Climbing
ClimbingAndy: Ok, we're slackers. Haven't updated anything for four days. Blame it on Wendy's brother and his wife Suzi - they kept us so entertained we didn't have time.
We spent Thursday driving from Boise, Idaho to Smith Rocks, Oregon (near Bend in central Oregon). We had two choices, both looked like they would take about five hours. One appeared more scenic. Nine scenic hours later we arrived. There were three problems with our route choice: 1) Oregon's insane 55 mph (!!!) speed limit 2) the numerous small towns we crossed with too many cows and 15 mph speed limits and 3) scenic means very, very, very, very windy and slow. Oh yeah, and trucks take the scenic, windy route too. What the heck is a truck doing on a twisting 15% grade????
I'll admit I wasn't too psyched to leave Idaho for Smith Rocks. My memories of climbing here ten years ago involved lots of dust, crowds, and heat. None of that has changed. But the climbing is fabulous - well worth the misery of the dirt and heat. The crowds are still bad, but there are so many routes it doesn't matter And I think the people have gotten nicer in the last ten years :)
The guidebook says it all, "Smith Rocks became famous not because of its rock quality, but in spite of it." Petrified, extra crunchy peanut better is my usual description of the rock at Smith. Fortunately, the climbs are so heavily trafficked that they've become very, very solid (and polished and greasy too). Smith is also steep. Everything worth doing is vertical, or more than vertical, and involves tweaky, painful things with your fingers. Very exciting, and very pumpy. Our forearms and fingers are going to ache for days...
The highlight for me was definitely Moonshine Dihedral. An amazing thin crack in a slightly overhanging corner. Perfect finger locks, perfect pro, and wildly fun stemming. Of course, we waited 90 minutes to get on the route -a group in front of us was top roping it, and every five minutes another friend would show up, exchange greetings, and ask to jump on the rope. It didn't seem to matter that I was standing five feet from the route - racked and ready to go. Seriously, we got there planning on waiting for two people - eight people climbed the route by the time it was our turn!!! But the climb was definitely worth it..... We also climbed Spiderman, Out of Harms Way, Wedding Day, and a bunch of other finger tweaking faces that all blur into a great weekend of climbing....
Caution for vegetarians in the audience: we finished at the Roadhouse Grill, eating ribs, steaks, and other meat products. I protected myself with a huge "I Love Ribs" bib. Required equipment. And I still made a mess.
Oh yeah, and for those keeping score - I busted ANOTHER digital camera today. That makes five in two years. This is getting old.
Wendy: It
has been a fun few days! Did you know you can get sunburned through the windshield?
I sat with my feet up on the dashboard for several hours of our
"scenic" drive, and learned the answer to that question! The
bottoms of my feet got sunburned and I tiptoed around town for a day or so while
they healed. We're always learning new things on this trip!
Chris and Suz met us in Oregon. Andy is really fun and all, but there's just nothing like having your little brother around. The climbing was hard but very fun, and the jokes that flew back and forth between Andy and Chris were enough to give you a stomach ache. I started up a difficult 5.8 crack, had low blood sugar / got whiney / got wimpy, and decided to come down. It was then up to Chris or Andy to complete the climb and get our gear back. Andy offered it to Chris, who promptly said without even pausing, "Show my sister who's the better climber? Kick my sister's a**? Of course I'll lead the climb!" I was secretly hoping he'd chicken out along the way, but ooohhh noooo, he proceeded to one-up me. It was an awesome lead, I think one of the hardest he's done, and he looked great!
As we walked between climbs, Chris relayed the story line of Vertical Limit, a really bad climbing movie made by Hollywood several years ago. In the movie, a brother and sister are climbing with their father when they have an accident, and the father and brother fall off the rock. The son has to make a choice between saving his father or sister, and he chooses his sister. This of course led to the obvious question of who Chris would save with various family triads. I was bitterly reminded of what a brat my little brother really is when he chose (hypothetically) to save others besides me. He's been a brat his whole life, I'm not sure why I expect anything to be different now. It was pretty fun to lay a guilt trip on him repetitively, and then to bring it up when I was belaying him and his life was in my hands. I guilted him into changing his mind, but if push came to shove I'm still not confident what the decision would be.
It's a good thing we're kayaking this next week and taking a break from climbing. My fingers feel like they are about to fall off, and I can barely do fine motor activities. Andy actually put Superglue on his thumb to stop a cut from hurting, and something about that just sounds like a bad long-term solution.
 Andy, rapelling |
 fantastic spires of Smith Rocks |
 Chris, approaching the crux dihedral of Spiderman |