Intro to Gear Placement - Index Town Walls

Recommend Hag Crack for small group mock leading sessions when it is too hot in Leavenworth, Tieton, and Vantage.

There's a good public bathroom next to the playground.

To get to Hag Crack, from the Bush hotel, take a right at the railroad tracks, then first right into the woods over a small wooden bridge. Take the trail up and keep taking rights. At the first flattish junction take a right (the left goes to a bouldering area). At the 2nd junction take a right (left goes to Rattletail wall). Eventually the trail becomes a little rock hoppy and approaches a headwall; don't go all the way to the headwall but take a right onto the trail to Private Idaho and keep going past Private Idaho just a little ways and there will be a down step and you will reach Hag Crag on your left. (If you go all the way up to the headwall and turn right you will end up going to Lookout point instead.)

At Hag Crag  you can go around to the right and hang top ropes on Magician's apprentice and Hag Crack. These are shorter routes so a 60 meter rope is fine. We had 1 student belaying and 1 student mock-leading. We would meet them at the top of the routes and convert the mock lead rope into a rappel rope for ourselves to rappel and inspect gear. The student was on belay the whole time and got lowered when it was time to review gear.

If you go around to the right of Hag Crag up past Hag Crack and Magician's apprentice across the top of the crag to climber's left, there are 2 bolts that you can use to hang a 70 meter rope on Regular Route. (a 60 meter will not reach!) The actual anchor for Regular Route is lower than the pair of bolts that one uses at the top of the crag. Thus you can just let students top rope for fun. If you actually want to inspect gear together and use the toprope for your own rappel rope, then you have to be comfortable with your students  anchoring themselves into the lower bolts and converting their mock leading rope to a rappel. Another alternative is for an instructor to lead the route and set up an anchor on the lower bolts, then let the student mock lead and then anchor themselves in and come off belay. Then the instructor is belayed up. 

Hag crack and Regular route are quite clean. Magician's apprentice has some dirt and lichen on it so could benefit from more cleaning. But all the routes are different from each other so fun to do all of them!