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Rock Climbing
On Belay In Paradise, area rock climbing
by: Tricia M. Cook
Each year we wait for the snow to melt and the air to become fragranced with pinesap and loam. Our muscles twitch with memory. Slowly appearing from the white quilt of winter are countless climbing routes up tall walls, sweet crags, and big boulders. Routes both existing and imagined.
Mazama’s Fun Rock: Geof Childs, author, climber and Methow Valley resident, talks about the days in the very early ‘70’s before sport climbing –routes with pre-placed bolts or anchors to protect the roped climber from possible falls- had arrived on the American climbing scene. Childs and a handful of guides and climbers used the Mazama crags to practice for more technical and sustained alpine routes in the North Cascades and beyond.
By the mid-1980’s Bryan Burdo, of Seattle and Mazama, began cleaning the Fun Rock crags and putting up sport routes. Decades later, the Fun Rock area encompasses groupings of just under a dozen meta-volcanic crags with over 80 routes, and counting.
Climbing is about the hike to the bottom of an alpine route, the epic scramble up mountain scree, mentally preparing for even heavier vertical. You become fully engaged in solving the problem and finding your next toehold. Climbing is about the view from the top, and sometimes the relief of refreshment waiting in the cooler below.
“Fun Rock, Gate Creek, Goat Wall, Prospector Wall, Washington Pass… Our area climbing offers different experiences. And the rock here is excellent: Variety! Diversity! Quality! There is something here for every climbing level, from beginner to expert.” Says Burdo.
The long day ends and we have climbed our hearts out. Far off in this great expanse of turquoise sky, thunder bangs its gongs. Distant clouds dissolve into chaos. Beyond this sweeping embrace of rock wall, we lay down in tall grasses beneath an ancient slab. Dirt is caked under our barely-there fingernails and we are as warmed and tranquilized as lizards on a rock. Although we are a little bit bruised and bleeding, and more than a little bit dusty and tired, it has been a very good day.
For a guide to area sport routes, bouldering, and traditional alpine routes, pick up Bryan Burdo’s Mazama Rock, a Vertical Paradise locally at Trails End Bookstore, Winthrop Mountain Sports, the Mazama Store.
To learn to climb or for guided alpine routes, contact North Cascades Mountain Guides: www.ncmountainguides.com
Each year we wait for the snow to melt and the air to become fragranced with pinesap and loam. Our muscles twitch with memory. Slowly appearing from the white quilt of winter are countless climbing routes up tall walls, sweet crags, and big boulders. Routes both existing and imagined.
Mazama’s Fun Rock: Geof Childs, author, climber and Methow Valley resident, talks about the days in the very early ‘70’s before sport climbing –routes with pre-placed bolts or anchors to protect the roped climber from possible falls- had arrived on the American climbing scene. Childs and a handful of guides and climbers used the Mazama crags to practice for more technical and sustained alpine routes in the North Cascades and beyond.
By the mid-1980’s Bryan Burdo, of Seattle and Mazama, began cleaning the Fun Rock crags and putting up sport routes. Decades later, the Fun Rock area encompasses groupings of just under a dozen meta-volcanic crags with over 80 routes, and counting.
Climbing is about the hike to the bottom of an alpine route, the epic scramble up mountain scree, mentally preparing for even heavier vertical. You become fully engaged in solving the problem and finding your next toehold. Climbing is about the view from the top, and sometimes the relief of refreshment waiting in the cooler below.
“Fun Rock, Gate Creek, Goat Wall, Prospector Wall, Washington Pass… Our area climbing offers different experiences. And the rock here is excellent: Variety! Diversity! Quality! There is something here for every climbing level, from beginner to expert.” Says Burdo.
The long day ends and we have climbed our hearts out. Far off in this great expanse of turquoise sky, thunder bangs its gongs. Distant clouds dissolve into chaos. Beyond this sweeping embrace of rock wall, we lay down in tall grasses beneath an ancient slab. Dirt is caked under our barely-there fingernails and we are as warmed and tranquilized as lizards on a rock. Although we are a little bit bruised and bleeding, and more than a little bit dusty and tired, it has been a very good day.
For a guide to area sport routes, bouldering, and traditional alpine routes, pick up Bryan Burdo’s Mazama Rock, a Vertical Paradise locally at Trails End Bookstore, Winthrop Mountain Sports, the Mazama Store.
To learn to climb or for guided alpine routes, contact North Cascades Mountain Guides: www.ncmountainguides.com
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