Smith Rocks!

Rope de Dope and Cinnamon toast.

It was time again for the annual Smith Rock climbing adventure. The trip was well attended due to a big turn out by the students that completed the Obsidians/Eugene Mountain rescue spring climb school.

There was a total of twelve climbers eager to test there abilities on rock. As it turned out six of the climbers formed an advance scouting party. The group went out Friday ahead of myself and the five other climbers. the rest of us met Saturday morning at the Albertsons on 58th Street in Springfield.

The strategy worked out well for us late arrivals as the advance group had already set up three routes on the Rope De Dope Block a small rock formation in the park. As we geared up for the opportunity to climb the Rope De Dope Block, the advance group was already across the river setting up routes on the Cinnamon slab a rock feature on the Morning Glory Wall.

The latter group which consisted of Myself (trip leader), Doug Nelson (technical assistant), and Peter Green (assistant leader) broke down the fundamentals to three anxious beginners Kaushik Vaidyanathan, Dave Morris and Marianne Camp. We later lost Doug to the allure of the great climbing to be had at the Cinnamon slab across the river.

The Participants who were in the advance group Chance Fitzpatrick, Sue Carey, Juli McGlinsky, Dennis Gardineer, Michelle Tuma, and Lori Tierney were putting up and taking down routes like mountain goats. I guess they had been climbing since the crack of dawn.

Peter and I enjoyed coaching and climbing with are small group as the others across the river could be heard hootin' and hollerin' in some cacophony of pleasure.

As the day progressed there was a crack of thunder a flash of lightening with about ten minutes of rain and low and behold the park began to clear out. Peter and I had are pick of routes and proceeded to set new routes for are little group to conquer.

A little later in the day Peter and I with the help of are three climbing friends packed up at the Rope De Dope Block and proceeded across the river to join the rest of are ambitious group. We put in a few more reps on the rock and proceeded to follow the sunshine right out of the park.

Twelve starving but satisfied climbers went in to the town of Redmond to crash a Mexican restaurant. We enjoyed dinner and drink and became the waiters worst nightmare as he broke down the price of twelve individual dinners. We said goodbye to Dave and Kaushik who were heading back to Eugene. Ten of us drove off into the night to are camp in the rim rock country along side the Deschutes river. The Stars were brilliant in the night sky as we lay down to slumber.

We awoke to a beautiful desert morning reluctant to move to quickly might we spoil are good fortune. We broke down camp and drove back to the park for a short day of climbing.

Doug dazzled a group of us at the Peanut formation with his climbing abilities and quikly realized on one route he made it to the first bolt only to find he didn't rack a single draw. To restore confidence, some crow was ate and we demonstrated checking each others harness and hardware before the next climb. We redeemed ourselves once more and demonstrated proper anchor setting and cleaning. I later headed over with Peter and Chance to send a route named Five Gallon Buckets. We later had the opportunity to top route a tough 5.10a called Light On the Path this vertical route has peeled off a few holds over time.

It was a great adventure with great people and lots o rocks to climb. I cannot wait till next year.

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