Spring rock climbing in Leavenworth

By Mark Gunlogson

“How was it?” I asked my daugh­ter Grace (9) after she fin­ished her first pure crack climb. ​“Well, it was not so chunky,” which I gath­ered to mean blocky and with a lot of holds for both feet and hands. But, she man­aged just fine on the oth­er­wise fea­ture­less gran­ite slab char­ac­ter­is­tic of Leav­en­worth’s well-known Ici­cle Canyon. Grace knew that the path­way to the pool at the hotel we were stay­ing at that evening includ­ed fin­ger jams, fist jams, and a bit of smear­ing. All in good fun and tak­en in stride by Grace. 

I learned to crack climb here myself as a teenag­er, so things seemed to have come full cirlce as I proud­ly watched Grace jam her way up Moun­taineer’s Dome. After more than thir­ty years of explor­ing Leav­en­worth the crags had become a home away from home, some­thing I now share with my kids. New routes and great places for begin­ners keeps the explo­ration alive and will undoubt­ed­ly pro­vide an excit­ing get­away for the whole fam­i­ly this summer. 

So, get your led­er-hosen and yodel on and enjoy the Bavar­i­an themed town of Leav­en­worth and all the ammenites you can ever ask for mere min­utes from the crags. With great camp­grounds, hotels, resta­raunts, and routes for all lev­els you’ll find Leav­en­worth appeal­ing for all. Check out our cours­es and climbs for this spring and sum­mer — our guides will be hap­py to show you around!