Saturday, October 10, 2009

Darrington, WA - Spring Mountain

With the threat of cooler wetter weather upon us, thoughts of squeaking in one more route was swirling in my head. I'd been up to check out a somewhat newer climbing area called Spring Mountain a few weeks prior and spotted what looked like a nice climb. Other Side of Tracks is a 5 pitch 5.10 of mixed nature although it is predominantly bolts; Camalots .4 - 2 does nicely and covers everything on this route.

My friend Sunil picked up a gig in Hong Kong so it would be a slim chance that I would get to see him in the near future to climb. I rung him and he was easy prey for an early meet at the PnR. Sarah was also on board as she is always ready to go and hit it with her endless appetite for stone.

The route is pleasant with an interesting overlap on pitch 1 and a spicy fun finish to that pitch. The money pitch is the 3rd and it keeps giving nice holds and smears. 3 of us finished up in under 4 hours and down in about 1 hr. Go give'er a run and enjoy the solitude.

Thanks Sunil and Sarah for getting out and enjoying a beautiful day doing what we love!


Sunil wondering if he's going to get the infamous Topher epic adventure - home by 6pm dude!


Sarah leads us off today - never mind the moss it is 'off route'


Must recall spicy move, que?

This is the man himself - stylin P1


...with ease brotha...


Steeper P1 finish


Sunil enjoys his pitch 3


Keep'in eyes on the lead man cause he is movin smooth - note snow on hills


What I'm watching


Trouble brewing in the back :)


View from P3 belay of the valley below


P4 was a bit short


Racing to the finish -last pitch


Making our way down


One happy climber


The Spring Mountain Club

A little time to spend contemplating the beauty of this place, the flow of our lives and the constant state of change.







1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wow, it wasn't that long I go I was scrubbing pitch 1 for the FA. Glad you liked it. A little on how the name of this route came to be. When Mark Hanna first found the place, route development was hot and heavy up and to the right on the cleaner rock. Steven Packard was scoping what came to be this route, but the bottom of the crag had a lot fo moss/veg. Mark kept on harassing us about why we wanted to go "over there" to that dirty nasty side of the crag, hence we were frequenters of the "other side of the tracks"
Shapp