• climbing

    • Smith Rock with Dan & Kate

    Over the weekend I went out to Smith Rock with my buddies Dan and Kate. On the way I found out that gas stations inbetween Sandy and Madras close at 9 the hard way. I ended up driving back to Sandy after dropping Dan and Kate off at a bar.

    On Saturday we went into Smith and walked over to Spiderman. It is a two pitch climb so we got to hang out at a set of bolts a hundred feet off the ground. Kate and Dan led by placing nuts, cams and hexes along the crack. I would follow and just unhook as I went up. The climb was pretty awesome. It was rated as a 5.7, but I think some moves were pretty difficult. Near the top is a roof that you have to traverse under and then climb around. That was frickin scary, but awesome once you get over.

    The next climb we did was under Monkey Face. We did two pitches up this time as well. There were awesome views of the Sisters and Jefferson from our belay station. The top of our climb didn't end up at any bolts so Kate built a 4 point anchor and I sat above her with two additional pieces of protection. Dan came up last and did a traverse whil being belayed by Kate. I followed while being belayed by both Dan and Kate and then she came over last after clearing her anchor. Then we had a 200 foot rappel down the face. I think this was 160 feet further than my last rappel, so I was freaked out most of the way down. But it was good.

    On the way out we ran across some climbers who couldn't free their rope from above. So Dan climbed up at 5.10b route to bring them another rope. I thought that was pretty bad ass of him. We had a nice walk out along the river. We were the last ones to leave the park, so it was all ours.

    On Sunday we drove down to Bend and rode up Phil's trail to the Whoop De Doos. Yet again it was an awesome ride. Until Kate got attacked by a log and did an endo. We thought she might have broken her collarbone or torn something. We drove to the hospital in Bend, which is like 15 minutes away from the trailhead and took her to the emergency room. Turns out she sprained her somethingorother on her shoulder and should be back in business in 2 weeks. That's pretty awesome given she could have been out for the whole summer if it were the collarbone.

    Photos