Davis-Holland is a super classic at Index. Combined with Lovin' Arms, this gives you a 6-pitch route to the top of the Upper Town Wall. A must do!

Dates I've climbed this route:
- (DH only: Date: May 8, 2010 (Sat) Partners: Daniel Jeffrey, Tom Sjolseth)
- Date: May 15, 2010 (Sat) Partners: Daniel Jeffrey, David Kiehl
- Date: July 14, 2013 (Sun) Partner: Dan Aylward
- Date: April 3, 2016 (Sun) Partner: Todd Anderson
- (DH only: Date: May 20, 2017 (Sat) Partner: Cindy Beavon)

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

	Photos:	Photo descriptions:
Pitch 1 Davis-Holland	5.8+. Climb a handcrack, reach a ledge and head right and then back left on terraces to the bolted belay.
	1. 2.	1. Pitch 1. 2. Crack climbing.
Pitch 2 Davis-Holland	5.10a. Jam and/or lieback the crack up the right-facing corner to another bolted belay. This pitch is a lot easier if you have thin hands.
	3. 4. 5.	3. The awesome corner on Pitch 2. Even though I've climbed this route four times, I cannot find a good photo of this corner in my photo libraries. I must have been too stunned by its awesomeness. This photo was found on a chossclimbers.com trip report. 4. Another photo from the chossclimbers.com trip report, showing the corner from the ground. 5. Tom Sjolseth finishing the Pitch when I climbed just the Davis-Holland route with him in 2010. His hands didn't fit in the 0.75 crack so it was a struggle for him. This pitch is a lot easier if you have thin hands....like mine....
Pitch 3 Davis-Holland	5.10c. From the anchor, make a bouldery move right around the roof, then head back left into a right-facing corner (you could also go left at the start, but this might be harder). Climb up the corner past a crux with delicate footwork and small holds to a bolted belay on a ledge.
	6. 7. 8.	6. The bouldery move at the start of Pitch 3. We went right around the boulder (Daniel did not set a piece of gear, so that's why the rope is going around the left side of the boulder). 7. Crux section on Pitch 3. 8. View of Mt. Index.
Pitch 4 Lovin' Arms	5.10b. Tenuous face holds and side-pulling in shallow cracks to a hand crack. Then up the hand crack into a mossy chimney to a bolted anchor on the left.
	9. 10. 11.	9. Pitch 1 of Lovin' Arms (of Pitch 4 of the Davis-Holland+Loviin' Arms link-up). 10. The mossy chimney. 11. Climber below us leading the mossy chimney.
Pitch 5 Lovin' Arms	5.10a. Continue up the chimney for about 20 feet, then follow a crack on a ramp down and right to a shallow corner. Continue up a crack in a small corner, then right and up to a mantle onto a large ledge. (It is also possible to traverse right from the anchors in the chimney towards a crack system: 5.10c A0 or 5.11c free).
	12. 13.	12. Pitch 5. 13. A climber leading the crux of Pitch 2 of Lovin' Arms.
Pitch 6 Lovin' Arms	5.10a. Climb up the quartz-like face, with numerous but downsloping holds. Sort of runnout.
	14.	14. The last pitch to the top of The Upper Town Wall.
Top!	The route reaches the top rim of Upper Town Wall. Enjoy the view!
	15. 16.	15. Anchors at the top. 16. The town of Index nestled below.
Descent	Rap the route with a single 70 or rap beside the route with double ropes.
	(no photos)

This is an old route that has recently been retrofitted and cleaned. A sustained 5.10/5.10+ route that goes up clean featured stone to the top of the Diamond. Excellent climbing.

