My son Ryan, 11, on a nice starter route on Sunset Slabs, low on Erie's SW slope. Sunset has big, comfortable ledges above and below for belaying and spectating. The upper ledge has several big, stainless steel "staples" for belay anchors.

The horizontal grooves are glacial striations. We're just a few hundred feet above sea level here, and the geology books say the ice was once about 5,000 feet deep. Just S of us is Whidbey Island, the second-longest island in the lower 48. Its forests, cities, farms and a naval air station are all sitting on gravel left by the glacier that had scraped over Mount Erie and its neighbors.

March 31, 2007