INDEX CLUB

1977 — Thin Fingers, 5.11a; Paul Boving 
Through much of the 1970s, Index was considered an aid crag. That almost changed in 1977, when the UW student and Yakima native Paul Boving freed the stunning, twin splitters of Thin Fingers, on the Lower Town Wall, the FFA of one of the numerous techy 5.11 crack climbs for which Index is now known. 

In the same year, Boving also FFA’d R.O.T.C. (5.11c) at Midnight Rock in Leavenworth and the Boving Route (5.10c) on Dragontail Peak in the Stuart Range (with Matt Christensen). “Boving was kind of competitive and impatient, so he really went after stuff,” recalls Christensen. Boving climbed Thin Fingers twice more but on his third ascent fell, pulling a few pieces, hitting a ledge, and sustaining a head injury. He never came out of his coma and died shortly after. “For some reason he didn’t wear his helmet, even though he [normally] did,” recalls Christensen. About a year after Boving’s death the cracks of Thin Fingers would become protectable with a new invention: cams. 

Boving’s death shrouded the Lower Town Wall and the remaining lines there lay dormant throughout the late 1970s. Index slipped into a dark age and the forest began to reclaim the walls. Meanwhile, granite crags throughout the US — North Conway, Donner Summit, and Joshua Tree — saw heavy route activity in the 1970s. 

1981 — Iron Horse, 5.11d; Peter Croft
Iron Horse is a classic Index Lower Town Wall route — thin, fingery crack climbing through a small, bouldery roof into a chimney/flare finish. The preternaturally gifted, congenitally shy, and then-unknown Northwest climber Peter Croft grew up on Vancouver Island and made Squamish his stomping ground in the 1980s. Croft often voyaged south to Washington, including Index. As Croft recalls, “[Index] rock… was like the best of Squamish but maybe smoother and the weather just as bad. That said it also seemed like the greatest concentration of hard thin cracks that I'd seen.” “Peter was always coming through climbing routes unroped. He was kind of heads above what everyone else was able to do at that time,” recalls Christensen. “Peter was super quiet then. He didn’t talk much,” says Northwest local Julie Brugger. Croft’s completed his ascent of Iron Horse and an onsight solo of Thin Fingers sans fanfare or observers. Still, it marked the beginning of what was to be Index’s most productive decade. The years following Boving’s death are noteworthy only for their dearth of new climbs; with Croft’s visit, the hex on the crag was broken. The lingering spirits receded into the forest and an explosion of route development ensued.