Smith Rock

Photos from the top

1) Dihedrals sector at Smith Rock - many quality routes packed into a short area of cliff 2) Ruth setting off up Moonshine Dihedral (just to prove that we don't just go sport climbing) 3) The Monkey Face - the route we did goes up the face you can see and into the "mouth" cave on the right, then out the other side of the cave

4) Ruth aiding the bolt ladder up the Monkey Face, etriers flapping in the wind

5) Innes exiting the mouth cave - he looks relaxed for a man with a 200 foot drop under his feet

6) Abseiling off the Monkey Face - that dot in mid-air is Ruth

After leaving Yosemite we drove north for two days to Smith Rock State Park in Central Oregon. This is primarily a sport climbing destination, and is famous as the place where American sport climbing began. We have ended up staying just over two weeks, because the climbing is excellent and it is a really nice place to be. The State Park itself is lovely - very well cared for, with loads of wildlife including Golden Eagles (although we are still not sure if we saw the eagles, or just saw turkey vultures which look pretty similar).

One of the highlights of Smith Rock was climbing the Monkey Face. This is a 400 feet free standing pinnacle. It's got lots of climbing routes up it, some of them very hard, but we decided to climb the traditional and easiest route to the top which is called Pioneer route and involves some trad climbing, some sport climbing, a bolt ladder which you have to aid, and to top it all off a 150 foot free hanging abseil to get back down to the ground. It was brilliant and incredibly exposed, made more so by the fact that it was very windy.

We also did a lot of sport climbing, and both felt that we were climbing well. There are two types of rock here - volcanic tuff and basalt columns. The climbing on the tuff is generally technical on small holds. The basalt is just weird - the climbs generally have no holds, and you make progress (you hope) by bridging and palming and all kinds of contortionist moves.

However after two weeks here we are ready to move on and ready for a change. We are both knackered, and also would like to get into the mountains and do some longer climbs. So we are setting off for Canada this afternoon, and will probably head to the Canmore area in the Rockies, although we need to check the weather forecast first.

Ruth