Smith Rock

Memorial Day Weekend I spent at Smith Rock.  I headed out a little early from work to get a few camp sites for the group of people we had coming out.  When I got to Skullhollow, 4 sites were left.  I picked the two that were closest to each other and moments later, the last sites were taken. 

I was camping alone until midnight when my brother and some friends showed up.

We climbed in Smith Rock State Park all weekend.  Monday my brother and a few other experienced climbers took off early to do a multi-pitch climb.  That left a bunch of us a little less experienced climbers to fend for ourselves.  We went to Rope-de-dope and setup a top rope on an easier climb some those new to climbing could try it out.  I climbed that one as a warm up and then got the guts to do my first lead climb.  I had never done lead belay either but ended up doing that at least 4 times over the weekend.

The route I planned on climbing I had climbed last year so I was pretty confident I could do it.  After a slip at the beginning, I made it the rest of the way up without a fall.  It was a great way to end a great weekend.

We had decent weather.  It was a little cold but mostly dry.  We did have a little bit of hail at one point and as I was hiking out to my car on Monday, it started raining pretty good.

Routes I climbed:
Purple Headed Warrior
Five Gallon Buckets
The Outsiders
Superslab
How Low Can You Go
North Shore Crack

Smith Rock

Memorial Day weekend, I went camping, hiking, and climbing at Smith Rock with my brother and friends. We had good weather, great food, good company, and an all around great time.

Not only was Smith Rock great for climbing, it had beautiful views!

Since it was Memorial Day weekend, Smith Rock was a zoo. There were so many people there. We were able to find a nice spot with some open routes. The first climb of the day was a 5.10. I hadn’t been climbing in 3 years so it was a bit intimidating. I watched 3 girls in our group climb it no problem so I was hoping I wouldn’t totally embarrass myself. Luckily I was able to slowly work my way up to the top.

Here is Greg (my brother) taking down the rope on the first route.

We worked our way around the rock, climbing several routes. We had a great sunny day at Smith.

So what do you do after climbing all day? Hang out around the camp fire singing Kumbaya? Crash in your tent to rest for the next day? Go see a movie?

There was no Kumbaya singing but a few people decided to crash and rest up for the next day while the rest of us drove into Redmond to see Prince of Persia. Great movie!

The next day my brother and I hiked around Smith Rock. As we were hiking around looking at different routes people were climbing and cracks in the wall that would be fun to try, I got a great idea for a bumper sticker. Maybe it’s already out there but I was thinking something like this would sell.