Godzilla

Overview

Godzilla is one of the ultra-classics at the Index Lower Town Wall and quite possibly one of the best 5.9 trad climbs in the state. Situated just to the right of the world famous "City Park" aid climb, the route offers fantastic hand and finger cracks, great flakes and the option for perfect liebacks. This climb will surely please everyone...just be sure to avoid summer weekends as you might have to wait hours on a busy weekend. The really nice thing about the Lower Town Wall is that you only have to walk for five minutes to get to the base of the climb. Take Highway 2 east to Monroe and continue an additional 20 miles to the bridge crossing of the South Fork Skykomish River. Just after this bridge turn left onto the Index-Galena Road.

Head on this road about a mile and turn left (north) onto 5th Street crossing another bridge over the Main Fork Skykomish River entering the small town of Index. After the bridge, take the second left (west) onto Index Avenue and continue a quarter mile to the roads end and take another left (south) onto 2nd Avenue. You will pass by the haunted Bush House which is currently undergoing a remodeling project. After one block where the road ends at the river, take a right (west) onto Avenue A and go 0.6 miles until you reach small parking area off to the right for the Lower Town Wall just before the road parallels the train tracks. Park here and walk over the tracks and follow the trail at the base of the wall for about 5 minutes just before the trail heads uphill and around to the east side of the wall.

Route Description

The first 8 or so feet of this route is an unpleasant face with little footholds and you simply have to do a pull up on a couple handholds and stem your way up to the "real" start of the route. Honestly I thought this was the crux of the whole climb. Past this, climb easily to the small bench about 20 feet up where the real crack climbing begins. This first 20 feet to the bench is run-out and hard to protect so use caution here. You can also start the climb at the bolted line just to the left (which is also the start of the famous City Park 5.13c aid route) and traverse right to the same small bench.

Begin climbing up to the big flake and use hand and foot jams or a lieback method to ascend. Protection is great. You can also take a slightly harder variation to the left using the smaller flake. Once at the top of this 25 foot flake there is a good stance to rest at. The next part of the climb ascends an open book for about 45 feet with little in the way of places to rest but there are great hand and finger cracks on the left to jam into. Since I followed I liebacked the whole thing but leading this climb would require you to be good at jamming. Protection here is also fantastic.

When you reach a small tree on a ledge, make a traverse left to another ledge around a small protruding rock and finish the last 15 feet which is mainly a stem to the double bolts where you can place the anchor.

Looking up Godzilla

Climber on the big flake

Standing atop the flake

Essential Gear

Bring a standard rack of Cams and nuts to 3" and some slings as there are a couple horns you can use. The top anchor is a double bolt. A 70m rope is recommended since the pitch is slightly longer then 30 meters however others have used 60m ropes and made it the whole way down. Depending on how dynamic your 60m rope is it might be a tad short.

Climber on Godzilla

Climber on Godzilla

External Links

Godzilla on MountainProject

Index Weather Forecast

Bush House Inn

Town of Index

Current status of the Index Climbing Area - WA Climbers Coalition

Images

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