Outer Space Trip Report

Hello from Washington. Di and I are currently holed up in a motel in Othello, Washington after climbing Outer Space on Snow Creek Wall in Leavenworth, then driving for a few hours. I thought you might like something to lift your mid-winter spirits, and add a bit of motivation for those Waterworks and Freuhauf training sessions.

Our day began with the hike up the Snow Creek Trail. It was an auspicious start to the day as we saw a family of 4 mountain goats just a short way up the hill after crossing the bridge that spans Icicle Creek.

We soon entered the park, marked by this sign:

It was our third hike up the trail in 8 days. We walked up a week ago to check out the approach, as it had been 26 years since we'd been here and there were some devastating fires around the base of Snow Creek Wall in 1994 and we wanted also wanted to make sure that we could get across the creek. We also hiked in the next day to climb Orbit, the other moderate classic on the wall, so we were used to the walk which involves a bit of an uphill slog for the first bit. 

Snow Creek Wall soon loomed into view:

Most of the climbing on Snow Creek Wall is done on the left hand end, and Outer Space gets the majority of the traffic from both visiting climbers and locals alike. We made an early start, and three other parties were on the way up the route by the time we finished, with one other party climbing Orbit.

While we were gearing up, another mama goat with a kid in town strolled by to check us out. The kid was very shy but the mama was very curious and came with about 10 metres:

Maybe it's because we were a lot earlier in the season this year, but we've seen an abundance of goat on this trip to the crag, whereas the last time we were here we didn't see any.

Anyway, here's a reasonably accurate topo of the classic line (some folks do a more direct start which involves some climbing at 10d):

It seems that 70 metre ropes are pretty much de rigueur for climbing in Leavenworth. The route is described in the guidebook as 6 pitches, but at least 2 - the long traverse on "pitch" 2 and the last "pitch" - are more than 60 metres, so bear that in mind if you come to do the route some time. 

The crux pitch however is relatively short at about 33 metres if you take the most direct option and is more sustained at the grade. Here is a fairly ordinary photo of me about to start the engaging traverse section (which can be fairly easily identified on the topo above):

Here's a photo I took a little ways up pitch 5 looking down on Di at the Pedestal Belay at the top of pitch 4:

Pitch 5 is nearly 50 metres (it was a rope-stretcher when we did this route in 1986 with 50 metre ropes!). Note the slung chicken head in the photo below:

We made it to the top in reasonable nick:

One thing to be aware of though if you go to do this route, is that the descent is "interesting". The first two thirds is fairly straightforward, if a bit exposed in places. The last bit can be a bit tricky. When we did Orbit a week ago, I managed to find the correct route - or at least a version of it. Di went a different way for the last bit and was nonplussed. We missed the turnoff this time and I followed Di down the way she went previously. This seems to be a common problem, judging from various comments that people make. Anyway, this "detour" added about an hour to the day out. All up just over 10 hours car to car. An hour and a half less than the day we had on Orbit, but that's another story.

Cheers

Doug