Date I climbed this route:
- Date: August 17, 2018 (Fri); Partner: Jess K

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

	Photos:	Photo descriptions:
Pitch 1	5.6. Short wide crack.
	1. 2.	1. This photo is NOT the correct start to the route. You know you're a Washington climber, though, when you convince yourself this sort of climbing is on route. 2. Looking down at the actual start to the route.
Pitch 2	5.10d. Climb a short corner to a ledge. Climb straight up on bouldery bolt-protected moves to the large ledge below Pitch 3.
	3. 4.	3. Start of Pitch 2. 4. The bolted 10d face.
Pitch 3	5.10. Long, continuous left-facing dihedral. The money pitch.
	5. 6. 7.	5. Looking up at the dihedral. 6. Another photo taken while climbing. 7. Jess nearing the top of the pitch.
Pitch 4	5.10. Climb straight up, then traverse right following hand rails.
	8. 9.	8. Jess starting off Pitch 4. 9. The Pitch 4 traverse.
Pitch 5	5.10-. Follow the leftward traversing dike.
	10. 11.	10. Pitch 5. 11. The cave at the top of Pitch 5 (this photo was taken while rappelling the route).
Pitch 6	5.10. Climb left out of the cave and head straight up on steep face holds.
	12.	12. Jess starting up Pitch 6.
Pitch 7	5.10. Follow features to a nice crack, then follow more features to a roof. Pull the roof, then climb up and right towards an anchor. Mix of gear and bolts.
	13. 14.	13. Looking up Pitch 7. 14. Fun climbing on Pitch 7.
Top!	The route reaches the top of The Diamond.

Descent	Rap the route with a single 70.
	15. 16.	15. Rappelling the route. 16. Notice the plastic owl hanging on the wall. No doubt to discourage falcon nesting.

This route climbs to the top of the Upper Town Wall via two pitches of crack climbing and three pitches of face climbing. It may be the easiest route up the Upper Town Wall, but the climbing is sustained and airy and the crux pitch is no gimmie. An excellent adventure!

Date I climbed this route:
- Date: September 18, 2018 (Tue); Partner: DR

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

	Photos:	Photo descriptions:
Pitch 1	5.10c. Climb Lamplighter, traversing left at the top of the chimney to a bolted anchor.
	1. 2.	1. Looking up Pitch 1. This Pitch is called Lamplighter. 2. Taken while climbing. The climbing seemed hard for 10c, but I toproped this pitch on the descent and found it much easier the second time around. I like this kind of chimney/crack/whatever climbing.
Pitch 2	5.9. Climb a steep and juggy corner with excellent pro.
	3. 4.	3. Awesome 5.9 corner. 4. DR climbing the corner.
Pitch 3	5.10+ (crux pitch). Start by pulling a roof, then continue up steep airy face on small gear. Delicate and devious climbing.
	5. 6. 7. x	5. DR starting off the pitch, below the initial roof. The roof is a hard move, but there are even harder moves above. 6. DR above the roof, ready to tackle the rest of this cruxy pitch. 7. Offset cams work really well on this pitch. There are some places that would be rather sketchy with a normal cam, but the offset feels pretty bomber.
Pitch 4	5.10-. Climb up patina face. A mix of bolts and small cams.
	8. 9.	8. Looking up Pitch 4. 9. A horizontal tree.
Pitch 5	5.10-. Face climbing. All bolted.
	10.	10. Pitch 5.
Top!	The route reaches the top of the Upper Town Wall.
	11.	11. The top of the wall. This is the horizontal tree we saw from below. Give it a good wind storm and it might topple over the cliff.
Descent	Rap the route with a single 70.
	(no photos)

This version of Free at Last from the new (2017) guidebook is a bit of a rework that combines pitches from the original full Tatoosh, Free at Last, and Voyage of the Majestic Glass-Eyed Tuna for a 4-pitch 5.10 route to the top of the Lower Town Wall. This route features a lot of steep 5.10 climbing: finger-to-fist crack-climbing, wild flakes, strenuous roofs, splitter V-slots, as well as a few devious bolt-protected face cruxes.

