brett
Site Admin
Joined: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 81
Location: Missoula, MT
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 Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:10 am Post subject: Info on Bellingham Climbing [please add] |
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Hey all,
Here's a quick primer on all the places I can think of to climb in and around Bellingham, WA.
First, there's Sehome Hill. I've climbed here and it's the best local spot B-ham's got. It's right in town and offers primarily bouldering. In the summer it's a nice place to get out of the sun since it's all treed and shaded. Not exactly an epic spot, but worthy of return trips for sure.
DrTopo has a guidebook for it, available here:
http://www.drtopo.com/guidebooks/usa/Washington/124
Then there's Larrabee State Park off of Chuckanut Drive. It's probably 25 minutes south of town along the water. Larrabee is probably the most beautiful place I have ever climbed, but it is also the weakest in terms of routes. There's a handful of ever-changing sandstone problems, but I managed to find enough stuff to stay busy for a few hours. The roped climbing doesn't offer much challenge, but the beautiful scenery definitely makes up for it. This is the ideal place for a lazy summer day with a cooler of beer, a few crash pads, and a skim board. I've climbed here too and was very sad to leave. It's so beautiful!
Rockclimbing.com has a little bit of beta, but it's not comprehensive.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/North_America/United_States/Washington/I-5_Corridor-North/Larrabee_State_Park/
I think we drove south on Chuckanut and parked on the second turnoff on the right and hiked down the hill to find the climbs.
Then there's Gold Bar. It's probably an hour from B-ham.
I know pretty much nothing about this area since I've never been there. I know the bouldering is pretty amazing. Here's a photo of some guy I found online:
here's a little bit of beta from WCC. Since it's so new, there's not a guidebook for it yet.
http://www.washingtonclimbers.org/Climbing/goldbar.htm
There's a few more areas like Mt. Erie, Baker, and the Bat Caves, all of which I've never been to.
Here's a link discussing all of the other potentials in WA:
http://www.washingtonclimbers.org/Climbing/
everything in that list is relatively close to B-ham except Snoqualmie area and beacon rock. There are a lot more areas than the ones in that list too.
Leavenworth has it's own guidebook that's worth checking out as well.
There's also Squamish, which is like 1.5-2 hours away.
And further south, north bend. But I don't know why you'd go there if you lived in b-ham.
Anyway, hope this helps a bit. I put it together for a friend making her way to B-ham.
cheers,
-brett |
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