#144 | Bruce MacLachlan - Writing " Let's Rock: Washington "

Bruce MacLachlan is a writer, rock climber, and interior designer who has launched a Kickstarter for his rock-climbing book, Let’s Rock: Washington which is a book about rock climbing routes, how to access the routes and camp nearby, local activities, and beta of the routes. 

The routes in Bruce’s book are centered around climbing and living in Seattle, Washington.

Bruce learned to climb through the rock climbing gyms in the Seattle area and he started organizing meet-ups with fellow climbers to explore climbing objectives of Washington and abroad. Bruce shares his rock climbing information from the perspective of a beginner and intermediate sport climber. Bruce provides a brief overview of his favorite areas while deferring to the crag’s guidebook for in-depth knowledge 

Bruce has received backlash from the climbing community in Washington, especially from route developers. The main contention is that he released information about areas that were still under development, no longer had legal access for anyone in the climbing community, or might of been a secret spot with limited attention. This highlights something larger which is the divergence between route setters at crags, the people that climb the routes, and the institutions in cities that teach some of those climbers. I want to learn about these relationships between everyone in the climbing communities and this tension that I stumbled into is my first go at it. You can check out route setter’s counterpoints here: Mountain Project and here