One of America’s Iconic Climbing Walls, a Washington Landmark, Often Paralleled with Yosemite

California’s Yosemite National Park brims with natural wonders such as Half Dome and El Capitan, two of the world’s most celebrated rock climbing destinations. But Washington state has some epic climbing areas, too, with at least one — Index Town Walls in Washington’s Cascade Range — comparable to or even exceeding Yosemite in terms of the climbing experience it offers. Writer and rock aficionado Chris Kalman raved about Index in an article on Climbing.com: “You might imagine the world’s greatest crag to be some tufa-dripped wall in Spain, a stalactite-riddled cave in Greece, or a lode of perfect stone in California. But the world’s best crag is actually in the emerald defile of the Skykomish Valley.”

With its dreamy setting in the lush Skykomish Valley and its otherworldly slabs and boulders, Index Town Walls have drawn legendary climbers like Fred Beckey, Todd Skinner, Greg Child, Peter Croft, Andy de Klerk, Justen Sjong and others to the Skykomish Valley since the 1960s. The area continues to enjoy a huge following of die-hard climbers, who appreciate the superb quality of its granite and the immense variety of the routes, which include single-pitch and multi-pitch trad and sport climbs, whose difficulty ranges from 5.6 (easy) all the way to 5.13+ (extremely difficult). 

In the Climbing.com article, Kalman waxes poetic on his unforgettable Index adventures: “It wasn’t just that every inch of every pitch was on impeccable stone; it was that each route was as unique and memorable as the next, with its own geology and sequences. Smitten, I spent most of my free days that summer at Index.” The Index Town Walls climbing area is an awesome assemblage of granite slabs and boulders scattered across a forested mountainside near Index town. Several different sections  — Lower Town Wall, Upper Town Wall, Lower Lump, Inner Walls, Zappa Wall, and a few others — encompass a mind-boggling 1,083 routes, with everything from crack and face climbs to tips, off-widths, and chimneys. Given this mix and volume, Index has always been an ideal place for climbers seeking to become more well-rounded. 

Climbing is possible all year round at Index (with a few caveats). It’s located on the Cascade Range’s western side, which is often much cooler than the east. This and the presence of large shade-providing trees make it a prime spot for warm weather climbing. Winter is another story, when the cliffs become soggy and slippery due to copious amounts of rain. But climbing at Index is possible and can even be pleasant on a sunny winter day, particularly in drier places like south-facing walls, areas with steeper grades (e.g., Cheeks in the Upper Town Wall), and slabs (e.g., Lookout Point).