Castle Rock, Sabre (5.4)

Leavenworth, WA

May 16, 2011

Today a group of friends from work and I laid siege to Castle Rock! Dave Sayler, Dan Zittel, Todd Kilcup, Carson Guy and I had originally set aside this day to climb the Tooth at Snoqualmie Pass, but with all the spring snow still lingering in the higher elevations we decided to change plans and head to Leavenworth instead. It was also a rainy day on the west side of the mountains although the forecast for Leavenworth was not particularly great either! But as Sting says in his song, we had "Heavy Clouds but No Rain"!

Todd, Carson and Dave climbed the first pitch of Sabre together as a rope of three with Dan and I following as a rope team of two. Todd climbed quickly and efficiently as he picked his way up this well traveled route. This was Dave's first cragging experience so Todd lead up then belayed Dave and Carson up. We are a fun loving group so climbing all together was a real hoot.

Dave did great climbing up the varied terrain of this first pitch! Dan and I followed up behind Carson and soon we were all at Sabre Ledge. Dan and I had climbed Sabre a few years ago together, so he was familiar with this fun route! Here at Sabre Ledge Todd and Carson decided to diverge and climb the second pitch of "Scary" Canary. Todd encouraged Dave to join them but he chose to continue with Dan and I up the second pitch of Sabre. Carson took the lead on this pitch and made it look easy. Dan got some great pictures of "Todd being Todd"....crazy kid! The "young guy" rope continued up Canary as the "old guy rope" divided the last pitch of Sabre into two pitches. This allowed us to climb closer together and it gave me an opportunity to get some nice shots of Dave and Dan as they climbed up!

Dan made a great movie of the climb! You can view it by clicking on the first image of Dave below:

At the top we got some group photos then hiked back down past beautiful wildflowers to the cars and drove into Leavenworth for some well earned burgers and Gustav's! Thanks guys for another great day in the mountains! Looking forward to climbing the Tooth later this summer with you all!