I climbed this route with Aaron Cannistra. We both thought it was a pretty awesome climb. One thing that nagged at me after the climb, though, was the odd tension traverse I had to do on my lead at the start of Pitch 4. It felt too convoluted to be correct, despite the fact that it was the way described on mountainrproject. A few days after Aaron and I climbed Free at Last, Nate Redon made a comment on my photo of Pitch 4 that I had posted on mountainrproject, suggesting that next time I try a fingercrack of a bit further to the left. The next weekend, I was back at Index with Doug Hutchinson, who had also gotten suckered into the tension traverse on Pitch 4 when he had climbed Free at Last the year before. We decided to climb Park Ranger, and then descend by rapping Free at Last, giving up the opportunity to revisit Pitch 4. We ended up toproping both the fingercrack Nate recommended (this fingercrack is on Voyage of the Majestic Glass-Eyed Tuna) and the harder Path of Righteousness we had both tensioned into on lead. Doug and I agreed that the VOTMGET start was the way to go, and kept the climbing consistent with the grade of the pitches below. We also toproped Quarry Crack on the final rappel; this pitch provides a nice alternative start to the Free at Last route, especially if Tatoosh is occupied by a party.

Below is a pitch-by-pitch photo trip report of Free at Last, using photos from both my ground-up ascent with Aaron and my "figure out Pitch 4" and Pitch 1 alternative Quarry Crack with Doug the following weekend.

Dates I've climbed this route:
- Date: September 30, 2018 (Sun); Partner: Aaron Cannistra
- (Upper pitch only: Date: October 7, 2018 (Sun); Partner: Doug Hutchinson)

