Smith Rock 1/18-1/19

What Went Down:

Jan 18:

Time to Power Start 10a; this route is just fun Fish and Chips 10c; 1 TR burn- 1 attempt at leading- multiple falls at final bolt More Sandy than Kevin 11a; TR burn- this felt hard Purple Aces 11b; TR burn- this felt easier than its 11a neighbor..

Jan 19:

Snow Bunny 5.8; similar to 5 Gallon Buckets! Moore Please 5.9; also super fun Praying Mantel 10a; flash! First 10a of 2015 DOWN Approaching the Twilight 5.9; super fun as well Five Gallon Buckets 5.8; just cause it was free.

This was my birthday weekend extravaganza! And, surprisingly, nearly everyone bailed at the last minute. So, Andy and I got to roll casually into Bend on Saturday, fill up our growler with delicious IPA, drink wonderful coffee while working on Mountain Refugee stuff, and have a private BLM camp-out in our fantastic tent. The night was unseasonably warm and we ate delicious butternut squash black bean burritos and I was simply in heaven <3

Sunday morning dawned beautiful and clear and we got to work- hiked into the park, warmed up on my go-to warm up route (time to power start) and walked up Shipwreck gully to give Fish and Chips a good burn. I finally worked out the beta to hit the anchors in TR and then gave it a solid go on lead– I just got way too burnt out to finish the climb… next time the plan will be to simply lead it straight away after warming up so that I’m fresh enough to pull the powerful undercling clip and to lock off and static my way up to the bomber jug above the final bolt. Fingers crossed.

The rest of the day went well- worked some 11s and overall got my ass kicked (in a good, learning way!)

Sunday night we drove to Sun River to have dinner with and stay over with some of my family who were renting a house for the weekend- it’s amazing how rested you can feel after a day of climbing and a night of sleeping in an actual bed!

Monday morning was even more beautiful! We decided to roll over to the Monument area and check out some climbs neither of us had ever hit. We warmed up in glorious sunshine, worked on our tans, and climbed some dirty but super duper awesome routes. I flashed my first 10a of 2015 and was the happiest camper in the world.

We meandered over to set Andy up on the most polished 12a in the entire park. It was truly beautiful rock but it was extremely strange and SUPER techy.

We walked back to the main park area to retrieve a draw from one of our friends and said goodbye to them at the base of Shipwreck gully.

5 Gallon Buckets was uncharacteristically FREEEEEE so we hopped on it for funsies. The ‘sketchy/rainy’ forecast scared a ton of climbers away and we were able to have a run on one of the classics :)

Overall, it was an amazing weekend and the sunshine, the company, and the peace offered by the fairly empty park left me feeling fulfilled, successful, and very very content with my life :)