[TR] Smith rocks-Smiffistani Aid Soloing - Monkey Face-West Face Aid Route 4/19/2009

[miker]

Trip: [TR] Smith rocks-Smiffistani Aid Soloing - Monkey Face-West Face Aid Route

 

Date: 4/19/2009

 

Trip Report:

Well, I decided to go do some solo-aiding on the Monkey Face as Ivan's trip report made it sound uber cool. It definitely was with a few interesting points. I do not have the Hunter S. Thompson style utilized by Ivan so will have to just drone on here.

 

Left Sunday afternoon right after the one year old nephews bday party. Made excellent time 2.5 hours Camas to Terrebonne. Used the bivouac area there at Smith, quite nice, just threw down my sleeping bag and bivy bag. Got a little time to practice with my new camera and even got some 15 second exposures that captured the Big Dipper.

Bright and shiny the next morning, haul bagged packed and off to the aptly named Misery Ridge at 8am. Went the longer way on the road as I did not realize the "Rope Da Dope" trail shot straight down to the river. Anyway, much trudging and sweating gets me to the top of the ridge eventually. A few nice pics of the East face in the sun. Someone had gear on the East Face route which went 2/3 of the way up then a single strand two knotted rope rapel hung to the ground. The gear was still there when I left on Monday.

I had a small disaster with my one of my trekking poles on the way down to the base of the climb. I'm ok though. I may see about making my own stick clip out of it.

View up the route

 

The climbing all went smoothly and very straightforward.

1st pitch-Climbed, hauled bag, rapped and cleaned(mostly nuts with 2 cams as directionals along the way) then jugged back up.

2nd pitch-Climbed the bolt ladder, two long moves near the intermediate anchors made me curse not having a stick clip, but I persevered. Based on Ivan's rope/edge event, I decided to avoid the whole issue by fixing my line to the top two bolts below the cave as I rappelled, with a couple cams for backup. Then cleaned and released the bag and jugged back up. Swinging 40 feet out from the wall was invigorating I must say. Some tourons on the ground took my picture, if they remember my email address I yelled down to them I might get a cool picture.

 

I was severely dehydrated at this point I had run through my 1 Liter nalgene on my harness and the rest was deep in the haul bag. Needless to say by the time I jugged and hauled the bag I was in piss poor shape. After sipping down a liter of water over the next 30 minutes I was able to contemplate moving and setting up my camp.

 

Unfortunately there were no signs of the rodentia reported by Ivan, so perhaps the sight of him manshowing it may have driven the poor guy to jump or perhaps it was actually a flying squirrel, we shall never know. I did see some avian life, but only one brave soul actually landed on my ledge.

 

Compliments of my Brother in Law I got me an MRE to try out.

Sloppy Joe-MRE #17

It was interesting and better than a lot of dehydrated hiking food I have used, but the packaging weight and chemical heater make me think it is less environmentally appropriate and does not support the traveling light methodology, which does not describe all big wall adventures.

 

I enjoyed the evening on the ledge, reading Robin Cook's Bad Company, drinking my keg can Heineken and taking a million sunset pictures.

The next morning I chugged my Mountain Dew and packed up my Shiite and rapped the Northwest route with the haul bag between my legs. Not to bad overall.

 

Got some pictures of some guys on the Pioneer Route as I headed out.(but cc keeps rejecting my uploads of those pics)

 

That was an insanely heavy haul bag on the hike.

 

I think the whole thing was a good aerobic workout and a solid bit of practice on all aspects of aid climbing and improving my speed and systems.

Edited April 22, 2009 by miker

[ivan]

written like a true goddamn engineer!

 

nice work dude - don't sweat the mouse giving you the cold shoulder - even rodents have social standards

[billcoe]

nice work dude - don't sweat the mouse giving you the cold shoulder - even rodents have social standards

 

 

Thanks for sharing it Mike!

[rocky_joe]

sick line...looks way funking rad! Nice work! how big a rack would you recommend?

 

oh and I saw the guy workin the east face...couldn't tell who it was...but he looked strong enough; his belayer looked super excited to have the job. ha.

Edited April 22, 2009 by rocky_joe

[corvallisclimb]

whats up with all yall aid soloists not toppin out?

[Rick]

Nice job on the Aid Soloing. I was at Smith recently and considered aid soloing that route but never got around to it. I did have lot's of fun rope soloing plenty of others though. Including the West Variation to the Pioneer Route. My question is: Isn't Smith a "Day Use Only" park? If so then repeatedly posting these TR's about sleeping in the cave is making us climbers look irresponsible. And not all of us are.

[ivan]

. My question is: Isn't Smith a "Day Use Only" park? If so then repeatedly posting these TR's about sleeping in the cave is making us climbers look irresponsible. And not all of us are.

if you're sleepign on bare rock, 200 feet off the ground, and packing out your poo, where's the harm?

[miker]

Actually, I was so engrossed in taking pictures and rehydrating it got to be late enough that I was unable to rappel safely down the Northwest Passage, what with a haul bag hanging on me and never having rapped that way before. So I decided to be safe and called my wife to let her know I was ok and curled up in my sleeping bag, which I had included in my haul bag to help train for the real big walls.

 

I did not top out as I was worried about knocking rocks down onto the constantly occupied trail, especially on top of the crumbly monkey. That is my excuse, I am gonna stick with it.

[Rick]

I can tell you that I met the Ranger at Smith and he seems like the type that won't take any crap. I even saw him give someone a ticket for an uncontrolled dog. Maybe we should just keep a lower profile here on a public forum.

[corvallisclimb]

I did not top out as I was worried about knocking rocks down onto the constantly occupied trail, especially on top of the crumbly monkey. That is my excuse, I am gonna stick with it.

 

Hey nice work up there! I meant no offense by that I was just curious, because Eric didn't top out either when he did it. Its actually not that bad on the last pitch you wouldn't knock any shit down, if you wanted to haul but its best to just jug it with the haul bag on your back. I'm stoked to see every one out there aiding and soloing non the less. Keep the aid TRs coming.

[jlag]

People have been sleeping in that cave for a long, long time. I doubt any ranger would give you a hard time for it. The day pass has more to do with parking your car overnight, and to deter climbing bums from sleeping in the lot. Last weekend there was 8 folks that base-jumped off the Monkey, now that pissed off the rangers.

 

Julian is the new ranger, and he's a welcomed addition to the staff there. It's been a while since Smith has had a ranger that would actually walk the backside and talk face to face with hikers/climbers, not just ride the 4-wheeler around. Some do think he's a bit aggro, giving out dog tickets and actually enforcing basic rules. But in the long run it may help reduce user conflicts and help things run smoothly at the park. He takes his job very seriously, which i personally respect.

 

JL

[dan_forester]

Nice pictures & nice work on the aid solo. Getting into the cave is really the only place you need to worry about knocking rocks off - there is a lot of loose stuff there. I think the rangers, and everyone else for that matter, would care a lot more about someone on the trail getting hit by a rock than by someone bivying discreetly in the cave.

 

The last time I was at smith I saw the ranger scrambling over Asterisk Pass; I was surprised because I've never seen a ranger anywhere except the parking lot. He seemed like a friendly guy.

[ivan]

setting up a portaledge on the picnic lunch wall would probably be harder to get away w, huh?