Forty feet off the ground your feet scream with pain as you jam them into the narrow crack and stand up onto them with your full body weight. Next you slide your hands into the crack and find that glove like hand jam and you think all is well.
A group of us (Tom, Phil, Duncan, Nathan, Zhong, Claire, John, Brett, Jena, I am sure I forgot someone) took part in the Mountaineers Crack Climbing Seminar at Royal Columns Tieton. The Royals columns area is about 12 miles south of Yakima, WA.
Tom, Phil and the great rope guns gave us coaching on how to tape your hands and placement of hand and feet in the cracks.
I enjoyed climbing Level Head 5.6, The Cutting Edge 5.7, X-Factor 5.7+, Good Timer 5.4, Western Front 5.3, Mush Maker 5.7+ (well almost – sadly my arms and feet gave out 10 feet from the top). I noticed other people in the group climbing these wicked routes: Little Known Wonder 5.7, Wild Child 5.8, First Blood 5.8, Jam Exam 5.9 and Inca Roads 5.10a.
Pictures can be found here.
Again I found David Whitelaw's Weekend Rock guide book to invaluable.