Smith Rock - Moscow, very slowly. Plus, critique my anchors! 4/5/2008
Trip: Smith Rock - Moscow, very slowly. Plus, critique my anchors!
Date: 4/5/2008
Trip Report:EdsPans and I arrived to an inexplicably empty parking lot at 740am on Saturday.
Early morning sun at Smith:
After spending a good amount of time racking and turning the top of my pack into a mini-backpack, I started up the first pitch. This was my first climb building natural anchors without the supervision of a crusty mentor, so I'm posting pictures of them so they can be ripped apart by the ravening hounds of CC.com.
First anchor:
Second anchor:
Third anchor. I was the least pleased with this one, since the two top cams are too close together, but this one was the only anchor that actually held bodyweight, as EdsPans discovered that her foot was smaller than the crack and slipped in the offwidth section on this pitch, and it did fine:
We ended up topping out after several hours of effort, in which I learned that I need to get faster at rigging anchors. Since we needed to be back in Portland that night, and it was starting to rain, we called it a day.
Overall, I found this route a little harder and chossier than what I was expecting. Super Slab and Cinnamon Slab are both Smith 5.6s, and Moscow is definitely a step up in difficulty from them. In particular, the smooth wide fist/forearm crack at the top of the third pitch gave me some trouble. It was still a great route and a fun time, as always.
Gear Notes:2 #4 c-4s would no go unused on the third pitch if you don't like wide stuff.
Approach Notes:Walk across the bridge
