The Hazard Chronicles

 First, a quick thing, and then on to the main event for the week.

The Broadway tour of Hadestown has been in Spokane this last week. Rachel and I were already going to see it, but we told the kids that any of them could go with us if they covered half of the cost for their tickets. The three oldest jumped at the chance, and we had a wonderful night together. I really love live theater, and I am glad that we are able to share this with our kids.

*****

Now for the main event. For the very few people who actually read this blog, you will remember that last weekend we helped with some trail maintenance and cleanup at Tum Tum. Well, this week that hard work all paid off at the climbing festival that was held there. 

I have to say, I really, really like what Craig has done with this place. It feels like a climbing resort, with excellent camping amenities, easy access, and well-established routes. Every climb has a tag stating the grade, as well as snaplink anchors at the top. The trails are well-maintained, and have signs to direct you to various different rock faces. There are even a few bolted cracks, which to some is a heresy, but which makes it very easy to safely teach gear placement and trad climbing systems. 

I mean, I like a good adventure as well as the next person, and there are plenty of places to get that. But having good, safe adventures is dependent on good, safe training, and there are too few places, in my opinion, that offer this at the level that Craig does. 

We had a goal as a family to do a combined 60 different routes over the two days we were there. We ended up doing 75! Each of the kids worked hard, had personal breakthroughs, and in the end, accomplished the goal. Maren ended with her first-ever lead, and it was not an easy one. Also, out of the 75 routes, I only led one, and Rachel only led five. All the rest were done by kids. That is huge. 

Of the kids, Jackson did the hardest route of the weekend

Just hanging out during lunch time

Evelyn probably climbed more this weekend than she has in the past 2 years combined. Of course she will use the trees whenever she can!

Addy now holds the record for most difficult on-sight lead among our kids.

Evelyn and her trees

After a long day, it is nice to just hang out with other climbers and compare experiences.

Around 30 people showed up, and it was fun hanging out around the fire at night, telling stories, catching up with some old friends, and watching climbing movies. Very chill.

The car rack actually works pretty well as a temporary top anchor for teaching purposes. Here we are going over some multi-pitch techniques.

Lindsey (pink left) is becoming a really good climber. I think she styled this route better than anyone else in the family- including me! You can also see Jackson practicing some self-belay techniques on the right.

Rachel and Addy doing a little multi-pitch training together

Maren did her first lead on this trip. The difficulty was harder than anyone else's first lead in our family, and the route she chose was a friction slab with a spicy 20 foot runout. Pretty bold!

We went out for some really good pizza afterwards. Anyone who has put in long days on granite will understand Addy's posture here (the ice feels really good on torn-up fingertips).

I've said it before and I'll say it again- I love us! 

Weekends like this are my favorite thing.

Have a good week!