Road Tripping - Part 1: Washington

The last few months have been filled with magic! As the summer came to a close and the rain made its way towards Squamish, BC we began packing up and looking forwards toward our next adventure; our American road trip!
It was a beautiful day in Squamish the day we left, and as tempting as it was to stay and spend it in the forest, it was also lovely to leave this amazing town in all its glory. I don't think I will ever forget our time in Squamish, I am positive that the two and a half months that we spent in the adventure capital of Canada has changed me and my outlooks in many profound ways. That said, the end of our time in Squamish marked the beginning of what has been (thus far) an amazing journey. From Squamish we headed south to the USA boarder, a nerve racking experience with a van packed FULL of all our worldly possessions. We were almost certain that we would be stopped and searched at the boarder and thus our intention was to make it only as far as Bellingham, WA. By some amazing stroke of luck we were instead waved through and as such managed to make it all the way to Leavenworth, WA which was to be our home for the next three weeks.
The journey to Leavenworth was a little tricky, recent mudslides had closed major roads and thus we were left winding along detours through mountain passes hoping that our headlights would illuminate the way well enough to see us safely to our next home. Once we had passed through Leavenworth safely, thanks only to Josh's amazing skills, as my sleeping certainly didn't positively influence our safe arrival, we continued onto Icicle Canyon Road, along which free van camping is allowed and set up camp.
As the sun beckoned us into wakefulness the following morning we became aware of our changed environment. No longer were we surrounded by fairytale forests of British Columbia, instead we found ourselves encircled by arid hills and steep mountains alongside the booming white-water river of Icicle canyon. The arid environment was not at all what we were expecting from Washington, which often gets a bad rap for its near-constant rainfall, apparently this reputation is well deserved west of the Cascade Mountains, but Leavenworth's location to the east of this range makes for much drier conditions. After a slow start it was time to see what Leavenworth bouldering had to offer...the short answer is a LOT!!!
Leavenworth's offers the most unique granite bouldering that I have seen on this trip thus far. The huecos, pockets and incut jugs available offered the varied, strong and gymnastic movement more commonly associated with sandstone bouldering, whilst the slick topouts and crimps offered the technical challenges of granite; a pretty unique, and cool, blend. I found Leavenworth bouldering to be quite strength dependent. In Squamish I found that technique was ALWAYS the answer, climbs would seem tough for the grade until you unlocked a particular, and I mean PARTICULAR, foot placement, alternatively Leavenworth seemed to require a lot more power.
After visiting the likes of Red Rocks and Bishop, etc (all of which I will write about in subsequent posts) I can now see that Leavenworth is quite a "user-friendly" area, there are many short lines on offer, where a top out fall would leave only your nerves in tatters, not your ankles (this is certainly not available everywhere!) and there really is climbing available at all levels. Another remarkable thing about Leavenworth climbing is the quietness of the area, unlike Squamish, which is literally heaving with climbers on a summer weekend, you can often find that you don't bump into any other climbers on a day out in Leavenworth. The potential for new lines in Leavenworth is also overwhelming, as a relatively young area there are still so many unclaimed lines, simply awaiting an inspired, brush wielding climber to develop them!

An undeveloped line I found and we cleaned - unfortunately the rain prevented a first-accent

Unfortunately a kidney infection sidelined me for much of our time in Leavenworth and during our second week I spent more time at the hospital than I did at the boulders, that said, I cannot speak highly enough of Leavenworth as a climbing destination. I found myself slightly disappointed that we had spent more than two months in Squamish and allowed ourselves only a few weeks in Washington; Squamish was great, don't mistake my sentiments, but Leavenworth took me completely by surprise, I cannot wait to go back! I highly recommend that anyone heading to Squamish for the summer stops in at Leavenworth at the end of the Squamish season. Being so close to Leavenworth it would be a crime not experience what it has to offer.
What about rest days? Leavenworth is the craziest little town. More Bavarian themed than Bavaria itself; Leavenworth took on its quaint Germanic feel simply to differentiate itself from its neighboring communities, the town does not actually have any apparent ties to Bavaria. Despite the somewhat absurd reasoning behind branding itself as a Bavarian Village, Leavenworth's tourism market is booming as a result of this choice. Due to this tourism market, there is plenty to see and do on a rest day, just don't expect to find an available cost-free park on a weekend. Mini-golf, cinemas, crazy little shops and a pretty decent library are all available for the skin-growing climber.

Leavenworth: More Bavarian themed than Bavaria!

The start of our third week in Leavenworth came with rain; this rain was unyielding for the next couple of days and as such we decided to make the most of having a car and see if nearby Gold Bar would offer us more favorable climbing conditions. That it most certainly did NOT! The gentle, but constant, rain of Leavenworth was replaced by an all out mountain storm in Gold Bar. I have never experienced anything like this before, it was madness! The rain blew in horizontally, sticks and other debris were thrown against our car by the overwhelmingly strong winds and there were whole minutes wherein the lightning turned the sky otherworldly hues of purple, pink and orange. We literally spent the next three days in the back of the van hiding from the weather, getting up only to find food and to pee. Needless to say, many books were read during this time!

Not happy about the rain!

With sore backs and restless bodies we once again tried our luck at moving on to escape the weather, this time our hopes of climbing in Washington again were abandoned, instead we simply wanted to have the chance to get out of the car for 10 seconds without having to towel dry ourselves afterwards. Duvall was our next stop, for no particular reason, except that it had a library, was on our way to Seattle (our next planned stop) and it was not Gold Bar and as such may not share the horrible weather forecast we had seen. Duvall was heaven, though after days upon days of being couped-up in the back of the car, it really didn't take much to please us! The local library was super fancy, had fast internet and an extensive collection of very cheap second hand books to replace our dwindling van library and the rain had all but stopped. We spent the next couple of days at the library and enjoying being vertical again!
Our next stop was Seattle, as I had a meeting to attend there. It was a strange transformation swapping the comfortable climbing clothes that I have worn for the last few months for more formal attire, but a night in a hotel was a welcomed luxury for us both. After my meeting in Seattle, Josh and I headed to the Pike Place Markets, we only had half a day in Seattle and we thought this would be a cool place to spend it. We were right in this assumption.

Pike Place Market - where owners have attitude!

The Pike Place Market is as fabulous as it is varied. The local artists, some of whom seemed more 'creative' than talented, the displays by the fish mongers and the unique attitude of the store owners all intertwined to create a truly unique and chaotic atmosphere, once you visit you can understand why Starbucks chose this 'happening' place to open their flagship store. After excising great restraint, and making a few little purchases, it was time to leave the markets and to farewell Washington as we hit the road again. As with all the places we have been, it was sad leaving Washington, though as I have said before, in order to experience the new we must first part with the familiar and thus onto new places we journeyed.
Through the forests, blazing with the colors of autumn, we drove and into the mountains once more; as we left behind the fiery reds and lush greens of the forests and entered the yellow, sun-burnt, rolling hills of south-east Washington we began to realize that America is a great deal more varied than we had initially believed it to be. Overwhelmed by that which we had already experienced and eager to experience more, we drove into the night with hopeful anticipation of what Idaho would have to offer us....