Homeward Bound

On the way home from Squamish we drove through central Washington towards Leavenworth, the state’s Bavarian village (or 1.3 square miles of practical joke). We were welcomed by the unpleasant sight of round tourists and the unpleasant sound of old Bavarian music playing from a raised speaker at the center of town. After a quick obligatory bratwurst and beer we headed towards the dusty parking lot that was to be our home. 

The Bavarian Style Shoppes of downtown Leavenworth

Thankfully, the climbing near Leavenworth is wonderful, and we enjoyed a full day of sends. We returned to our camp dirty and tired, and as we lay down on the pads for an afternoon nap a raincloud snuck up on us and we fled for town. However, we felt rather out of place, and decided to continue south to Oregon through the night.

Jason on The Pocket, V4

Cody on The Undercling, V5

Itai, flashing The Sail, V9. Photo by Cody

We awoke in Smith Rock underneath beautiful 500-foot welded tuff spires. However, the oppressive sun was quickly upon us and it tried very hard to stop us from climbing (and nearly succeeded). We got on a total of 4 climbs during our two-day stay, all with wildly different styles of holds and movement. 

Compacted volcanic ash and a river. Nice.

Jason, crimping some chicken-head features on Cosmos, 5.10a.

We waved goodbye to Smith and headed home, finally. It’s nice to be back in god blessed ‘merica!