Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Spring at Smith Rock

We are nearing the end of May and I'm happy to say I've made it out to Smith Rock a handfull of times already.  After our frozen Crater Lake trip, Peter and I drove up highway 97 to Terrebonne, a small town in central Oregon, and then the three miles through farms to the State Park Campground.  We were meeting a small group of UO geologists and one very happy retriever.

Kayak is a man's man.

It was a bit chilly so we took it easy and over two days, got a few good pitches in.  With Peter being somewhat injured, I got a lot of early season leading in to warm up my lead head.

 Kayak loves hiking!

 The Tunnel




 What a good crag dog!


 Snuggle buddies




 Lauren leading


A few weeks later a group of us went out on a sunny weekend.  We spent the first day in the Marsupials climbing Lusty Lady (5.8) and The Opossum (5.8).


 James and Nyle getting ready to send.


 Nyle with the first lead


 James leading Death of a Raven (5.8)
First pitch of The Opossum


 At the top of The Opossum





The next day we hit up a few pitches in the Pleasure Palace area to take advantage of morning shade.  In the afternoon, it was time for me to lead my first traditional multi-pitch climb!

Moscow (5.6) is the original 3 pitch climb up the Red Wall.  The rock was good and the climbing was great for the grade, easy enough for me to run it out (maybe to an alarming degree).  Near the top of the third pitch, on a neat slab dihedral with a wide crack, I got stuck.  Very stuck.  A few feet above my last piece I sunk my right foot deep into the crack.  As I attempted to step up and cram as much arm as I could muster into the crack (a surprising amount), I realized my foot was perfectly wedged into a constriction.  Concerned, I called down to Peter that my foot was stuck, he laughed before realizing that I was not feeling very lighthearted about it.  With no solid hands I tried to wiggle free with no luck, Peter suggested I put in a piece in before freaking out (now why didn't I think of that?)  I put a 4' cam in above my head and took to examine the situation.  I tried jerking it out by the heel loop, no luck.  I tried taking my shoe off, unsuccessful.  Finally after much grunting and pulling and shoving and swearing I managed to dislodge my foot, happily overcoming the first wrench in my trad climbing experience.  The rest of the climb went down wonderfully.


The very next weekend we were back for more.  Our friends from Seattle, Rip, Sarah and Jeremy, were headed to Smith for the weekend so we met up with them.  The first day, Peter and I found another 5.6 trad route on the Red Wall for me to lead while Sarah and Rip climbed Moscow.  Super Slab (5.6) was backed up with Mazama teams taking a test.  The climbing was slow going and we ended up spending almost an hour at a single belay ledge.  Regardless, the climb was a blast and I was ready to hit up something harder.

After our respective multi-pitches we lazily climbed a few single pitches in the area.  I had the pleasure of top roping Chouinard's crack (5.9), one of the better cracks at Smith.

The next day Peter, Sarah, Rip and I climbed Spiderman (5.7) on the Spiderman Buttress. Once again we were held up by Mazama groups, but it was worth it for my favorite trad climb yet!

Sarah and I at the top of pitch 1

 Me leading the crux of pitch 2

Rip following pitch 1

Top of Spiderman Buttress

Scared away by the busy weekends, we made our next trip out on a Monday.  After skiing Diamond Peak on a Sunday (story to come), we camped at Smith on Sunday night and headed for the Marsupials to climb Thin Air (5.10).  The route is three pitches up the south arrete of Koala Rock.  One pitch of trad followed by two bolted 5.10 pitches made it challenging and super fun.  Peter led the first pitch which started as a 5.8 sinuous finger crack (for me anyway) and a short bulge/roof followed by a clean slab fist crack.  We swung the next pitches of .10a and .10b and finished with a short scramble to the top of the crag.  We simul rappelled off the back and skated down a terrible scree slope to finish it off.

Looking for a little adventure, we found a moderate mixed route to the top of the Wombat, the highest rock at Smith.  Birds in a Rut (5.7) zig-zags up the face over lichen and more sketchy flakes that I would prefer.  Every pitch had a little crack action were we could place a few pieces and was, overall easy climbing.  Pitch 5 is an amazing corner stem that I would do again in an instant.

Then it was the final pitch, mostly a scramble with a few 5.7 moves.  To top off our adventure we decided to do something ridiculous: top out the climb naked (sorry mom).



Coming soon:  Skiing Diamond Peak and why we on a naked sports kick to begin with!
 

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