beacon

I'd like to give a guided climbing experience as a gift to some friends. They are beginner climbers who've done a little toproping in the Portland area but have never been to a significant area like Smith. I'd like to see them get more adventure and instruction than the average tourist gets on Easy Reader. There are 6 services listed over at Smithrock.com. I'd appreciate any help choosng a decent one.

I found the area a few days ago and climbed the crack in the picture posted above by rbw1966 . An excellent splitter, among the best I've climbed, and what an amazing place. A truly spectactular place to be on a crisp October day. Thanks to those who gave honest hints. Finding the place was part of the fun.

While climbing Karate Crack at Smith last week, I got in a discussion comparing fun crack climbs with some Bend climbers. They made the remarkable claim that there exists somewhere in central Oregon, a crack as good as Supercrack (of Moab, presumably.) They had not done or even seen this climb themselves but were interested in finding it. Supposedly, the local free weekly newspaper ran a vague blurb about a "shangri la of crack climbing" near Madras in its "Best Of" issue. While it is easy to dismiss rumored hype, perhaps there is some nice desert crack climbing closer to Portland than Smith. Surely, if this supercrack exists, someone on this board knows about it.