Arch Rock

Arch is one of the best pieces of solid granite I've climbed on. Gentle breezes help you cool off, river noise can interfere with long leads, so take care!

Considering ease of approach/descent, quality of rock and abundance of moderate routes, Arch Rock is hard to beat.

Fine easy to moderate routes but the rock is way too crowded - four(!) climbing parties on a weekday is a bit too much for a crag of this size.

I'm posting this here because there isn't a section for spray rock. Does anyone have route information on the 4 or 5 slab routes just downstream from spray rock?

I think Shmausser put those up. I saw him climbing there with his wife a few weeks ago. He is working on a web based guide that should be out this summer.

His email is bisch40@msn.com.

I see a lot of "first ascents" being bagged/claimed on Arch Rock these days. Remember that the climbing that went on there in the seventies was CLEAN, meaning, i.e.,natural or nuts, hexes, knotted slings often times long runouts etc. and often without chalk, the only evidence that another party had been there before was the lack of loose flakes or vegetation having been cleaned out.Yes, there were climbers back then.

Back in 1997 I climbed in this area. I lead up Captain Fist and then top ropped Death by Drowning's first pitch. While playing around on the top ropped route I had a near death experience. I climbed the route and stood at the belay stance ready to come down. The person I allowed to belay me on top rope was a guy I had met that day as there was a large group of us on the rocks all being "buddy buddy". I had just watched him competently belay his son so had some confidence in him as a belayer. Though I didn't pay much attention to that. When I reached the top he asked if I was going to rappel or if he should lower me. I said "you can lower me". He responded, "OK, I have you".
I called out, "Loading rope! I'm coming down!". Again his replay, "I've got you!". AS I sat back in my harness, I realized there was no resistance on the rope. My first thought was, "geeze this is a fast belay" but that thought was soon replaced by "falling!". I grounded from sixty feet up. My "belayer" never had me. He was wearing belay gloves and never felt the rope slip through his hands once I loaded the system. I am alive and climbing today because there was a search and rescue team at Arch Rock that day practicing and they were on the scene in seconds. I was loaded into a flight for life helicopter and rushed to the hospital. I have since returned to the area and lead the climb I was dropped on. Why share this story here? Just to serve as a reminder that you can't ever be too careful. Always make sure you know your belayer. This is a great sport but people die when careless mistakes are made. I am lucky and very grateful to be alive. Final lesson: Burn your belay gloves!!!

Anyone ever tried the P2 for Kansas Honey? What/where the heck is pitch-2 of the route?? We contrived ourselves just to stay out of the crappy, lichen covered rock, & runout with rope drag, too. 5.9 natural line, my ass.