A forecast slight cooldown left my climbing partner and I pondering our options for this past weekend. After considerong some drives of up to 5 hours away we eventually settled on a trip a bit over two hours away on the east side of Priest Lake towardsd the north end up in the Idaho Panhandle.
Leaving town shortly after 5 and with a dinner stop in Priest River we started up the dirt road to where we would camp shortly after sunset having seen a few deer on the drive in.
As we drove up and the road worsened we passed several gtoups camping, we could tell because they had fires down among the trees. I started to fear a fire getting out of control and us being up this drainage with no other good exit but since I'm typing this those fears were for naught.
When we arrived at the parking lot it was gloriously deserted and the skies were clear so the chairs came out and we watched the star for a bit while I drank a bottle of Obsidian Stout that had shaken open in the fridge and leaked a bit on the drive up.
The next morning I stepped out of the camper and looked up at the rock above us and saw this
And then just a little bit later saw these
Our objective was a bolted 5 pitch route that goes uo the open slab in this picture.
But there is so much more climbing to be had.
One thing about slab climbing is it does force you to trust your feet
After several hundred feet of walking on all fours with maybe 3-4 handholds the entire time we reached the top
Looking back down the route. The orange at the bottom is the gear of some other climbers who were just starting up. Turned out to be friends of ours, passed them as we rappelled down.
After returning to camp we were going to head to some natural waterslides about 1.5 miles upstream but people others we know showed up so we started socializing instead, fun to compare vehicle notes.
This morning we went down and hung by the creek before heading home.
Leaving town shortly after 5 and with a dinner stop in Priest River we started up the dirt road to where we would camp shortly after sunset having seen a few deer on the drive in.
As we drove up and the road worsened we passed several gtoups camping, we could tell because they had fires down among the trees. I started to fear a fire getting out of control and us being up this drainage with no other good exit but since I'm typing this those fears were for naught.
When we arrived at the parking lot it was gloriously deserted and the skies were clear so the chairs came out and we watched the star for a bit while I drank a bottle of Obsidian Stout that had shaken open in the fridge and leaked a bit on the drive up.
The next morning I stepped out of the camper and looked up at the rock above us and saw this
And then just a little bit later saw these
Our objective was a bolted 5 pitch route that goes uo the open slab in this picture.
But there is so much more climbing to be had.
One thing about slab climbing is it does force you to trust your feet
After several hundred feet of walking on all fours with maybe 3-4 handholds the entire time we reached the top
Looking back down the route. The orange at the bottom is the gear of some other climbers who were just starting up. Turned out to be friends of ours, passed them as we rappelled down.
After returning to camp we were going to head to some natural waterslides about 1.5 miles upstream but people others we know showed up so we started socializing instead, fun to compare vehicle notes.
This morning we went down and hung by the creek before heading home.
