Smith Rock Trip
James Kellerman
Siri and I hit Smith Rock this weekend for our second trip to this climbing mecca. Unlike the first time a fortnight ago we were blessed with beautiful weather. On the saturday it was too hot to climb in the sun and after warming up on sun baked 5.7 & 5.8 slab routes at Christian brothers we moved into the shade of the Phoenix buttress and attempted out first 5.10 leads.
I kicked things off with a slightly shaky but ultimately successful lead of the excellent Phoenix. Great climbing on nice positive features with good rests before all the tricky bits. Siri then cleaned it on top rope before leading the bolder Drill Em, Fill Em to the right of phoenix. A good lead with a runout top slab and less chalked, far less obvious moves than Phoenix. I cleaned the route and we headed off on a beautiful evening to watch the Ducks come back to win against Stanford at the local bar. After an enormous rack of ribs and enough beer to get through the game we cruised back to the campsite to try and get some sleep.
The next morning brought overcast skies and the pitter patter of rain on the outside of the tent. Disappointed but glad for an extra half hour of sleep we waited it out from the comfort of warm sleeping bags. Breakfast at the One Street Down Cafe and then straight to Northern Point to try our hand at some harder routes on Top Rope. We were quickly spat off both Lady in the Meadow, 5.11a and something that started on a slab and got hard fast at 5.11a. With sore arms we left the crag and headed back to Portland for some much needed rest.