You thought the start of Celestial Groove was hard for 5.9. Overhanging fist and cupped hands. upper half you can choose between the wide mossy 5.8 on the right, or the thin mossy cracks on the left, 5.10. I did the left side-would be great if clean.

Meathooks of Mercy

Pope on a Rope

Heaven Sent

Easy Pickins

No Room For Squares

Cell Phone Posse

Bring your Weedwacker

Poison Balance

TOOL TIME

Cloud Nine

Purgatory

Celestial Groove

Leap of Faith

The Scene is Clean

Lost Souls

Golden Delicious

Angelic Curses

Pearly Gates

Hepped Up on Goofballs.

Last Rites

Veins of Glory

Albatross

Loaves of Fun

The Dog Ate My Topo

Speak No Evil

Milky Way

Heavens Sake

This route goes from wide crack to thin traverse to a hard roof mantle to a committing slab on thin gear and then you crux on two generously spaced bolts.

Neglected and dirty route that Kramar gives lots of stars in his guide. If cleaner and not quite so sandbagged (given 11b in guide), I might have considered this more fun.

To be clear, I don't think this is 5.11, but I could be way off. There seems to be an internal consistency within the grades of Leavenworth (and maybe the trad of central WA altogether). But this one felt way off. I climb a lot of granite slabs, and this felt harder than Poison Balance, which feels harder than any 12a I ever did.

It reminds me of 12c in Ceuse: bouldery, cryptic, and resistant, with similar runout, exposure (exhilarating!), and angle changes. Bravo to all the Central WA hardmen who climb these things. The rest of the country has no idea how hard you work for such low grades.

Pitch 1: (5.6) Trad, follow the vegetated blocks with twin cracks up to a bolted anchor with a mess of webbing around it. (Gear to 4")

Pitch 2: (5.10-) Continue up from the bolted anchor straight up the slab and over the small roof following the bolt line (and one piton) to the chain anchors. (5 bolts + 0.3-0.5" gear at roof to protect).  The crux is moving up to the 2nd bolt.

Located near the center of the Pearly Gates crag just right of Cloud Nine (5.9+), Easy Pickins starts up the face to a bolt. The sequence past the bolt can be a little tricky. The route then heads up a thin crack, past another bolt, and then either left to the Cloud Nine anchors or right to the No Room For Squares anchors.

No Room For Squares is on the left side of Pearly Gates.  Of the three continuous crack lines just left of the small tree, this one is the leftmost.  Fun climbing up a fingers-to-hands crack leads to a steeper and thinner crux at about 2/3 height.  If the moves are too much you can move around to the left.

Straightforward, short crack starting in a vegetated chimney.  Probably usually done for access to Celestial Groove anchors.

Left most route next to Cell Phone Posse. Dirty chimney to an awkward exit move, up to ledge above an old tree stump. Shares anchors with Celestial Groove.

Immediately to the left of Celestial Groove is this fun line.  Start straight up the hand crack in the dihedral.  At the horizontal break, follow the leftward arch.  A bolt above the final good jam on the arch protects the crux, a very delicate smear and balance move.  Doing the move on the dog feels like no big deal.  For some reason, it's a whole different story on redpoint; it's very hard to make your foot stick on the high smear.  I guess that accounts for the guidebook rating discrepancies.  From there, it's one more bolt and an easy crack to the top.

Some really good rock, fun overlaps to climb through. Lower slab crux is hard and has scary run-out. There is some trad gear options along the way. The upper portion is better protected with bolts, but also has more and better gear options.

A great 2 pitch line that can be done in one if you have a 60m.

P1- Tricky start (for a shorter person) leads to an excellent hand and fist crack (easier). Finishes at a two-bolt belay anchor.  5.8

P2- Climb a slabby dihedral protected by three bolts (you can add gear too). This is the crux of the route. Some fun stemming. (A 5.9+ goes right.) Then traverse left on a much easier hand crack. Bolted anchor.

Purgatory starts on the right side of the large roof.  Thrash your way up the mossy, ferny offwidth to some dirty finger locks and then a good jug.  From here traverse up and left in a very thin crack, to under the roof.  There are at least two options for pulling over the roof and onto the cracked slab above.

Located on the left side of the Pearly Gates area, Celestial Groove heads up the crack/corner to the right of

Poison Balance

(5.11d, some bolts). It starts by pulling through a bulgy section and then follows a small corner with an excellent crack. The bulgy start is definitely the crux and the rest of the route is great cruiser jamming, overall a lot of fun.

