Climbers group buys famed Index Lower Town Wall, saves it from quarry

The Washington Climbers Coalition (WCC) has purchased one of the state's most famous rock-climbing venues, the Lower Town Wall in Index.

Matt Perkins, secretary of the coalition, said the climbing group purchased the wall for $115,000 from a private landowner, Patricia Murphy.

The group is trying to raise $300,000 for additions near the wall, including parking, bathrooms and a walkway over railroad tracks.

"Climbers have been working for more than 15 years to buy the Lower Town Wall," said Darryl Cramer, a WCC board member and guidebook author who has climbed the wall for nearly 30 years. "We've pulled it off and ensured that the Lower Town Wall will remain open to climbing forever."

The climbing coalition hopes to donate the 20-acre parcel to Washington State Parks, said Perkins, and have it continue as a climbing wall.

The state owns most of the property adjacent to the Lower Town Wall, including property containing the Upper Town Wall, another popular climbing destination. Snohomish County Parks is also interested in that property, according to the WCC.

Climbers have been scaling the wall for more than 50 years, but earlier this year it was threatened with closure and conversion to a quarry.

According to the climbing coalition, the cliffs and crags surrounding the town of Index have long offered some of the best granite climbing in Washington, and the Lower Town Wall is the gem of the area. It has been touted as one of the best climbing crags in the U.S., the coalition said.

Last year, the owner of the property put up "no trespassing" signs because she was planning to sell the land to quarry operators, but the climbers coalition won an option to purchase the property, and the owner agreed to allow climbing to continue while the group raised money for the purchase.

The group purchased the option with a loan from the Access Fund, a national climbing-advocacy group.

The group said it wants to name the climbing peak after Stimson Bullitt, a civic leader and former president of King Broadcasting. Bullitt, who died last year, took up climbing at age 70 and climbed Index's Town Wall into his 80s.

The WCC plans to celebrate the purchase of the wall Sept. 19 in Index.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com