what kind of speed records Justin and Becky had broken to drive the 80 miles in such good time. Our first and only climb was Water, recommended to us by said speed demons. It was a good one that I found especially challenging given the big last move. It was enough to assure us of the high quality of the rock.

Lyn trying Aries: God of War, v8

Lyn bouldering on the Squamish-like boulders of the Sanctuary

One of the coolest shaped boulders around, Fraggle Rock @ Gold Bar

Lyn on Obesity, v7

Sunset view from Fraggle Rock at Gold Bar

We found the Clearcut/Sanctuary/Forest areas of Gold Bar to be strongly reminiscent of Squamish down to the same kind of banana slugs and berries that Lander love to pick and eat. Too bad there was no smoothie truck in the parking lot! The Aries problems were both intricate and interesting and I really enjoyed watching Paul send them for the family. The Obesity problem was one of the best I did on the trip, with the most amazing pinch I've ever used on a climb and the views from Fraggle Rock at sunset were spectacular. Unfortunately, there were swarms of tiny biting insects that came out at the same time, so lingering wasn't desirable. I made Paul and Lucy hang around while I beasted myself on it all the same. After most of our days of climbing, we hightailed it to the Prospector, a local restaurant/bar/karaoke establishment. We had made friends with the owner, Steve, on our first trip to Gold Bar when we realized that everywhere else was closed by 9pm and we were starving. Steve was kind enough to make us dinner after he had closed the kitchen and entertained us of life on his ranch in Eastern Washington.

Lyn putting the pimp in Pimpsqueak, v9

Lyn on Who Nose, v7

Lyn warming up on the amazing Five Star Boulder

Lyn & Lucy making friend in Leavenworth

Scenes from Leavenworth, WA

Lyn on the committing Sleeping Lady, v2

Icicle Canyon

Paul and Lyn glad to have survived the Sleeping Lady, v2

Lyn on Premium Coffee, v7

Give a dog a bone! Lucy enjoying a deer bone.

Paul on Yosemite Highball, v3

Lyn on the crux dyno of Right Angles, v8

Lucy enjoying playing fetch by the river

Our campsite

Leaving just in time, smoke from the fire in Tumwater Canyon visible in Leavenworth

If you've got 20 minutes to kill, here is the video we made of our trip

South Africa 2009: Part 6

Cam learning programming from Steve and Randy

So far, you guys have seen about many of our adventures, climbing and otherwise. But what you haven't seen is that every night, we come back to our cottage on the Strauss Farm (called the Sassie House) have dinner, show photos and generally have a good time. One night, Steve and Randy showed Cam how to do some basic programming and he took it from there. It didn't take long from him to get the hang of it and he created a crude game where two players rolled dice against each other - pretty cool!



Random Japanese hardman on Armed Response [v13]

We headed up to The Fortress to try some of the climbs there, mainly Armed Response and The Vise. Justin, Randy and I were having a hard time on the former and just to make us feel better, we watched three guys from this group of Japanese climbers send the problem. We then joked around amongst ourselves that the score was Japan 3, USA 0 but I think they overhead us! Oops.



Bushman rock art


Crossing the creek on our rock art walk

There is a lot of Bushmen rock art in our area, so we checked out the Sevilla Rock Art Trail, which is on the land where we are staying. The hike itself was as good as the rock art because the area had tons of wild flowers. The creek was in 'flood stage' so we had to take off our shoes to ford - Steve made it across despite his concern about parasites!


Randy on Black Shadow [v13]

After a fun day climbing at Road Crew, Randy, Justin and I headed to the Tea Farm to check out Black Shadow, a cool slopey / squeezy roof that many people had recommended to me. We sessioned the climb to work out the moves. It took a good 3 hours, but we figured everything out.

This climbing area is on the western slope of Pakhuis Pass so the sunsets can be spectacular, as seen in the above photo. Like much of the climbing on private land, payment is required, but what is nice about the Tea Farm, is that having some tea and pastries qualifies as payment. Lyn and Cam quite enjoyed that aspect!


Hiking to the top of Table Mountain, a view of the tram and Cape Town


The summit gully


Enjoying the top of Table Mountain

We drove down to Cape Town to hike to the top of Table Mountain (1060m) and get dinner at a fancy restaurant afterwards. The trail to the top basically consisted of hundreds of stone steps that took a pretty direct path to the top. We didn't exactly get an early start (3pm) and while we were huffing and puffing on the way up, many of the hikers were having an epic time getting down. I saw grown men and women doing a modified crab walk down the steeper sections! We didn't crawl on the way down, but everyone's legs were doing the 'Elvis Shake' by the end.


Cam and Steve contemplating dinner at Le Quartier Francais


Just a sample of one of our amazing dishes

After the Table Mountain hike we were definitely ready for dinner so we drove to Franschhoek to go to Le Quartier Francais, which is regarded by many as the best restaurant in Africa. It must be known that I am no foodie, so it was cool to be there with Lyn, Randy and Steve so I could listen them talk about the food. Some of the dishes were familiar, but many were exotic - they prepared celery to somehow look like a sponge! Cameron was adventurous and got the 8 course menu (without the wine pairing!) and was really good about trying all the strange things that showed up - of course it helped that everything tasted so good!


