lasercave | fine tangible and intangible media

Jade and I had the pleasure of rather lovely weather for a trip to Smith Rock with aspirations for a Monkey Face Climb. We got to Smith later in the day on Sunday, so we cragged around on some pretty fun basalt columns in the lower gorge. Met some hilarious 19 yr old ‘fer sherrr bros from Walla Walla at night who were emphatically “stoked” that we had tortilla chips. Future senators indeed!

We managed to be the first people on the column, starting up the west face variation (variation) of the Pioneer Route. It tacks two lovely pitches of 5.7, 5.8 up to Bohn Street and the fun(ny) bolt ladder.

Jade killed the first pitch, nice flake and pockets up a moderate corner. Following was awkward with a backpack and extra rope through a very tiny chimney.

I took pitch two, and was greeted by hail and little snow upon starting. There’s a rather spicy, unprotectable move to traverse into a crack to the above left of the belay that gave me pause. Well met, March! Then came a lovely crack on weird rock.

Neither of us have ever aid climbed, but Jade played on a bolt ladder in a garage, making him the shoe-in for the A1 ladder pitch on the monkey’s neck. Jade did very well, moving quickly and methodically. I took forever, bled, laughed, took longer, and thrutched up into the monkey’s mouth joining Jade.

At this point, we added a climber to the team, one David. Total chiller central Oregon dream, brewing beer for Deschutes and climbing all the time. He’d been rope soloing, but joined onto our team to speed his end along so teams that were starting to climb wouldn’t have had to wait for him to work his way up. After being challenged to a pissing contest by some self-proclaimed free-soloist on a cliff near the climb, David shut him down with the beautiful,”part of soloing…is not talking to anyone.” David talked to us the rest of the climb, taking pictures and giving an amazing tour of the park.

After the bolt ladder you just get to chill as hard as you want in the monkey’s mouth cave.

Then comes the funnest little pitch ever. “Panic Point,” a 5.7 barn-door/blind traversey thing out of the monkey’s mouth with some lovely, very airy exposure below. A dropped carabiner would have to fall about 175 feet before hitting the base of the tower. Here’s some other climbers following on the pitch.

Then a scramble up to the summit. Great views of the central OR cascades and weird houses!

Then came a very very fun rappel. David went first and took pictures, the bro-among-bros. I followed

and Jade field-tested his backup knot

Sick!

Such a fun climb!  Made possible by Lord of the Rings Audio book, Red Bull, and chips.