1st pitch: 11c, thin crack through roof to Volkswagen ledge.The bolts of Yellowbird will be out right where that route skirts the roof. This pitch is dirty, never climbed anymore.

2nd pitch : 5.9, wide cracks left of bolted anchor to the top. This 2nd pitch was very dirty, and I found a rotten block, maybe one of Fred's wood wedges used on the first ascent.

I recently asked Fred what he remembers about this route and Midnight rock. He gave me the forget about it arm wave, "that was 50 years ago, not worth going back to" He was right about it being exactly 50 years ago, but I think it is worth a visit.

Nightingale

ROTC

Black Widow

Sometimes a Great Notion

Yellow Bird

Easter Overhang

Dagoba System

Corner Route

Stevens Pass Motel

The Sting

Excellent crack, which was perfect for a rainy day. The two sides of the corner overhang for the main 30' of crack. Starts out wide, to tight hands, to pull up onto slab, ends at large dead Pine tree.

This excellent, dead vertical, splitter crack ranges from fingers to thin hands to perfect hands.  The climb starts from an enormous ledge halfway up the center part of midnight rock.

Soft at the grade.

The name of a route may be an encapsulation of the type of climbing encountered or emotions evoked during an ascent. While pulling into the wide crack / chimney at the roof and securing myself with a knee bar, thoughts of being devoured by a unseen entity crept into my mind. Because the crack is quite wide this route may be easier to climb in hiking boots with vibram soles.

An attractive looking thin crack on the wall left of Black Widow. Approached the same way, by the first pitch of the Wild Traverse, a mossy inside corner directly below Black Widow.

I thought this was harder then some 11a cracks I have done, but who knows.

This route is so good that Fred Becky notes he did it twice on the day it was first done.  Start with a cruxy bulge, passed with help from a tricky flake.  Then some bolted face climbing up to a roof.  Follow the steep crack up right to VW ledge.  Rappel or lower from here.  It is possible to climb a 5.6 or 5.9 second pitch to the top.

Midnight Rock has long had a reputation as the Cookie Cliff of Washington.  While Yosemite's Cookie has lots more to do, it might be fair to say that Yellow Bird is a better 5.10a pitch than can be found at the Cookie.

The first pitch used to be rated 5.9.

This is the bolted line just right of ROTC. It starts in a thin seam then takes to the attractive face above climbing on sharp and sometimes painful crimps and incuts . A short section of crack is encountered near the top.

The guidebook lists this as 12b. SANDBAG- apparently edges have broken off.

Easy climbing leads to a roof at 20 feet (possible 2" piece).  After this, challenging moves take you through the roof, and past a short face section protected by 2 bolts to reach the splitter finger crack in a right facing corner.  The crack gets harder the higher you go as the pump builds, the crack gets worse, and the angle gets steeper.  At the end of the dihedral, I believe the route breaks left, or perhaps the original line goes straight up a seam and then some face moves to reach the belay ledge and bolted anchor (looks hard/scary).  It also looks like a nice variation might climb the face holds to the right of the aforementioned seam, but would probably need a few bolts to be added (or maybe someone has already led this as is???).  This seems like it would make the best finish, and make a truly outstanding route even better.

This route is located directly below ROTC.  Do to some confusion in the older Leavenworth Rock guidebook people frequently get on this thinking it is the 10b approach to ROTC, that I believe that is the right most of these two routes.  At 11b this is no one move wonder but an endurance crux despite a sit down ledge at the midpoint.

Its best to do a short pitch to the base of the corner and belay at the tree.  From here continue up the corner, much harder than it looks, it felt like I was using every trick in the book. Hands, fists, stemming, chimney technique, I switched the side of the corner my back was on at least 3 times.  If you thought this pitch was going to be 10b then your expecting crack above to be a bomber hand crack.  Instead you get a slightly right trending 0.75 camalot crack.  You can put your left toe in the crack but your right foot has to make use of flexing lichen covered flakes...this crack takes you to the sit down ledge.

Above the ledge grunt up an offwidth for 15ft or so feet and then tackle a hand/layback crack that would be much easier if it wasn't for all the climbing below.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Midnight Rock