Which Addiction? - Frechman Coulee, WA

We've all had some difficult decisions in our lives; K and I were faced with one of them this past weekend...Head north to British Columbia to rock the splitties or head south to crush some rock.  I cant tell you how many times we went back and forth, we had one room staged with skiing gear and another with  climbing gear.  Being in the sun as opposed to playing in the cold snow, won the dilemma battle... this time.

Thus we headed down to Frenchman Coulee aka Vantage.  This unique area overlooks the Columbia River Gorge, an area carved by glacier migration many many years ago.  The majority of the crags face south, thus converting Vantage into a popular winter destination...especially for all those Seattle-ites, who flee Seattle in hopes of finding something other then rain.

The setting and climbing at Vantage reminds me of one of my favorite New Mexico crags Diablo Canyon .
Vantage offers around 700+ routes both sport and traditionally protected crack climbs between vertical pillars/columns.  Below is a pic of one of the sectors at Vantage, which is then broken up into 8-10 differently named crags.      

The highest concentration of Vantage routes are seen here, including Sunshine Wall, RiverView Park, Millenium, Fat Man, Skinny Man, M&M walls.  Climbing exists on both the upper and lower cliff bands.

Kristin on Aeolachrymation 5.8 at the Riverview Columns

This ones for you Grandma Aloys (GG)

What an awesome first weekend back on the rock...first day climbing since last December:)  Defiantly took it easy, finding out I'm only a 5.10 climber off the couch.  Kristin on the other hand looked like she picked up right where she left off...she seems to improve on every route, she is gonna be strong with some training:)

Noteworthy Sends:
A Genius Bruing 5.10a
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Mortal Prying in the V Shaped Realm  5.10b
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Hakuna Matata 5.10b
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