A little touch up work

As a by-product of the road construction, some of the smaller roads were inaccessible. We tried to fix the road to 8 Day Rain with our feet, but thankfully some workers took pity on us and used some more effective equipment to fix the junction! Things were going our way, and Lyn sent Wills' Slab, v7, while there.

At the end of the day I put some time in on Black Shadow, and started getting good linkage. Lyn and Cam were nice and kept me company by playing gin and eating snacks.


Lyn warming up at Fields of Joy

As the end of our trip drew near, we started to try to take advantage of every climbing opportunity. The forecast said rain, but we headed to Fields of Joy early so Lyn could finish off some climbs there. The rain held off for a little while, long enough to send Dirty Lies, v7. (We actually put Lyn's pants on the finishing holds to keep them dry) Lyn also figured out the moves on Maniac, v7, but the rain started to get horizontal and we had to leave.


Sunset after a day at the Sassies

Our planned mission to Road Crew and the Fortress the next day had to be aborted due to the torrential rains from the previous night - the storm even left a dusting of snow on Pakhuis Pass. While I figured this was my only chance to have a snowball fight in Africa, I got overruled and we climbed at the Sassies instead. We got thwarted by the passing showers a few times, but near the end of the day the temperatures got really good. I managed to send Shosholoza, v12, a classic problem named after a famous South African folk song, and Randy sent Paul Abdul, v11, a short and deceptively easy looking climb.


Randy on The Vise [v13]

The cold temperatures continued and the crew headed back to the pass. Randy and Beth left early to try Tomorrow I'll Be Gone, v10 before it got in the sun and the early morning mission paid of: they both sent. The climbing at the Fortress (the highest area in Pakhuis Pass) was almost too cold. The chilly temperatures made it hard for the folks climbing (I was resting), especially on longer problems like The Vise.


Randy on The Scorpion [v6]

For our last day we headed to the newest area in the Rocklands, the Champagne Sector, to see what it was all about. Nalle Hukkataival had recently put up the hardest problem in the Rocklands, but the rumors said there was much more to see. The area was quite different than the rest of the Rocklands. The climbing was mostly vertical and very technical. Randy's send of the highball arete, The Scorpion, was impressive, but he was outdone only a few minutes earlier by Cameron's courageous send of a highball slab in borrowed shoes. This was only the second time that Cam climbed on the trip!

I headed back with Justin and Randy to the Tea Farm for one more chance on Black Shadow. Randy, who was climbing for his third straight day and complained of being tired - sent on his very first try! I managed to send as well after a number of miscues and Justin got extremely close, until an ankle tweak prevented him from trying any more.


Our last night, dinner at the Khosian Kitchen

We got a free meal at the Khosian Kitchen, the restaurant on the farm, to wrap up the day. An Austrian climber had shot a springbok and our farm owner had decided to make a feast with the meat. Not a bad way to end our trip.

We are back home now, safe and sound after the butt-numbing return flight. Cameron is now enjoying his 'real' vacation (doing absolutely nothing) and Lyn and I are back to work. Thanks for reading!

-Raza

South Africa 2009: Part 5

Sunset from The Fortress

This might be a tad redundant after the above photo, but the sunsets here are ridiculous. We spent a full day climbing at Road Crew and The Fortress. We climbed so much, we forgot to take photos! Steve did point out the sunset and Lyn raced over to a good spot to take the picture.


Our Robben Island tour guide


Nelson Mendela's Cell, for part of his 27 year imprisonment

We went to Cape Town for the weekend and got a tour of the prison on Robben Island. This is the prison where the hardened criminals and the political prisoners were sent during apartheid. They intended to put these two groups together to break the spirit of the political prisoners, but they were having too much influence on the hardened criminals so they ended up separating the two groups!

Interestingly, the political prisoners referred to Robben Island as "The University", because they spent all their free time reading, learning, and debating politics.


Us with a view of Cape Town in the background


Cape Town from the harbor


Hanging out on the waterfront after the tour of Robben Island


The Aquarium

Our next day we checked out the aquarium, which was really cool. They had many crazy species and some very large tanks with sharks.



Rock art in the 8 Day Rain bouldering area


Randy trying his nemesis, The Shark


Alan on the big slab @ 8 Day Rain

Yesterday we bouldered at a newer area called 8 Day Rain. Randy had tried The Shark but it was hot and the holds sharp. It was cooler when we went back but the holds were still sharp! Justin, Randy or I didn't feel that bad about it because we had all sent Barracuda earlier.

At the end of day we all went down to the lower area to try the only slab in the Rocklands. Well, I guess I wasn't psyched to try it - so I took photos instead.

Today is a downpour so Cam and I are hanging out at the internet cafe in town. Lyn and the rest of the folks headed in to Cape Town for more excitement.

-Raza