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

	Photos:	Photo descriptions:
Pitch 1a (option a) *Tatoosh*	5.10b. Tatoosh, an awesome climb with varied climbing (known to be one of the best 5.10 pitches at Index). Instead of stopping at the chains, continue up and belay off a tree on the ledge above.
	1. 2. 3. 4.	1. Starting up Tatoosh. I've probably climbed this route 10 times, but this was Aaron's first time climbing this route. 2. Finger crack near the top of Tatoosh. 3. Just above the bolted anchor at the top of Tatoosh. Continue up this part if continuing onto Free at Last; set the belay on a tree. 4. I've grown to really enjoy the frequent trains trundling by below the Lower Town Wall.
Pitch 1b (option b) *Quarry Crack*	5.9. Quarry Crack is a more direct (and slightly easier) start to Free at Last. I've climbed Quarry Crack several times, and feel it is a fun climb that should get more traffic. This pitch features fun moves through the lower roof, and then a great handcrack/lieback through a slightly thuggish "wide" section.
	5. 6.	5. Looking up Quarry Crack. 6. Fun crack climbing.
Pitch 2 *Free at Last*	5.9. Start up a small V-slot, then 'shwack to the base of a steep corner, and climb the corner to a bolted station at a small ledge.
	7. 8. 9. 10.	7. Looking up Pitch 2. (Photo by Aaron.) 8. Some vegetation at the start of Pitch 2. But worth it for what lies ahead. The rest of the route was quite clean and un-vegetated. 9. You know you are climbing in Washington when your bomber #3 placements look like this.... 10. Looking down from the top of Pitch 2. The climbing is great 5.9 steep corner climbing after the vegetated adventure at the start of the pitch.
Pitch 3 *Free at Last*	5.10b. Continue up a steep, splitter handcrack, pull a roof, climb some cool flakes, climb through a delicate face/slab (bolt), and then up a ramp to the bolted belay. (Personally, I would belay at the tree to the left, rather than at the bolted belay station.)
	11. 12.	11. Aaron starting up Pitch 3. Great climbing ahead. 12. A bolt just before the slab/face crux near the top of Pitch 3.
Pitch 4 *Voyage of the Majestic Glass-Eyed Tuna*	5.10d. There are a couple of ways to do this pitch (see annotated photo below for detail). The way I would personally recommend is to climb the pitch via Voyage of the Majestic Glass-Eyed Tuna, which starts on the left at the tree; via VOTMGET, the pitch begins with a steep fingercrack, which connects with a tricky ramp/layback that brings you to the base of an awesome V-slot with a splitter handcrack; climb the V-slot to a nice ledge at the top of Lower Town Wall.
	13a. 13b. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.	13a. There are a couple of options for this pitch (and hence some possible confusion on where to go). Aaron and I went the way marked in blue (this was the route described on mountainproject). Going this way involved a tension traverse and a bit of back-cleaning, and felt too convoluted to be correct. When I originally posted the un-annotated version of this photo on mountainproject, Nate Redon commented that there is a more direct start to the left (thanks Nate!), following Voyage of the Majestic Glass-Eyed Tuna for the entire pitch; this is the line shown in red. Doug and I toproped this way the following weekend, and found it easier and more protectable than the way Aaron and I had gone. Doug and I also toproped the direct start to Path of RIghteousness, which was harder than VOTMGET, but at least avoids the weird tension traverse Aaron and I had to do. 13b. Looking up Pitch 4 from the belay anchor at the top of Pitch 3. When Aaron and I climbed this route, I went directly up via a mantle to a bolt, and then had to tension traverse left to get into Path of Righteousness. As mentioned in the comment above, I don't think this is the ideal way to do this pitch. 14. Looking up the steep fingercrack on the Voyage of the Majestic Glass-Eyed Tuna start. Belay at the tree below this crack rather than at the bolted anchors. This is good climbing. The original finish of Tatoosh goes left up the 5.8 corner up and left of the tree. 15. Doug toproping the VOTMGET start. 16. Looking up the direct start to the Path of Righteousness start to Pitch 4. Harder than VOTMGET. But good climbing. 17. Doug toproping the POR start. 18. Splitter hand/fist crack up a groove high on Pitch 4. Tape up for this one. All starts bring you here. This groove is the finish of VOTMGET (POR goes right just before this groove).
Pitch 4.5 "Via Ferrata"	5.easy. If you want to get to the top of the Lower Town Wall (I think you can hike off from here), climb the wire rungs up a short cliff.
	19. 20. 21.	19. Some wire steps on a wall just above the anchor at the top of Pitch 4 (I had caught wind of a rumor of a via ferrata ascending all the way up the Lower Town Wall at Index, didn't really believe it at the time, but perhaps it is true after all....?). We decided to add this on as "Pitch 4.5." 20. It's even bolt-protected! 21. Fall foliage at the top of Lower Town Wall.
Descent	Rap the route with a single 70.
	(no photos)

Park Ranger follows four pitches of sustained 5.9 climbing to the top of the Lower Town Wall. It was excavated and retro-bolted in 2015, and somewhat less-travelled than other routes on the wall, but nevertheless features excellent climbing with an adventurers flavor. Most parties only climb the first three pitches, but Doug and I climbed the fourth pitch and realized that there was pretty high-quality climbing underneath the vegetation. This route deserves more traffic, especially since it is one of the few "moderate" routes to the top of the Lower Town Wall.

Date I climbed this route:
- Date: October 7, 2018 (Sun); Partner: Doug Hutchinson

