Yet Another Great Weekend at Smith

With the weather looking the best its been all year we made plans for another trip over to Smith Rock. The weather was awesome, Saturday was in the 80's and Sunday was in the mid to upper 70's. The crowds were relatively low, there were still a lot of people out there but mot near as crowded as easter weekend.

Saturday we started off with a couple of nice 5.8 warm ups.


Eric looking for a good foot placement



Its "Jose the Belier" AKA Greg

We soon found ourselves baking in the hot afternoon sun and began looking for some climbs that were in some shade. While Greg and I finished up on the climb we were working on. Jodie, Eric and Gram made their way to the Phoenix Wall, looking for the shade.

Over near te Phoenix Wall, after a bite to eat. Gram lead this climb struggling through the crux, and left it up to Greg to clean.


Greg hanging out trying to figure out the crux.

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Greg finds the move!

Still looking for stuff to climb in the shade, we decided to make our way to the Northern Point down in the gorge.

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Jodie climbing "Woman in the meadow, 5.11a" to wrap up the day.

The next morning, we made our way back down to the rock. While Jodie, Eric, and Lane waited in line near "Bunny Face". Greg looked at me and said "you're coming with me, there's a climb around the corner we need to do" Not knowing what we were climbing, I said "sure, lets go". We get over there and Greg starts tells me we're going to climb "Ginger Snap 5.8" followed by a second pitch "Cry Baby 5.9". Nothing was out of my climbing ability. But you have to understand, even though I enjoy climbing I have a terrible fear of heights. So climbing a second pitch has never been high on my to do list. With a little pep talk from Greg we started up. I still felt a little unsure about the second pitch. Once Greg got set up at the top, there was no turning back for me. I took a deep breath and began making my way up the rock. As it turned out "Cry Baby 5.9" seemed physically easier than "Ginger Snap 5.8", but mentally "Cry Baby 5.9" felt much harder for me. "Cry Baby 5.9" leaves you feeling very exposed, with nothing but open air off to your left as you climb inches from the edge. The holds are all good. As long as you can get your mind around the exposure it's a great climb.

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The Red Line is "Ginger Snap 5.8" and the Blue Line is "Cry Baby 5.9"

It turned out to be a great climb, one that I would like to climb again sometime. Thanks to Greg for dragging me up it. It was fun and well worth it. Once again it was another awesome weekend at Smith. Until next time... have fun and be safe.