Newhalem for a Day!

Jimmy pulling the roof on OSX(5.13a)

Yesterday a small group of us made it out to a new crag located in the far north east of Washington and right inside of the little (understatement) town of Newhalem. Jimmy and Lisa (my adopted little brother and sister) accompanied me the three and half hour journey. This crag is located literally right off the side of highway 20 and is one of the coolest crags I've been to in a while. Sweeping grey walls of gneiss (which is very similar texturally to granite) striped by brown and black water streaks soared from the ground at our feet. The belay stations are amazing, flat ground, nice big leaf maples providing shade, no sketchy jump off points, and the routes are all protected extremely well. On our warm up of Luna (5.11a) Lisa put up 9 draws on a 45 foot route!!!!

Jimmy sticking the crux on OSX.


'12c for a Day'(5.12b)


'Shoe Phone'(5.12b)

The climbing is typically not very steep, instead trending towards mostly vertical to slabby or slightly overhung. The routes are mostly technical edging, with some dynamic movement, but it's a mixed bag to be honest. While I got shut down on everything except the warm up, Jimmy had another spectacular showing of his new found power endurance ticking a 5.13a second go and onsighting his first and second .12b's. I almost managed a flash and redpoint of 'shoe phone' (5.12b) but got shut down on the slab part (major disappointment) on my last go of the day. Oh well, I'll definitely be back!


Me on the bottom part of OSX.

Lisa had a good day as well but will have to come back for some of the twelves as well. She did have an extremely close flash attempt of '12c for a day' (5.12b) coming off just before the chains.
We climbed from noon till 8 and it never stopped raining all day, but we never got wet, and neither did the routes!

Lisa staring down the crux throw on OSX.


Negotiating the bulge, OSX.

I'll probably never day trip this area again, but there is a nice camp ground less than a mile away from the crag so I'm psyched to get back out here for a couple days next time.
It looks like it is back to the projects at Little si tomorrow and then maybe a break for four or five days. I'm enjoying part time right now, but am accomplishing very little on the rope (read nothing at ALL!!) so it's time to step back, clean out some of the clutter in my apartment, and re-gain some 'spiritual psych'.
I think the next crag we want to hit up is Equinox, so if anybody has a topo or some beta on how to get there drop me a line!!