First Creek Slabs

The First Creek Slabs line the southern side of First Creek Canyon, starting just west (upstream) of the Lotta Balls and Romper Room areas. They extend for several hundred yards, forming a series of ribs and buttresses with a number of good routes. The slabs begin just a short distance above the streambed, so approaches are reasonably short and friendly. The slabs end a thousand to fifteen hundred feet higher, on a brushy ledge system beneath the imposing Upper Tier that extends another thousand or so feet to the ridgeline.

The first key landmark is the obvious right-slanting chimney of Rising Moons. Immediately left (east) of the small Rising Moons buttress is the descent gully used by Algae on Parade and routes ending of the brushy ramp. To the right of Rising Moons is the sequence of low-angle buttresses climbed by Sunset Slab, Big Sky, and the Romanian Rib. Still further to the west (and now a few hundred yards upstream from Rising Moons) is the Echove, a recessed area of somewhat steeper rock that is almost granitic in texture.