Help/tips sought for Seattle visit from mid-Aug. > mid. Sept.

Hi all, I'll be visiting from Scotland to stay in Seattle from mid August to mid-Sept and was looking for some suggestions for decent places to train/climb. I'll be packing fairly light so will only have my harness, shoes, gri-gri etc, so no rack or rope. I'll have a car at some point but probably not for the whole month.

I'm going to be based in the Green Lake area and have seen that there are some indoor gyms nearby which I'll check out. Bouldering and auto-belays are fine for a while but I'd also really like to try and get onto some local rock whilst I'm there.

Does anyone have any pointers please for the best way to meet up with local climbers and also any general tips or suggestions to maintain some climbing action while I'm on holiday for 4 weeks? For some background, I'm recently retired (male, 61) tend to sport climb these days, generally fit and usually on-sight around the 7a / 5.11d region. I'm also happy to drop grades or work harder stuff, as long as I'm climbing something! More info. can be found on my ukclimbing.com profile here: https://www.ukclimbing.com/user/profile.php?id=3254

Cheers

Fraser

all the gyms in Seattle are nice imo.

Uplift has a great vibe and is good for staying fit

Any of the boulder projects are good but very busy

Momentum is less busy, and has nice training facilities (wrong side of town for you)

Vertical world is differentiated by the rope climbing

exit 38 and 32 should both be good for sport climbing. World wall (you should make sure to get here at least once!)  has a lot of nice routes but will tend to be busy, something like nevermind wall at 38 may also be a good choice. It should be reasonable to find partners for these places, a lot of people climb there. (Posting on MP would surely get you pings, esp if you can get out on weekdays. I think there is a Pacific Northwest regional forum to post in specifically) 

index is also lovely and worth visiting at least once. You can spend a day at “the country”, which on paper sounds awful (trains, a weird bore hole thing, giant metal rods), but in practice has incredible climbing. Should be similarly easy to find index partners. aside, there are a bunch of other crags worth visiting at index, the country is just notable for sport in your grade range. 

enjoy the stay, Seattle and the surrounding areas are lovely this time of year! 

The sport climbing at index is low-key the best in the state. And some would say country, if you like bizarre granite wizardry. Don't tell anyone.

August can be pretty warm in general. A few thoughts, taking into account that time of year:

• My 2 favorite bolted spots in the PNW are Mazama and Smith Rock, but it will unfortunately probably be too hot. Maybe keep an eye on the Mazama weather, there may be a few cool days. 
• Squamish is really an amazing mostly trad location, and only about 3hrs away. It’s in Canada, so I think people forget it’s close. I think it’s truly world class. 
• Index is reasonably close mostly trad area and has a lot of enthusiasts. A lot of local climbers you meet will probably want to go here. 
• Exit 32/38 are sport but are depressing imo. It’s an okay last resort type of place. Lots of people come to these crags, but mostly because they are very close to the population centers.
• Snoqualmie has some nice sport alpine multipitch climbing. It stays cooler too due to its elevation. 
• Seattle Bouldering Project has a few gyms that are all definitely “vibing”. Most the climbers there seem to be in their 20s with a specific focus on indoor climbing. The Poplar location is busy but not in a bad way. 
• Vertical World (Ballard location) has my favorite indoor rope climbing. The climbers here seem to skew older than at SBP feels like a bit more of an outdoorsy crown. If I had to bet on finding an outdoor climbing partner, this would be the spot I’d bet on.
• I honestly do think that finding partners out here is hard compared to places in Europe and Latin America I’ve been to. It’s not a climbing culture where people meet in a bar and rope up for something epic the next day.  There are a lot of Facebook climbing groups where people seem to have the most partner finding success. 

Feel free to message me if you want any more beta! 

Thanks guys, that's all very helpful information - much appreciated. I've seen Index and Exit # mentioned elsewhere as possible nearby options so will research them in more detail before I come over. I seem to recall that last time I looked, the photos made them appear to deliver slightly less than they had promised in their write-ups! I had also wondered about the Squamish option and how realistic it would be for a short trip. it sounds like it might just be possible as a day trip, but an overnighter or multi-day trip would be more sensible to take advantage of the offering there.

Thanks too for the information on the bouldering gyms. The impression I'm getting is that they're very similar to those here in Glasgow where it's more of a venue for young folk to hang out and socialise rather than to climb / train. Nothing wrong with that, but it's not what I'd be looking for from a gym. Which would you say has the best setting and facilities?

Any other advice gratefully received!

F

The weekend in Squamish is reasonable. The day I’m sure has been done but would be pretty gnarly.

For gyms, certainly avoid SBP and probably prioritize vertical world (though it’s been a few years since I’ve been there). 

I don’t know if I necessarily agree with the mazama being better than other crags, especially given the same person bolted both exit 38, 32 and mazama but like with all climbing, sample the different climbing areas. So far I have yet to find a climbing area I’m too good for.

Getting to index on a weekday without a car would probably be a lot harder than getting to the exits without a car. Also be keenly aware of the sun. Washington is not cold in the summer and you don’t wanna climb in the sun.

The guidebook for the exits have all the best pictures of the climbing area. The internet really lacks good pictures. Here is a YouTube link to one 12a listed on the mountain project classics page North bend climbing (I bolted it so obviously I’m biased). I would say most everything listed as 4 stars on mountain project for north bend is of comparable quality.

Squamish has a lot of sport climbing. I think climbing in chek is comparable to world wall in quality. 

Thanks very much.

@T Taylor: The 'Wait Time' route you posted the link for looks pretty decent, I rather enjoyed that! I noticed there seem to be a lot of perma-draws in the area, is that typical? (Very few sport routes over here have them.)

I would say 85% of the north bend 5.12s are either easy to stick clip up or perma drawed (helms, the actual cave, world wall, world wall 2 and crag of the 20s are mostly permas.). It’s not very common in index.

T Taylorwrote:

I would say 85% of the north bend 5.12s are either easy to stick clip up or perma drawed (helms, the actual cave, world wall, world wall 2 and crag of the 20s are mostly permas.). It’s not very common in index.

Understood, thanks for the info.