Adventure: Leavenworth, WA

Since 'cultivating adventure' has been a primary focus of my lifestyle change, I am pleased to report that I have been able to successfully incorporate adventures into my weekly routine. This summer the adventure focus has mostly involved outdoor rock climbing.

Climbing is addictive. It requires physical strength and flexibility, mental stamina (read stubborness), problem solving, technical skill and a certain level of bravery. The wall is what challenges you. Sometimes you win and other times the wall does; but with persistence, you usually are able to overcome whatever problems are presented to you on a route.

I started climbing outdoors in June of this year. I luckily was connected with a fabulous group of young professionals who spend all their free time climbing, talking about climbing or dreaming about climbing - it was a good fit. Their level was much further advanced than mine, so I quickly had to improve to be a respectable participant in our weekly hangouts. Needless to say, my stubborness, has paid off.

Two weeks ago I went on a climing trip to Leavenworth, WA with some friends from the area. The climbs were mainly traditional, which means they required gear, and the climing was definitely graded much differently than where we normally climb. It made for some interesting ascents as we never knew what to expect when starting a route. (Including not having an anchor at the top of one route and having to then figure out how to get down safely then rescue the gear thereafter!)

The two most memorable moments of the trip are this. First, we arrived late into town and headed directly for the campsite. It turns out that Leavenworth is an American-style tourist destination that has taken the Bavarian theme to a whole new level. For this reason, the Leavenworth population had exploded from 2,000 to 10,00 for Oktoberfest celebrations the weekend we were visiting to climb. This meant, around midnight, there were no free campsites. In the end, we ended up crashing someone else's enormous campsite and hoped for the best - that is that they wouldn't throw a fit that we were there. I was informed by doing this, and generally being a climber, meant that I was now a 'dirtbag climber'. I was not glad to hear this information, nor did I want to accept that I was a dirtbag. Unfortunately, my new friends insisted that this is the case, that it is not so bag to be a dirtbag, and that I might as well just accept it. In the end, if camping on a crystal clear river, waking up to snow-covered mountains, meeting many interesting local outdoor/climbing enthusiasts, ascenting challenging and scenic mountaintops and cliffs, and laughing with friends at the end of the day around a campfire means I am a dirtbag climber, I will accept ownership of the title.

The second awesome thing about the trip was lederhosen.

Fellow dirtbags, Andrew and Flo.

Our crashed campsite.

Shauna and Catalina with a local lederhosen enthusiast.