(2592x1944 at 2114 kb)

I had never been to Smith Rock, so when Daniel called me up a few weeks ago, and suggested a trip to visit Jim and Brenda in Bend, and maybe get a few routes in too, I was quick to say "hmmm, let me think about it." It didn't take long for the thinking to end (all that thinking can be tiring), and before long I was in possession of a bunch of shiny phosphors, which when viewed from the correct angle looked remarkably like an e-Ticket on Alaska Airlines to Portland. Some clever fellows might notice that Portland is not particularly close to Bend, but they would be unaware of one of the highlights of Portland - it's close to Mt. Hood, and in Mt. Hood is a charming little house when Daniel and Tina live. On Thursday afternoon I snuck out of work a little early, and Daniel picked me up at PDX, gave me a brief tour of Mt. Hood, and we joined Tina at the Full Sail brewery where she works for dinner. Mmmmm bison burgers! We headed back to the house, packed up, and then, in defiance of common sense, stayed up late talking in preparation for our early morning drive. We eventually got to bed, only to be rudely awakened by blaring alarms a few hours later, and stumbled around the house in search of coffee and tea, before piling into the car and making Smith. I had the onerous task of napping in the back seat, and I fell to it with a will. Time flies when you're napping, and before I knew it, we were at the Smith. The sun was already blazing, so we decided to make the most of it and work on our sunburns by warming up at the Dihedral wall. We started off on Wedding Day (5.10b), then continued on with Barbecue the Pope (5.10b). When our shoulders had been properly crisped to a ruddy glow, we moved into the shade with Irreverance (5.10a), Nightingales on Vacation (5.10a), Overnight Sensation (5.11a), and a new 5.9 on the left arete of the Combination Blocks. The rock was fairly greasy with the heat, even in the shade, so we didn't push it with any hard stuff.

(1944x2592 at 2826.5 kb)

(1536x2048 at 668.5 kb)

(2592x1944 at 2106 kb)

The real business started in the evening, when we packed up and headed to Jim and Brenda's new house. The coals were hot, the beer was cold, the kids were running wild, and soon the smell of grilling chicken filled the house. Yum. We stayed up rather later than we should have, before finally staggering to the old trailer for some well needed rest. We had planned on getting up really early the next morning to try to tick some hard routes when they were still cool, but, well, that didn't happen. The endless train of bacon, waffles and pancakes emanating from the stove also didn't help. We eventually squeezed our rounded forms out of the door and into the car, and made for Mesa Verde wall, which would hopefully keep us out of the sun for a while. After warming up on Screaming Yellow Zonkers (5.10b), a fun bolted line of knobs that's a little shorter than what's shown in the guide (you can do it with a single 60m), we moved on to Bad Moon Rising (5.11a), which was lots of fun - a cruxy start off thin edges, to pockets, then gradually thinning knobs, finishing off with a fun roof. We finished off with Moons of Pluto (5.10d), a sweet arete climb, just as the sun came around the corner, and forced us to flee. After a late (4PM) lunch on the shady side of Asterisk Pass, we got a few more laps on New Testament (5.10a), and Golgotha (5.11b R) before calling it a day. Then it was back to the house for another late night of food and drink.

(2592x1944 at 1753.5 kb)	(1944x2592 at 2674.5 kb)
Charles and Daniel on Bad Moon Rising

(1944x2592 at 1977.5 kb)

(1536x2048 at 828.5 kb)

This was definitely turning into an atypical climbing trip - very late starts, vast quantities of great food, showers, sleeping in a real bed.... It's just not right! On Sunday morning (so to speak), we Jim took us out to the new crag that he's been developing, called the ER Wall, which is just a few minutes from his house. You rap in from the top to an intermediate ledge, which offers access to a couple of stellar lines. I took So Close (5.10+), a pumpy bolted line with a big dyno at the end, while Dan went up I See Three (5.9+), a mixed line that one shares with a family of owls. I also TRed the River Crack and the bolted line above it that goes at 5.12+, nailing the overhanging off-fingers 5.11d crack on my second try, but failing miserably on the 5.12d deadpoint roof crimp fest at the finish. Ouch. We returned to the house for a another late lunch, and failed to motivate to do anything else, so filled up with time with conversation and napping. I did more of the latter than the former. In the evening, we assembled a convoy of a dozen or so adults, kids and dogs, and hit the bouldering area until the sun set. Then it was time for ridiculous amounts of sushi, more grilled animals, sake and tequila. Can we say another late night?

(1944x2592 at 2130 kb)	(1536x2048 at 780.5 kb)
Daniel on IC3 and Charles on So Close

(2592x1944 at 2186 kb)

(1944x2592 at 1729.5 kb)

(1944x2592 at 2962.5 kb)

(2592x1944 at 1321 kb)

We swore we'd get up early on Monday, and we did - relatively speaking. We returned to the ER wall with Jim and Chris, rapped to the bottom, and started on some of the longer routes. I went up Diatonic Reaction (5.11a), a really fun and awkward mixed route, named in honour of Chris' overdose on Claritin, while Dan worked on Jim's new test piece. Then we tried Random Chance (5.11b), another stellar bolted line, where I fell right at the top. The routes on this cliff are fantastic, and a real tribute to the effort that Jim and Chris have put into them. We had planned to top out on Solstice, but it was getting too hot and sunny by then, so we hiked out (the only horrible part of the cliff), had a quick lunch at the house, and returned to Smith where we hiked down to the Lower Gorge for some crack climbing in the shade. In quick succession we did Cruel Sister (5.10a), Blood Clot (5.10b), and Crack-A-No-Go (5.11b). The last one was a very tricky and technical sparse finger crack, and I almost lost it a number of times. We finished off the day and the trip on Catalyst (5.12a/b), a delicate and hard face climb reminiscent of AC Devil Dog, with a powerful finish that involved bear hugging the arete for a few moves with no edges for hands or feet. If I hadn't been sore before, I sure was by the time we were done with that.

(2048x1536 at 872.5 kb)

(2048x1536 at 1513.5 kb)

(1944x2592 at 2554.5 kb)	(2592x1944 at 2186 kb)
Daniel on Random, and Charles on Crack-a-no-go

We returned to Jim and Brenda's for one last meal, one last shower, packed up, and loaded the car. Then Tina managed to convince Jim to give her a massage - how come he does that just for the girls? No fair! We didn't manage to leave until well past 10, and arrived in Mt. Hood sometime around 1, at which point we did the sensible thing and, ummm, stayed up late talking again. Ooops. Well, at least Daniel and I did - Tina has much better sense than us. Amid many tears and sad farewells, Tina drove me to the airport the next morning, and I left, never to return again - never that is, at the height of summer. Next time I'm going back when it's a wee bit cooler!

(2592x1944 at 2142 kb)