R&D Route (5.6)

Icicle Creek, Leavenworth, WA

July 21, 2013

It was another beautiful day in Leavenworth and I had my climbing gear with me so I roped my cousin, Harrison, in to go climb the four pitch Icicle Creek classic, the R&D route! Harrison is a junior at WSU studying engineering so I knew he would appreciate all the physics involved with climbing and the gear. He is one of the new climbers I've been out with that knew exactly what a kilonewton was!

I hadn't been down Icicle Creek for a few years, so I initially drove right past Icicle Buttress! It soon became apparent that we had driven too far so I circled back and parked below the prominent crag on the river side. We put on our harnesses and walked across the road and hiked up to the base of the route.

The start of the route is pretty vague so we chose the lowest most access point that didn't have black moss growing on the rock. I tried to follow the "white" granite but I must be honest and admit that I got us off route several times! But we were having a great time and there were no children or wives to hurry back to. So we enjoyed the sunny rock! Harrison had no problem climbing up the slab, corners, chimneys and cracks. I believe we ended up making the route in five pitches but, what the heck, it's the journey - not the destination!

At the top, Harrison coiled the rope as I reracked the gear. We saw some goat hair and droppings but didn't see any of the hairy beasts. We followed the buttress up and left to where we found the climbers trail that brought us back down to the car.

Thanks Harrison for a great morning climb! I hope you had as much fun as I did! Looking forward to next time!