Alpine Lifestyle in the Canadian Rockies: Smith Rocks, OR

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Smith Rocks, OR

A few photos during sunrise... before arriving to Smith Rocks.

We settled down for the night a few miles north from Terrebonne, Oregon along a quiet side-road. Terrebonne is a small town close to Smith Rocks State Park (about 3 miles away). We had a kind welcome to the town when we stopped for coffee at a small drive through “coffee shack”. We’ve been getting by with paying everything in the U.S. using our credit cards (gas & food... our only expenses) and didn’t bother having cash on us so far. The place only took cash. The nice lady at the counter said to take the coffee and stop by next time to pay for both. Fuelled with caffeine we drove to Smith Rocks State Park to settle down for a bit and climb for the next few days. We were glad to have our bikes to reach the climbs which were only a 10min ride from the campground. There was a fun downhill section on the way to the climbs and a gruelling uphill to get back to camp. Over our four days at Smith Rocks we had sun during the day with rain overnight on our first two nights. We had a chance to climb on rock that was formed by volcanic ash that was originally over half a mile thick. The rock had some interesting hueco formations on the main wall. These large hollow pockets were a blast to climb. Most of the rock had smaller crimpy features with one or two finger pockets along the wall. On our first day we sport climbed on the Morning Glory wall and climbed fun routes in the 5.8-5.11a range. The bolts seemed generally more run-out than I was used to. They still offered good protection. The harder 5.11a was a good mental workout. The crux was a few feet above the second bolt and offered good airtime as I fell on the few tries I took before passing by. On the second day we took a rest day to help recover our raw fingertips. It was hard not to climb since it turned out to be a nice sunny day. On the third day we climbed two classic gear routes. The first one was on the West face of Monkey Face (5.8 A0, 4 pitches). What stood out on this climb was climbing up a bolt ladder into the mouth of the monkey face before stepping out onto the most exposed 5.7 at Smith Rocks. There was also a memorable 50m free hanging rappel. The second gear route was named Zebra Zion (5.10a, 3 pitches). The climbing was more interesting and demanding up a corner/crack system. The last pitch was known as the best 5.9 at Smith Rocks. The third day was spent climbing in the Cocaine Gully area where we warmed up on a 5.10b and projected a route known as the best 5.11b at Smith Rocks. Unfortunately we left it as unfinished business. I couldn’t get past the second crux at last bolt without taking a fall. On our last day we witnessed how many people come to climb at Smith Rocks on a nice Saturday during a long weekend. It became quite busy and we even had trouble finding climbs that weren’t occupied. We wanted to have another day of sport climbing before heading off towards Yosemite, CA tomorrow. Instead we should have gone to the Lower Gorge area that was suggested by someone since it is quieter. But it only had gear climbs. We could still get some sport climbing done but couldn’t jump onto any climb without waiting in line. Unlike the last few days we had here.

Smith Rocks has been the first stop where I felt surrounded by other climbers who were also on a climbing road trip. It was nice to meet new people who were heading off to the same climbing areas we planned to go next and were living the “climbing bum” lifestyle for a while. It seems like we’ll cross paths with a few of them again.