The Tieton cliffs near Yakima have a wealth of crack climbing for climbers of all abilities. Christine wanted to break in her new rack, and the weather looked iffy everywhere else so we spent 3 days climbing the beautiful cracks at Tieton. At night Fletch and I played duets with his guitar and my harmonica. It doesn't get any better than that!
This is me starting up inca roads, a 5.9 crack at royal columns. The crack starts out with a 5 inch offwidth which narrows down to 5.9 finger locks at the top.
Now that I know where the rests are I'd like to try it again without the hand dogging.
the 5.9 finger jam crux
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This is Christine starting up a 5.6 called twin cracks. When I cleaned it for her I was amazed at the run outs between some of the pieces up in the fist jam section at the top. When I asked her about it, she said she'd run out of large stuff and decided to go for it. At the very top exit move, her protection was a tied off baseball sized chockstone...nice work Christine!
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This is a 5.8 route called render us weightless. Fletch calls this the "move of the future". This gal was from Seattle. Despite being short, she cruised the roof move
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Fletch leading the roof.
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Fletch self portrait
Christine
Fletch leading Orange Sunshine, 10b. It was a desperate series of vertical fingerlocks, with very thin feet. We couldn't believe he led it without hanging. After this climb we started calling him our ropegun.
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Me cleaning Orange Sunshine. Those were razor sharp fingerlocks. That's a grimace of pain...sweet route!
This is Fletch cleaning Ed's Jam, 5.8, a beautiful 200 foot handjam crack. It's similar to Karate in the quality of the jams, but much easier...a stellar cruiser.
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This is ropegun Fletch leading an eleven something at the Bend. It was another desperate fingerlock fest. I have no idea how he can lead these things while placing pro. It was desperately hard to hang on while toproping...fun stuff! Christine found that her smaller fingers gave her a distinct advantage in the thin fingerlocks. She cruised up it in excellent style while pulling gear.
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Me and Christine on the suspension bridge leading to the Bend cliffs at Tieton
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Christine rappeling
Posing on the suspension bridge
Fletch leading a surprisingly hard 5.9 at royal columns. I need to try leading this one.
Christine and her new rack, we put some scratches in it this weekend!