[TR] Smith Rock - European Vacation 9/25/2010

[jbaldivieso]

Trip: Smith Rock - European Vacation

 

Date: 9/25/2010

 

Trip Report:

I haven't seen any other TRs on European Vacation, one of the longest new routes in Alan Watts' new guide to Smith, so I thought I'd clarify his description. We had a great time up there on Saturday, with the sort of weather Septembers used to always have.

 

This is a great way to get way high up in the air with much more of an alpine feel than anything I've ever done at Smith. There are fun, interesting moves on almost all of the pitches. No crowds. But except for the first pitch, the rock is not generally as good as what you expect at Smith. It seems like no one has climbed it -- chalk doesn't mark the way up the whole route (for now), and there's a lot of loose rock and lichen, especially on the more north-facing aspects higher up.

 

That said, on paper, the route sounds a lot more intimidating than it is: 5.11a R with gear to 4" -- that sounds burly. In reality, we thought the route was a little soft compared to other sport routes at Smith, and the cruxes were generally short-lived. The beginning of the second pitch -- the only part Watts was calling "R" -- was no big deal. And, you barely need any gear; we thought one each of 1,2,3 Camalots and a small set of nuts would be adequate, if a little sporty, even if you wanted to string together pitches 3 and 4 (the only pitches we placed any gear).

 

Last, and most important, the rappel anchors on the summit described in the book have been removed. We rapped off of the only anchors at the top, which leave you pretty far around the south side from the route (which the book says to rappel). Since we had left our cams at the top of the fourth pitch, we wrapped around to find the route, which involved some scrambling and the huge potential to rain large rocks down on the base, the Phoenix buttress area, and even the river trail. This was also a problem during the rest of the rappel. I'm not sure what the best way down, but we found the descent to be very unpleasant.

 

The route takes you to the top of this tower.

 

Climbers weren't the craziest people we saw.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Took a small rack including a bunch of large unused cams; could have taken a smaller rack.

 

Approach Notes:

Easy as ever at Smith

[BillA]

I thought it was a great route, my buddy and I climbed it in April. It's really pretty chossy above the second pitch, we pulled off a whole bunch of loose rock. When we did it there were a couple of pretty large loose flakes that would not make your belayer happy if they were knocked off. Maybe they're gone now? The rap anchors at the top were still there when we did it. You head left from where you top out on the last pitch and do a little exposed fourth class move and you'll find them, that gets you down the second to last pitch and then you can rap the rest of the route.

[jbaldivieso]

I should clarify: we found two holes where bolts were right where we would have expected to find the rap route anchors on the northeast corner of the summit block. We looked around pretty carefully all around and didn't see any alternatives, but I suppose it's possible that we missed them.

[111]

the slackline photo is great! what an amazing slacking location!

[BillA]

Cool, I thought they weren't in that obvious a spot and it took a little looking to find them. I find it pretty unlikely that they've been chopped given the relative infrequency that summit gets climbed.

[alexbaker]

We saw you guys up there. Was it you yelling rock real loud? I know one or two came down. Not to blame you, but as a general statement, climbing that route is a pretty good way to kill someone else on a busy day, I think. Agree?

[BillA]

Most definitely, if you're going to climb it don't do it on a busy weekend. All the routes at the base are subject to rockfall from the climb and there's still some loose rock on it.

 

When we did it another party followed us up and it turned out to be the dude that's on the cover of the new Smith guidebook, can't remember his name. Probably the only time there's ever been two parties on it at the same time. I personally wouldn't want to do the climb below another party.

 

The four star guidebook rating is a little deceiving as it will probably be a four star climb after it sees a dozen or more ascents, but probably isn't now unless you're a choss lover. But more people should do it so it gets cleaned up, just be aware.

 

Anyway, yeah, climbing is dangerous. Hanging out under large rock walls, especially chossy ones, is dangerous. Wear a helmet.

[LostCamKenny]

Anyway, yeah, climbing is dangerous. Hanging out under large rock walls, especially chossy ones, is dangerous. Wear a helmet.

on that note, don't stop on the trail directly underneath shiprock, either... that scary thing seems to shed every time i'm over there!