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

	Photos:	Photo descriptions:
Pitch 1 *Godzilla*	5.9+. Godzilla, a quintessential Index 5.9, doesn't get much better than this. Awesome steep crack climbing.
	1.	1. Awesome steep crack climbing on Godzilla.
Pitch 2	5.9. Traverse right from the anchors at the top of Godzilla, then up to a ledge with a chain anchor, then up a steep fingercrack, then up and left through steep jugs to the bolted anchor.
	2. 3. 4. 5.	2. Steph leading the traverse at the start of Pitch 2. (Photo by Doug.) 3. Doug following the traverse at the start of Pitch 2. I had stopped at an intermediate belay on a ledge with a chain anchor. This is not necessary, but it reduces rope drag on the second half of the pitch, and to be honest the first section had been a bit heady so I was happy to hang out at the anchor a bit. 4. Doug leading the steep fingercrack above the intermediate belay chains on Pitch 2. 5. Above the fingercrack, climb through steep jugs up and left.
Pitch 3	5.9. Up a crack system (a couple of options) to a steep flare. Excellent sustained 5.9 climbing.
	6. 7. 8.	6. Steph starting up Pitch 3. (Photo by Doug.) 7. There are a couple of options on the first half of Pitch 3. This is looking up the left crack option. I actually went up the crack option about 10 feet to the right of this. 8. Looking down the flare on Pitch 3. Another awesome Index flare section.
Pitch 4	5.9. Up a vegetated corner/handcrack and then through a steep roof. Given the vegetation, it seems that most parties only climb the first three pitches of this route. But the climbing on this pitch would be just as good as all of the other pitches if it were cleaned up. Doing this pitch in its current state adds an adventurous flavor to the route.
	9. 10. 11. 12. 13.	9. Doug starting up Pitch 4. 10. Pitch 4 is pretty vegetated. It is unfortunate that this pitch is so dirty, since the climbing is actually very good, plus climbing this pitch creates a 4-pitch 5.9 route to the top of the Lower Town Wall. (It's hard for me to climb stuff like this and not have this mental image of a giant car-wash-like machine ascending the wall scrubbing it into a gleaming granite wonderland. Climbing a pitch like this makes me appreciate all of the hard work that has gone into cleaning (and re-cleaning....) all of the routes at Index.) 11. Looking down the corner hand crack at the start of Pitch 4. 12. The second half of Pitch 4. 13. Topping out beta: Grab the green hold!
Descent	Rap the route with a single 70.
	14.	14. The bolted anchor at the top of the route. You can wrap the route with a single 70 from here. (Doug and I did not rap the route, but instead we scrambled up to the top of Free at Last so that we could toprope Pitch 4 of Free at Last. We rappelled back to the ground via the Free at Last anchors.)

This route climbs to the top of Lookout Point in 5 pitches. Pitches 1-3 were established in 2015, and Pitches 4-5 were put up a couple of years later. The highlight of the route is probably the splitter fingercrack on Pitch 2, although there is good climbing on the rest of the route as well. It was one of those perfect 60° sunny fall days at Index, and this was a great way to spend the morning with a cool gal named Jess.

Date I climbed this route:
- Date: October 13, 2018 (Sat); Partner: Jess K

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

	Photos:	Photo descriptions:
Pitch 1	5.8. Use the hand line to get up the corner, then climb a short corner to the bolted belay. This pitch would be pretty high-quality if cleaned up (that's an Index motto, right?).
	1. 2.	1. The start of Pitch 1. 2. The short corner after the handline.
Pitch 2	5.11b. Splitter finger crack. The final move might be the crux.
	3. 4.	3. Tree, red bush, and Pitch 2. 4. Jess styling the Pitch 2 splitter finger crack. Awesome lead Jess!
Pitch 3	5.10a. Nice corner crack. Finish by face-climbing right (pockets and a bolt) to the bolted belay. The final moves are the crux.
	5. 6. 7. 8.	5. Steph leading Pitch 3 (photo by Jess). 6. Looking down while climbing Pitch 3. This was probably the funnest pitch on the route. 7. The sting at the end of the pitch: face traverse (pocket + bolt) to the chains. 8. Jess nearing the top of Pitch 3.
Pitch 4	5.11+. Bolted slab climbing. Awesome if you like slab climbing. Bring a couple of small cams and 14 draws.
	9.	9. Slab climbing!
Pitch 5	5.11+. Splitter tips to a steep bolted finish. Definitely a notch harder than Pitch 2.
	10. 11.	10. Looking up Pitch 5. 11. The splitter tips crack.
Descent	Rap the route with a single 60.
	12.	12. Mt. Index through the fall foliage. Fall is a beautiful time to climb at Index.