Posts under ‘climbing’

The Pacific North West is notorious for bad weather. After tasting some of this in Squamish, we headed for the only climbing area that had clear skies in the forecast… Leavenworth. To make things even sweeter, our good friend Dave offered to show us around the area and introduce us to the best climbs! Here’s [...]

After three or so months on the road, Erin and I grew tired of domestic travel and decided to take Lily international! Actually, a good climbing friend of ours told us it would be “mega retahded” to go through Washington and NOT climb at Squamish, BC. And I’ll be damned before we look like mega [...]

We were almost back to The Bivy around dusk after a long day of climbing and I was already feeling a little on edge because early on in our hike back we were forced off the trail due to an angry rattlesnake. When Ben suddenly put out his hand to stop me from going any [...]

While staying in The Bivy at Smith Rock one of the first things we heard about was Joel’s infamous Monkey Swing. As you will soon see, the Monkey Swing is a huge swing that Joel has set-up anchored to a pillar known as the Monkey Face. The swing is pretty intimidating and neither Ben nor [...]

After spending a week at Smith Rock, I can say that it is one of my favorite climbing destinations. Now, sport climbing isn’t really my thing and Smith Rock is a mecca for sport climbing. So for me, the climbing was good, but not amazing. What does make Smith Rock amazing is the camping! Ok, [...]

Our first and only climbing stop in Oregon was Smith Rock… that’s right, it’s named after yours truly. As usual, we spent most of our time climbing multipitch routes in the area, but we also couldn’t resist pulling on some of the harder sport routes as well. The first day was warm, no it was [...]

I had heard lots of people rave about how good the climbing at Lover’s Leap is, but it really didn’t hit home until I actually got to climb there. The climbing at Lover’s Leap is… AWESOME! We spent just three days climbing at Lover’s Leap, but I can say with confidence that it is one [...]

Rock climbing can be fun, safe, and also very scary. On a good climb all three of those things will be combined into a scary but awesome experience that won’t kill you. Climbing at Pinnacles National Monument however, is mostly just scary without the fun or safety. The rock quality there is not something that [...]

Sometimes things just don’t work out the way you want them to. Courtwright Reservoir was the next climbing area on our list after The Needles. We had a hard time finding info on the area, but we decided to give it a go anyways. Located high in the mountains east of Fresno, Courtwright Reservoir offered [...]

Before we even got to the Needles I saw a picture of this fire watch tower on the top of one of the formations. I read that you could actually climb up to the tower, go into the tower, AND, if you are lucky, there is the chance of freshly baked cookies in the tower [...]