Seattle Drytooling Crag Hardware

Nestled not very deep in the Snoqualmie Alps are a set of undeveloped crags that offer a very fun dry tool (d/t) experience. A couple of friends and I have been poking around for months and eventually found the perfect venue. Thanks to the encouragement from the various guide book authors, the original area route setters and a person that scraped around the area 16 years ago, we felt safe to develop a d/t area, remote and insulated enough from free climbing walls as to not be prime free climbing rock or suitable sport climbing projects. So far, we have 2 amazing climbs up!!

Some history... The many popular existing d/t climbing areas around the U.S. and Canada all suffer from blown-out placement holes, from hundreds of people falling off, degrading the placement to the point of rendering them useless. Recent remedies are to make more aggressive placement holes with a power drill, thereby making the route pick-hole placements sustainable over the life of the route. Dry tooling can mark and scar the rock. With that, for a crag to be sustainable with everyone using it, the holds need to be enhanced to a point that it does not destroy the feature it's on. I know this also makes the climb easier, but this particular crag is so steep that most any climber will be fully engaged! With the stable existing featured rock, we were able to limit the enhancement to only about half the holds.

I do not bear the responsibility lightly in producing quality and safe routes. I want to keep the standards very high in our amazing home forests. There is also plenty of room to develop routes and I encourage others to develop routes at this amazing location. All that I ask, is that you please develop in a way that is sustainable to our rock.

Great essay from Furnace Industries!

It will be a work-in-progress out there, so heads up! 

Kyle Willis
Seattle, Washington