I’ll admit it. Like a kid who gets a new set of Legos every time he asks, we’re used to being handed the blue sky of Colorado nearly every time we look out the window. Rain jacket? What’s that? So we’re been waiting out a few days of cloudy PNW weather till we could get more skiing under the azure heavens instead of the gray wetness. A standard deal up here is that the farther east you go the dryer it gets, so we headed over to the faux Bavarian metropolis of Leavenworth, Washington to do some cragging and eat spaetzle. Check it out.
Leavenworth, Washington by way of the olden country, other than the gigantic abandoned fruit warehouse in the middle of everything the town is actually kinda cute in a touristy sort of way.
What gives me a chuckle about Leavenworth is that while indeed overall somewhat cheesy, you can find some pretty good food and beer, not to mention the amazing must-see museum of nutcrackers. For the food side, we let web reviews lead us to King Ludwig restaurant, where we ate pleasantly authentic schweinsschnitzel and other such accouterments from the old country, while quaffing a few tasty brews. When they broke out the accordion player doing a medley from the Sound of Music, Louie wasn't quite on board for that. Me on the other hand, I was singing along and waving my beer stein along with the best of 'em.
Beer selection was quite nice.
We found a mixture of nice quality sport and trad climbing up Tumwater and Icicle canyons. Modern rock climbing always amazes me with the effort and expense route developers go through to equip climbs, mostly motivated by their creative impulse, mixed with the fun of getting their name in the guidebook. Or perhaps they just like the feel of an electric drill in their hands. Perhaps they were boys raised on finger paint and Nintendo, and when they finally got the real manly toys in their hands, they went wild? Who knows, but the results make rock climbing fun.
I could have researched the fascinating history of this gal by entering her establishment and buying some trinkets. Instead, I leave her top-heavy epistemology open to speculation. Word is she climbs 5.14.
Aha, we were tempted by the museum of nutcrackers, but having already been to Chuckanut Drive as well as getting bucked off my bicycle a few times on the Galbraith trails, I really wasn't all that interested in nut crackers. But wait, isn't this some sort of new climbing gear developed in Leavenworth? We'll find out tomorrow, when we check out more of those clumps of artificial edelweiss hanging from the Tumwater crags.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
