Climb: Smith Rocks-Zebra Zion -- 5.10b

Date of Climb: 2/8/2004

Trip Report:
Had a great climb in perfect weather today at Smith.

I have climbed the route before and suffered through the hanging belay atop pitch 1, but thanks to some common sense and good beta, we managed to link pitches 1 and 2 into a very reasonable sub-60 M pitch that took us to the top of the tower. My partner Robes linked these pitches in good style.

I drew the short straw and got the vibracious lead out onto the unprotected, easy face. Felt like forever until I got good gear, at which point I was fairly close to the belay.

My lovely fiancee Tamara fired the 4th pitch, great job on her part. It starts off with a pumpy hand traverse that leads quickly to a soaring, steep crack with huge handholds and foot holds, with fantastic exposure looking all the way back down to the base of the route. Clearly the best pitch on the route, I would say.

Walked over to Cinnamon Slab and rappelled down, raced back to Portland in about 3 hours and went straight to TOUCHING THE VOID. What an incredibly well done documentary/movie.

Great weekend, all in all.

That's one of my faves at Smith. Especially this time of year. Sounds like Tamara got the best pitch too, IMO.

I try to stay off of this route while there are people under it so as not to kill anybody with rock fall, which, sigh, anymore seems like all the time with 5 gallon buckets and all the rest of those routes drawing large crowds.

Thanks for sharing.

I thought ZZ was .10a past the face holds on the right coming out of the squeeze.

yah zis is true. That crack is slimed up nicely too. 10a for maybe 5 feet.

10b if you miss the guano at the top of the column.

yeah the guano dyno has slashed the grade. how do I know this? my new copy of the smith guide of course

Even with a healthy warning rbw got a fistful of pigeon shit.

10b if you start with Gumby.

... or .11a if you start w/Zeb. Direct or .11d+ if you start with Zebra Seam, or 5.13x if you solo it from Dandy Line, etc.