Climbing Poppy's Peril, Otter Falls (5.8)
Climbing next to a waterfall... does it get much better than this?!
Approach:
Park at Snoqualmie Lake Trailhead. There is a pit toilet and NF passes are required. Past the gate, cross the bridge over Taylor River, and hike half a mile up the road to the small trailhead.
Take the right at this fork and continue another ~4 miles on the rocky, gradually climbing Snoqualmie Lake Trail. There are dispersed campsites in the beautiful, mossy forest... but they're currently closed to camping due to a habituated bear. :(
Eventually, there's a small sign, a cairn, and sticks forming an arrow marking the left turn to Otter Falls. Follow the climbers' trails up and over a small ridge in open forest to descend to the lake.
The route is named after a dog, Poppy, who followed the route developers up to pitch 2's anchor. A hiker's dog followed us up to the base of pitch 1, living up to the spirit of the climb! All dogs are safe. :)
Rolling up to the trailhead for an 11am start, this route made for the perfect "type 1" fun day! We hiked at a leisurely pace, arriving to Otter Falls in 1.5 hours. After hanging out at the lake for a bit, we began our climb around 1:30pm.
The first pitch was grippy 5.2 friction slab. The bolting is generous for low-grade slab.
The rock is so good you could walk up this pitch without hands, but we'd sometimes use the ridge next to us like a railing for balance.
Otter Falls was a trickle compared to the raging waters I witnessed during a May trail run with Clarisse. We were able to use pitch 2's standard anchor as a result. If the waterfall levels are too high, you can belay from the rappel anchor to the right.
Pitch 4's belay stance is definitely the most comfy to hang out at, if you wanted to plan a lunch spot. The others were more slab than ledge, but all had good stances.
Pitches 3 and 4 are definitely the money pitches. Pitches 1-2 and 5 offer joyful, easy movement (the last feeling like a fun victory lap). The 5.8 crux move (the transition to a new friction slab) was thoughtful and I slipped a bit here, but man this is the climb that finally made me love slab!!!
Hard to beat this position!!!
After topping out, we rappelled six times back down to the base of the climb. There is a separate rappel line to the climber's right. The rappels are rope stretchers on a 60m rope, so tie knots! We got close to the end of our 70m rope once.
This was a really fun day out that I'd love to repeat.
This well-bolted route would be good for new multipitch climbers, but be prepared to be efficient. We had the route completely to ourselves on a cloudy Thursday, but it's on its way to becoming a Middle Fork classic... and is already drawing weekend crowds!