SMITH ROCKS!!!

Smith Rocks was amazing!! We arrived in Smith Rocks State Park, Oregon at 5:30am on Saturday morning - we had made arrangements to meet Todd and Nicole, we looked briefly for them before the sunrise forced us to crawl into our tents. 3 hours later the relentless sun forced us from our overheating sleeping bags and out to an empty campground - 'where the hell is everyone?'

So we got some breakfast, coffee and lunch we even rubbed sun-block all over each other's backs - finally around 11 we headed for the climbing area. We were super-excited to climb the beautiful Volcanic walls around us, so excited in fact that we didn't really notice the climbers walking past us and to their cars...

Being Canadians we looked for routes soaked in the beautiful sun - after one climb we all found out what it feels like to dip your feet in fire as you climb... OUCH burning rubber on your feet!

So to the shade we quickly went... thankfully we came across 4 girls climbing with no boys who were happy to squit us with water all over our sweating man chests!

Climbing that first day hurt - the sun killed us, the rock was super-duper sharp and the lack of sleep just made things hurt more. With no desire to cook we got recommendation to eat at some La Burrito place - which is actually a Mexican restaraunt in a freakin - gas station!! It was actually good!!

After dinner we finally found Todd and Nicole, who were waking up at 6am to climb - Hahahahaha noway we'd do that! Sleep that night came quick.

Day 2 - not the Smith way

9:30am - We wake up to yet another empty campground... what the hell?

We felt smart today - we made plans to head to the backside of the rocks where shade would embrace us. In the parking lot we met Brian - an older guy who races dragsters and likes to climb - he had no partner and asked to climb with us - 'of course you can - hop on the party train Brian!'

So we climbed some spectacular routes on the backside... gorgeous views and super amazing routes that went up featureless walls (all smith routes look featureless from a distance).

In the end we ended up calling it a day by5 as the heat was too much (even out of the sun) my watch said 34 in the shade. That night the 3 of us were starving so we headed to Bend for all-you-can-eat. We found Izzy's 6.99 pizza buffet - shitty pizza never tasted sooo damn good!

Day 3 - Finally the Smith Way

6am - We finally - decided to do Smith properly and woke up early. Climbing in the morning before the sun hit us was amazing. We climbed in the main area (morning glory and the dihedral walls). by our 3rd day we were beginning to understand how to climb hard at smith. The routes in this place are vertical, featureless, hard for the grade and 'minimally' bolted. So hard moves high above protection bolts was common - big clean falls were very common for us too.

By 11 the sun was on us and we called it for the morning - went to Pepe's Pizza for an all you can eat lunch buffet at the worst pizza place ever - which was still pretty good at the time!

After a relaxation period in the shade back to climbing we went. Hitting Latin Lover 12a... a beautiful vertical crimpfest... this was to become our project. Sustained, vertical crimping on smaller and smaller holds is the best way to describe the route.

Day 4. The last day..

Another 6am wakeup - back to some beautiful Smith climbs and one more attempt at Latin Lover for each of us... no sends to speak of but still happy boys all around.

Once the sun hit us we packed up our things and headed back to Vancouver.

We're staying at Todd and Nicole's beautiful place now - wow their home is spectacular.

Rob flies in this afternoon which will be great. Tomorrow Al and I are taking Bryden up the chief - on Angel's Crest a spectacular 12 pitch 10c.

Bye for now.