Absolute Serenity Now: 14 Pitch, 5.7

I got invited to climb Absolute Serenity Now by my friend Owen and his two climbing partners, Howie and Elijah. ASN is a 14 pitch, 5.7 rated sport climbing route in the Middle Fork area near North Bend, WA. It climbs a granite slab up to the Quartz Mountain ridge and established in 2022.

We climbed as two teams of two.

Route Description:

From the CCC Trail's upper trailhead, hike up the beautifully maintained CCC Trail through a lovely green forest for about 1.5mi northeast until a well-marked climbers trail heads uphill to the left (northwest).

The climbers trail is not especially well trodden, but is possible to navigate up on the slightly trampled springy forest floor until the trail dead-ends at a rocky drainage coming out of the brush.

Enter the drainage gully past some eye-level branches, and climb up the drainage to where it emerges into a talus field in a deep valley between two ridges of Quartz Mountain. The drainage is normally dry in the summer.

Continue uphill on the talus field past large rock slabs on your right until >3100ft elevation. The talus scrambling is not exposed on the approach; if you find yourself doing exposed moves, try a different path. You should see the shiny chains of the top of P1 of ASN from afar and see the first bolt right above head level once you're there. There may be some seeps / runoff from the slabs to fill up water on the way up. Congratulations, you've made it to the start of the rock climb.

The route has two distinct sections: the first 7 pitches are standard 5th class rock climbing with frequent bolt placements, the next 7 pitches are more scrambly and runout between bolts. There is a little bit of route-finding required.

Peek around corners for the next bolt to lead your way on the first 7 pitches, such as P4 which trends slightly right off of the belay. P5 involves the famous "bush pull" move, which involves a slightly awkward right traverse underneath a bush. I found the bush to feel sturdy, and there's two bolts right before it. The second half of P5 is runout (or at least I couldn't find bolts) but it is 4th-class terrain that preps you for P8+, keep going up until you find the chains.

For us in June 2026, P7 was pretty wet, but I managed to dance around the streaks of water and keep my climbing shoes mostly dry. Up until P7 the climbing is relatively blocky, but P7 has some slab-climbing moves from the start, which are generously bolted.

I thought the best climbing was in P2, P3, P6, and P7. There is some loose rock, but I thought the granite was in decent shape for a new alpine climb. On the Saturday we climbed, we were the first two rope pairs, and there were two other teams below us. One passed us simul-climbing, and did kick a rock down near us.

For pitches 8+, we opted to link pairs of pitches, so climbing 8 & 9 together, 10 & 11, etc, since there were so few bolts anyways. A 70m rope did not reach the first two links, and barely reached the top of P13 from the top of P11 belay, so we had to simul-climb about 10ft or less for those first two linkups. One of the parties behind us had an 80m rope that reached the links. Congrats, you've reached the top of the rock route.

It's possible to rappel the route, but with an unknown amount of parties below us, we opted for the scramble-off descent. There's another set of anchors at the top of a ~20ft dirt scramble after P14. The simul-climbing party stopped at the top of P7 and rapped from there after we made it up.

Most of the belays are on decent ledges, and since the route is west-facing, many were in morning shade. Owen and I swung all leads as a rope-party of two, with me starting first.

Our timeline: left trailhead at 6:10am, 6:30am headed off the CCC Trail onto the climber's trail, base of the route at 8:05am (~2 hr approach), started climbing at 8:20am, I was at the top of P3 belaying Owen up at 9:20am, we were both at the top of P5 at 10:45am, top of P11 at 12:45pm, top of the route at 1:10pm (approx 5 hr climb).

This is an alpine-style sport climb, not a crag multi-pitch. Though I didn't feel like I wanted my trad gear, this route's backcountry nature, loose rock, and runout scrambles are better suited to trad leaders and >5.8 sport leaders, not for 5.7 rock leaders. Other climbs in the area like Poppy's Peril, Aspergillus, etc are more type-1 fun beginner sport leads if that's what you're looking for. The rock climbing is generally pleasant though, especially the first 7 pitches.

Descent Description:

This deserves it's own section, because the scramble-off descent is full-on. IMO it's more stressful and dangerous than the climb, because of the loose ground and exposure. Though I can only assume that rappelling 14 pitches would take a lot of time and mental focus as well.

From the top of the route, change in to trail runners / approach shoes, and continue across dirt, climber's right around cliffy terrain. At the ridge, head up and across-ish the north side of the ridge (you climbed up from the south side). Having the GPS track downloaded is mildly helpful.

This route is steep dirt and heather scrambling, with a faint bootpack in places. The conifers you can grab are generally helpful, though I grabbed other shrubs, rocks, and roots at points too. Eventually, the terrain mellows out slightly as you round the north side of the East Quartz summit block. We did not climb to the true summit so I don't have beta on that.

We rounded the summit and dropped though some steep shrubs into a dirt and large conifer saddle between the east and true summits of Quartz. This is the descent southeast from the saddle.

Hope your ankles are feeling strong, and your shoes are grippy, now's time for the descent gully. It's >1000 ft of loose talus scrambling. It is steepest and dirtiest at the top, and gradually lessens slope and gains width all the way down. There's not much to say here other than take your time, so that you don't roll your ankles and kick loose rocks down on your friends. This gully is the same one you ascended, so retreat back down to the base of the rock route and pick up any stashed gear. Reverse the straightforward approach back to the trailhead.

Our timeline for the descent: left the top lunch break at 1:45pm, top of the steep heather ridge at 2:15pm, saddle at 3pm, back at the base of the climbing route at 4:30pm (approx 3hr descent scramble), back to to the car at 6:40pm (approx 2hr deproach including food, water-filling, and first-aid breaks). Total time was 12.5 hours for our first time.

Commentary:

Fun day out! Waking up at 4am to get to the trailhead at 6am was definitely the right move (close to Seattle!). Alpine start. We were in the shade a lot of the day, since the climb is in morning shade, and the descent gully had a steep west wall that shaded us for the afternoon descent.

The route requires good mountain climbing skills, including comfort on exposed scrambling and run-out easy rock climbing, but is paradoxically located in a not-well-trodden stunning valley close to Seattle. Comparing to other climbs I've done, it's most similar to The Tooth 5.6 trad (though a sport climb), easier rock climbing and an alpine approach but less loose rock on-route than The Ascensionist (5.10b/c).

Owen, Howie, and Elijah were great partners, would rope-up again.