Frenchman Coulee

Bonjour!  (and "hello" to you American readers).  We spent part of last weekend rock climbing in Vantage, WA at the Frenchman Coulee: http://wikitravel.org/en/Frenchman_Coulee

I was ready for a weekend with no snow and had a hankering to climb outdoors --- it's one of my favorite sports.  When I told my Mom this she said "Of course, I should have guessed that --- when you were little you climbed all over everything...the furniture, up the slide, the walls..."

We drove down after work on Friday and camped in the back of the 4 Runner.  We brought our tent but decided to try sleeping in the car since we have never done it; it was surprisingly comfortable and I slept like a rock.  Will's a bit taller than me (by a foot), so he was a little less comfortable since he had to bend his legs to sleep, none the less we had a restful night before a day of climbing.

Since it was our first time outdoor climbing since last year, we practiced on a few 5.4/5.6's and then climbed a few routes that were just a bit harder, 5.7/5.8.  I'm working up to my goal of leading a 5.11 outdoors this year.  It's a lofty goal but I'm going to try my best to do it! 

Will cooking eggs for breakfast. I love camping,
partly b/c Will takes care of me :)

We don't go anywhere without
our trusty french press!

Ready to climb; rope and coffee in hand.

North face of The Feathers
(we spent most of our day climbing here).



View from the Feathers of the gorge. 

Note the home-made camper in the background - it's a Toyota Tacoma with a pop-up tent; Will is itching to get a look inside one of these contraptions! Reminds me of Melissa --- she had a fascination with trailers and always wanted to get to go inside one... don't know why!  This particular truck/home must have been from the South, it had confederate flags drawn on it and had written "if the truck is a rockin' don't come a knockin'".