Washington Pass

After some random cragging days in Squamish, Heather contacted me on climbing in WA pass for some alpine rock. Of course I accepted her offer to partner up since 1. Alpine Rock is my favorite type of climbing, 2. WA pass has short approaches 3. its hard to find partners that want to climb in the mountains.

The first day we decided to climb the East Face of Minuteman Tower. (6-7 pitches 5.10). The approach was causal like approaching the Liberty Bell. I led off on the first pitch 5.7 which was a sign of things to come, lots of loose rock, however enjoyable climbing. Heather led pitch 2 which contains some moves with questionable gear on rotton rock. I linked pitches 3 & 4 together 5.7 & 5.8; both pitches were a little runout, pitch 4 had a lot of rotton rock before the belay. I led pitch 5 (10a) which started as a finger crack flake to a 1 inch crack opening up to nice hand jams and fists at top; a great pitch. Heather got pitch 6 (5.9) a gymastic move over a roof to a nice long spilter with thin hands to fingers at the top, another great pitch. Pitch 7 including some meandering around on ledgy terrain to just below the summit. After several raps we were back on the ground. We agreed that the route was not a classic but lots of loose climbing with 2 good pitches. There are better routes at the pass. The next day we did the classic NW corner on NEWS. I had done the route many years ago, and it was nice to go back a lead some of the harder pitches on the route. An excellent route on great rock. I really enjoyed climbing at the pass and told myself I need to go back for some more classics before I head back south. Next back up to Squamish.