Hey all--

My wife and I are going to be moving to Tacoma in June for roughly 6 months. Is there climbing close by? I know Index is roughly 1.5 hours from there and Leavenworth is about 2.5, but are there any crags within a 1/2 hour? I'll also be looking for people to climb with on the days that she works (she's a nurse, and I'm soon to be a teacher on sabatical).

Looking forward to hearing back from people in the climbing community out there.

chris,

tacoma makes a pretty good hub for wa climbing. as for nearby crags, check out exit 32 and exit 38 on interstate 90. they're about a 45 minute to one hour drive, and the approaches vary from 20 minutes to an hour. exit 32, aka little si, offers some good sport climbing, some of the hardest in the state in fact, as well as the occassional crack. the rock is pretty cool, a metasedimentary "rhino" rock that varies from total shit to amazingly hard.

as for climbing within a half hour, i don't know of any options. it's almost all urban within a half hour.

happy climbing.

At least you're moving here at the right time of year. Probably nothing within 30 minutes, but like Ben said 45 minutes to North Bend and Fossil Rock is about the same. One thing you need to figure out is the traffic patterns. It can be a real pain getting around the area. Getting to Index in 1-1/2 hours would be the bare minimum time it would take. I live in Woodinville and it takes me 40 minutes on a good day because of traffic in the Monroe/Sultan/Gold Bar stretch. Definitely worth the drive though. Tieton is cool and probably 2+ hours from Tacoma.

You'll be wanting CascadeClimbers.com

Chris, feel free to PM me when you get here. I live in Tacoma. Nothing w/in a half-hour; the times people have given are pretty accurate.

I've also heard about some stellar routes in the Darrington area side from the routes that are posted here.

Thanks for all the feedback, folks, and I'll see all of you (maybe?) shen we arrive on the left coast in June.