Entering the crack and moving past the bulge makes up the crux with easier climbing directly above, which soon turns more difficult and ends with a thin bolted slab move to the chains.

This is the rightmost of two routes on the ledge above the first pitch of

Milky Way

and The Dog Ate My Topo.  Trust your feet, and consistent friction climbing on sparkling white quartz diorite makes for a pleasant pitch.

Follow the central crack all the way to the belay ledge

indistinct line behind and above huge boulder that divides the lower and upper wall of Pearly Gates. The original start comes in from the right side of the boulder, or you can climb a wide 5.6 crack up the middle of the boulder. There is a bolt to make the way on the wall above the boulder.The bolt also protects the 5.8 crux.

Pitch 1) 1 bolt, some gear. 70' to bolted anchor

Pitch 2 ) 4 bolts, some gear, 70' to bolted anchor.

The bulging start in this dihedral is the first crux.  Begin with thin hands and look for small face features to get up to good hands and surprise jugs inside the crack.

The namesake route at the crag.  Starts in a thin finger crack that forms the crux. This leads to a good jam beneath a roof.  Clip a bolt and make interesting moves pulling the roof on its right side.  Climb  an easier though non trivial crack to the top.

As you may have guessed, the crux is right after the bolt. How to get to the nice looking jug?

The lower crack is really fun, maybe 10a, crack runs out and it seems like the bolt is a long ways away, but ledgy holds make it pretty easy. The move past the bolt is perplexing, don't forget the holds on the right. Save some strength after "the move" because it is pumpy getting up the lip above. I had to dig out the crack with nut tool for a small cam.

2 bolts above protect the slab.

This was listed as 11a, I think it is 11b, so I give it the elusive 11- grade.

This short crack begins thin and shallow, then doglegs right, deepens, and flares before narrowing up and turning straight upwards.  Tenuous fingers turn to bomber hands turn to awkward flaring bits, then narrow back into perfect jams up to Lost Souls Ledge.

The lower part of this crack can be seepy in the spring.

Veins of Glory chases a pair of quartz intrusions to a large roof and is the first bolted route left of Milky Way.  Interesting, steep climbing up directional holds and side pulls off the ground lead to a solid and well-protected crux at the roof.  Finding your way around the roof and getting established on the slab above is a delicate affair-- the holds seem to totally disappear just when you most need them.  Once on the slab, smear up easier terrain to the anchor.

Albatross starts up a straightforward finger crack in a corner.  At the top of this gain a stance in an awkward little alcove and struggle to place some gear to protect the flaring, dirty, leftward finger traverse.  After climbing this for a couple yards it is possible to move into an upper crack and continue up and left.  Stand on top of a block and clip the first bolt.  The crux is here, figuring out how to reach the horizontal break at the edge of the bulge from which you can clip the second bolt.

This route has a little something for everyone- it begins as a left-leaning double-crack system with horns and protrusions inside the crack, then turns into a fun series of moves in a left-facing dihedral. At the top of the crack, step up left (nice, airy feel here) and finish up on the slab above.

70m rope just reaches the ground from these anchors.

Sport route right of Milky Way.  Start in a short corner, then follow the obvious line of well protected bolts to the rap anchors.  Balancey with a few edges and pockets to keep you moving.

Ends on the Milky Way ledge with Scene is Clean up and left of you.

Milky Way is the 3rd bolted route from the right side of the Pearly Gates buttress, and begins up an obvious, left facing dihedral.  Climb the dihedral (5.10), traverse left ~15 feet, and follow a line of bolts up interesting, slabby climbing to a ledge and belay from chains.  The second pitch (better than the first) heads up straight off the belay for another 100' of fantastic  climbing.  After the initial 5.10 moves up and out of the dihedral, this climb delivers close to 200' of consistent, interesting 5.9 climbing.

Getting off this climb is a rope stretcher!  When lowering off the second pitch our 60m rope wasn't quite long enough to reach back to the ledge-- the climber can lower to the left of the belay and downclimb easy terrain.  Likewise, reaching the ground from the ledge may require a two rope rappell (even with 60's).  Alternatively, walk right on the ledge to the Dog Ate My Topo anchors.

The book calls this route 10b. Maybe it's height dependent, feels much easier to me.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Pearly Gates