NW Granite: Gold Bar!!!

I went up to Gold Bar last weekend with Cortney, Joel, Drew Schick, Kyle, Johnny, and Sara. It was cold and foggy the entire way up, but in the clearcut we were above the clouds and had bluebird conditions. The road has been mostly destroyed by the winter weather and the dirt bikers, so we were forced to park about halfway up and walk the rest of the way. Still, it was worth it...

We climbed in the clearcut on Saturday, then headed back down the hill and camped in the Index town wall parking lot like the lurkers we are. On Sunday we lost Kyle, but we had the same gorgeous weather, and spent most of the day wandering around the woods. There weren't any especially noteworthy sends for the weekend, except seeing Johnny climb Glenn Gerbatz's Glenn's Problem on the Fraggle Rock boulder, a highball sandbag that has been notorious since Kyle took his 20-foot ass-rocket in Northwest Connection. Also worth mentioning was the additional traffic given to Joel Campbell's new Chaak, on the east side of the large top-rope boulder above Funpuppet and Dookie's Pinchfest. This tall slab features a tricky dyno off of a smear to a balancey, committing hand-foot-match topout - a two-pitch boulder problem. I should have a video of these two problems ready soon, but for now, here are some pictures.

Walking up the Hill...