The town of Concrete, Washington, is a gateway to the North Cascades.
The cement plant, which supplied cement for the Grand Coulee Dam and projects in Seattle, was built in 1908 and has stood abandoned since 1967. The site is currently owned by the town.
Now the 100-foot high cement silo, with walls 16 inches thick, may get a new life as an artificial climbing wall — an idea that dovetails with the town’s current tourism economy and has the backing of the town fathers. Read story here.
Sport climbing has exploded in popularity and artificial climbing walls, many of them indoors, have proliferated. This is a different sport than alpine climbing, more like bouldering or cliff climbing.
There’s some of that in Northwest Washington, too. Three popular bouldering spots are Sehome Hill on the Western Washington University campus, Larrabee State Park on Chuckanut Drive south of Bellingham, and Mount Erie near Anacortes. But there are no big outdoor artificial climbing walls that I know of. Until now.
Photo: I assume there’s stairs in the square tower at right, but if not you could rappel off it.
