Washington

Washington may not be known as one of America's top climbing destinations, but it is rich with climbing and offers quality sport, trad, alpine climbs as well as great bouldering and some ice/mixed climbing. If you are a sport climber, the Exits 32/38 have the closest sport to Seattle in the North Bend area. Leavenworth also has multipitch climbs and Vantage offers accessible winter climbing. Mazama is worth a visit and offers long multipitch routes such as the classic Flyboys, as well as single pitch sport climbing. Index, Bellingham, Beacon Rock and Tieton also offer good sport climbing. If you are a trad climber, Index is the place to be with many classic trad lines. Tieton also has trad climbing and Washington has lots of alpine trad. If you love the alpine, the Cascades will provide. Washington's volcanoes are the state's proudest and most prominent mountains for glacier travel (particularly Mount Rainier), but the North Cascades also have a lot of rock and ice climbing. The Stuart-Enchantments also have tons of alpine climbs to ascend but does have a permit system. Darrington and Index also have several peaks worth checking out. If you are a boulder, Leavenworth is Washington's most prolific bouldering area and has hundreds (thousands?) of high quality boulders spread between Tumwater Canyon, Icicle Creek and Mountain Home Road. However, this is far from all the state has to offer. Index, Gold Bar, and Steven's Pass/Highway 2 generally also have lots of quality bouldering. The Spokane area increasingly has lots of bouldering near the city. On hot summer days when we haven't seen much rain lately, a boulderer can also go climb on sandstone in the Bellingham area. In short, though Washington may not have the prestige of Nevada or California or Utah, we have tons of rock which can be climbed year round if you know where to go.