Trip Reports - 6/22/98 - Smith Rock, Oregon

Smith Rock Trip Report - or,
“Up A Creek Without a Paddle?”

Henry Gholz - 6/22/98

Enlarge photo of Smith Rock

Saturday, May 30, dawned dry - a minor miracle in itself, given the torrential downpours of the previous week (from a major low pressure system hovering off the Pacific coast). The forecast looked good: cloudy, then clearing. So it was with gusto that I drove from my Bend hotel to the park to meet my friend from Corvallis, Mike Unsworth, for at least a day of famous Smith hardrock. The drive revealed the Cascades from Mt. Bachelor all the way north to Hood, crystal clear and sparkling white with thick coats of new snow. It was with some apprehension then that  I viewed the throng of milling climbers (they’re pretty obvious against the backdrop of tourists) in the parking lot, looking not unlike a flock of lost sheep.

It turned out that all the rain, unusual for the high desert of central Oregon, had fallen on top of Ochoco Mountain snow, already soft from spring, and was rapidly washing through Ochoco Creek, flooding downtown Prineville (such as it is) and leading to its evacuation, and then moving into - no, it can’t be! - the Crooked River!!! The river, which is the raison d’etre for the tall walls of Smith Rock’s canyon, had already risen almost 8 feet over Friday night, threatening the “footbridge to Paradise,” and the park rangers were not letting people across. Fortunately, the word soon came through that the river was going to crest at only one foot higher by noon and then recede, so it was deemed safe to cross. The river raged as the throng moved rapidly across, turbid brown water splashing up on our boots.

But what a glorious day it turned out to be, making us forget the river and get to the business at hand.

Mike led over to the Dihedrals area, telling me that he would try to follow whatever I led, so  have at it. Showing some respect for the daunting grades that crowd the guidebook, we decided to get our feet wet (so to speak) on the fun, easier routes at the right end of this area. So, I led Cinnamon Slab, a sparkling 5.6*** trad lead up an arching left-hand crack, with some nice face knobs on the slab to the right, that ended all too quickly - one of those climbs that you wish could go on for a few hundred more feet. I belayed Mike up and we agreed to skip the wet and uninspiring second pitch. After the rap, I moved over a few feet and led up Lichen It, a 5.7*** sport climb using the same anchor as Cinnamon Slab. This is a very nice intro to knob and finger pocket face climbing, with lots of bolts (although this sure is a safe climb, there are so many bolts it actually was distracting). Again, we bailed on the second pitch.

Wandering downriver, we looked at Bunny Face, but abandoned that idea because of a 3-team line. Nearby Bookworm (5.7***) got me back on the well-trad path, with a tricky, but very nice starting sequence involving a lieback in a thin vertical crack to a wider (ca. 3 inches) crack with not much possible pro. I led the first pitch with only 2 cams, which really got me going! Pitch 2 was a completely different climb: a very long, sustained, conservatively-bolted face with tremendously fun knobs and finger pockets, but getting much steeper as you approach the anchor. Fortunately, the rap from Pitch 2 ends on the Pitch 1 belay ledge, as we had forgotten a second rope...I guess all the skipping of the upper pitches on the earlier climbs had programmed our minds. Not a good lesson to learn as I sat way up on the top of this climb - fortunately, a downclimb on this route would actually have been fun, so I didn’t feel too badly. But, Mike reminded me (both of us “40-something”) what it is that “goes first” (I always thought that meant your sex life!).

A positive, if unintended, result of our idiocy was that the rope after the second rap was perfectly positioned to act as a toprope on Ancylostoma, a 5.9**, one-pitch face climb. So, pretending that it was all on purpose, I blasted up this route - actually, I rather indelicately balanced my way up this route, threatening to barndoor off the first move...It turned out to be a great climb, tricky, with very small pockets (including a one-finger move) and knobs, just sufficient to get you by after some searching. I loved it (although maybe that was partly out of relief).

Enlarge view of West Side Crags

Dancer and Jete, two classic 5.8s, were both well occupied, so we continued up over Asterisk Pass and down to the West Side Crags, arriving on the trail with out first view of Monkey Face at about 130 PM in now-blazing high desert sun. Our objective was Spiderman, a 5.7***, three-pitch trad on the Spiderman Buttress (two large faces before Monkey Face, nearest to the Pass). I cruised up the low angle crack/slab combination of Pitch 1 to the anchor, easy but highly enjoyable climbing, and Mike followed in similar style. From the first belay ledge, the route proceeds up a much steeper dogleg crack past an obvious bulge. This pitch was enjoyable, but a definite grade up in difficulty from Pitch 1. I found the anchor for this pitch, but it didn’t seem long enough for a whole pitch, so I decided to simply clip the anchor chain with a long sling and keep going. Things then got very interesting, with an exposed step out right to a vertical finger crack, moving up beneath a good-sized roof. The only thing that seemed appropriate for getting around the roof was a lieback using the crack to the right and behind the roof, swinging my heinie out over a lot of space. It worked fine and I was really pumped. But the route then went left up a dirty sloping ledge, with the possibility of knocking small rocks off increasing with each foot, and then straight up a very steep face, with no anchor yet in sight! But finally I topped out and there the chains were, with not a lot of extra rope left. Mike decided that he’d had enough of a day after a couple of valiant attempts at conquering the bulge, so I rigged for rap and cleaned the gear on the way back down to his perch atop the first pitch. This route is definitely worth it, in 2 or 3 pitches, with lots of exposure and great rock and pro (the dirty ledge notwithstanding), although the upper pitches are quite sustained for the grade.

We headed back across the pass, hitting the bridge after 7, only to find it blocked off with the raging river within inches of flooding it entirely!! Turns out the reports had all been wrong and that the river had not yet crested. Logs banged at the platform and there was a downriver bow of over a foot in its ca. 50-foot length from the mass of the pressing river. Not a pleasant site, especially since the alternative route out was back up over the inside canyon and a long, dry five mile treck away...Most people had already exited, and the ranger said that he had notified all the climbers - definitely not true for us or for many of the climbers we saw still on the rocks as we walked out. But, he told us to run across right away if we wanted to risk it, so we did.

Sunday dawned even more brilliantly as we headed back to the park at 630, even a bit painfully given our somewhat hungover eyes and senses. Mike had decided to stay for another day, so we had spent Saturday night drinking our way through the local micro-brews, Black Butte Porter and other such ambrosias. So, seeing a crowd in the Smith parking lot again was a real jolt, especially as many climbers were getting into cars and driving off! No, this couldn’t be, given our list of  “must-dos” for this glorious day. But, true it was: the bridge was closed indefinitely until the river went down and repairs made.

So, we spent most of the day amongst a Mazamas climbing class and other miscellaneous frustrated climbers from various countries, climbing short, top-roped routes on the near-side “rimrock.” It wasn’t bad climbing, truth be told: 5.7** Jersey Shore, a 5.8R variation of it (accidentally, but enjoyably), two variations of 5.8** Thumper, and 5.6** Lean Cuisine. But it hurt to look across the river at such multi-pitch dandys as Super Slab, Moscow and Peking on the Red Wall beyond...

We parted in the parking lot in mid-afternoon, Mike back to Corvallis and me back for a last night in Bend. I picked up some souvenir t-shirts in the Red Point shop in Terrabonne on the way out. Overall, not the several days of premier climbing that I had once anticipated, but not bad either. Definitely whet my apetite for a return trip soon. What about you!?

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