Late October in Leavenworth, Wa.

Headed over to Leavenworth, Washington a couple days ago and this is the tops of the mountains. Looking a bit wintery. 

We met up in Bellevue at 5 am and started driving, we wanted to climb a long route and have plenty of time. Turns out our efforts were in vain. Did you know it gets light later in the day in winter? Especially when it's cloudy? Aside from the light, it was cold. A whopping 24 degrees when we stepped out of the car.

Ben wishing for a bigger coat.

Looking up at the Condor Buttress

We went for a climb called Condorphamine Addiction 7 pitches 5.10b sport. We picked it because if the sun was gonna shine, we would get some. It never really did. The loooong hike up warmed us up, though!

This is cold rock

Ben

This is roughly 4 pitches up, and my hands were finally not frozen. Just in time for the 5.10b pitches. We were climbing in all our layers, puffy coats, soft shells. We tried climbing in gloves, but I'm not good enough.

I would have taken more pics, but I couldn't feel my hands.

Looking down from the top of pitch 5

Skiable?

Winter Climbing?

We finished up and headed into Leavenworth for coffee to get warm again. All in all a beautiful and cold day of WA climbing. As an aside, if you drive from Seattle to Leavenworth stop in the small town of Sultan and hit the Bakery. I ate one of the most delicious breakfast sandwiches I've ever eaten. Consider yourself enlightened.