Smith Rock Standard Rack and Required Routes

[justinp]

Speaking of leaving ur mothers basement aren’t you supposed to be a smith today.

[dennyt]

West Face variation on Monkey Face, two fun start options 5.7 or 5.8, and you can finish two different ways out of the mouth of the monkey. 5.7 if you go straight up or an exciting 5.8 rightward traverse if you take the Monkey Off My Back variation.

[justinp]

Oh and BTW it's supposed to rain a little out there so u may bring ur standard aid rack with u to. I know I'm bringing mine

[billcoe]

Denny's right - in fact both West Face of Monkey climbs are good cause you can usually see the rain coming. The bad is that they're a little far up and off the beaten track if it really unleashes and you're not in one of the caves. Both routes have great dry caves that would be fantastic to kick back and weather the weather.

 

Justin. Speaking of dry routes. If you haven't tried the Great Roof, it's an awesome aid line and mostly dry. Dryer than about anything else anyway. Use to be awesome. Beth Rodden finally freed it, and I think it got some new bolts if the shiny ones in the magazine pics were any indication, so I can't say if it's still so good. We never had offset nuts, cam hooks or common sense back then, but bet they'd make it much easier as well.

[justinp]

Justin. Speaking of dry routes. If you haven't tried the Great Roof, it's an awesome aid line and mostly dry. Dryer than about anything else anyway. Use to be awesome. Beth Rodden finally freed it, and I think it got some new bolts if the shiny ones in the magazine pics were any indication, so I can't say if it's still so good. We never had offset nuts, cam hooks or common sense back then, but bet they'd make it much easier as well.

 

This is good.advice.... of course you would still have to hoof it out there in the rain. Ivan and I did the great roof last time we were at Smiff complete with a bivy in the caves at the base of Brogen Spire. We had this grad vision of getting all the Portland tards out for a bivy in the Marsupials turned out to be me and Ivan. A very cool free route to hit out there is birds in a rut. Hoping the rain holds off till Saturday as the giant and I are headed off in a few hours to do Steins Pillar tomorrow. LCK where ya at

[KirkW]

 

Hahaha... you're right. Next time I'll just buy a guidebook and start climbing the 500+ routes alphabetically.

 

I have a guidebook. I'm asking people that have left their mothers basement and actually climbed the suggested and obscure routes, what the MUST do routes are. I'm not asking what routes are located at Smith Rock so that I can magically find them and climb them without any guidebook to assist me. I also want to know what SEVERAL people consider to be a standard rack.

 

To those that gave a legitimate answer Thank-you!

 

Like I said...1800+ routes. Not 500. I'm pretty sure it says that right on the cover.

 

I'd be going too but mother wants me to clean my room and help her dye her hair after we get her weekly sponge bath over with. Gonna be a long weekend for me.

 

Regardless...have fun at Smith this weekend. Sorry to ruin your day with my jackass behaviour. My apologies.

 

[corvallisclimb]

 

 

Justin. Speaking of dry routes. If you haven't tried the Great Roof, it's an awesome aid line and mostly dry. Dryer than about anything else anyway. Use to be awesome. Beth Rodden finally freed it, and I think it got some new bolts if the shiny ones in the magazine pics were any indication, so I can't say if it's still so good. We never had offset nuts, cam hooks or common sense back then, but bet they'd make it much easier as well.

 

Bill- Just to get the history part straight Brook Sandhal added the bolts to the line in the mid 90's. Brad England replaced almost every bolt on P2. You hardly need any rack for the route as you can back clean everything. Mostly a set of offset nuts and small cams will be all need. P2 is all bolts. P3 is the same 5.4 pitch you climb to the sumit of Brogan when doing the Marsupial Traverse or the West Face. Prolly one of the best routes to practice cleaning traverses as its all bolts. After turning the roof on P2 you would start to get wet though.

 

Edited October 8, 2010 by corvallisclimb

[MonkeyD]

I'd agree with some of the other posters and say that if I could only do a few trad lines on the main formations I would do:

Zebra/Zion

Karate Crack

Pioneer Route on Monkey face (or the west face variation)

Spider-man

Super slab to avoid the lame misery ridge hike

Cinnamon Slab is just okay

There's good trad to be had in the Upper and Lower Gorge if you can find someone to show you around, otherwise it could turn into to much of a time sink.

 

For sport multi-pitch Where-ever I May Roam was okay and so was First Kiss

 

If you're feeling adventurous and want to get away from the crowds then you could do the Marsupial Traverse.

[markwebster]

oh yeah, the lower gorge. I just discovered that this year. Cruel Sister 10a is one fabulous hand crack. I have yet to do it clean, but man is that some stellar climbing on fabulous rock. There are numerous other clean cracks nearby, but you really need to be comfortable at the 10b/c range to have a good time down there. Though, I'm not, and I keep going back.

[rocky_joe]

how long are you in the area? If you're there for more than a couple of days, a drive to check out trout creek would be worth it for sure. Trout is way better than smith for long single pitch gear climbs. smith has a lot of good moderates (and some decently hard stuff in the lower gorge) but trout has a lot less crowds. I'd bring a double rack to 3" and a 4, maybe a 5. Have fun and enjoy.

 

*Trout beta can be found easily enough on mountain project or just a google search will yield the online guidebook.

[Mr. Hands]

how long are you in the area? If you're there for more than a couple of days, a drive to check out trout creek would be worth it for sure. Trout is way better than smith for long single pitch gear climbs. smith has a lot of good moderates (and some decently hard stuff in the lower gorge) but trout has a lot less crowds. I'd bring a double rack to 3" and a 4, maybe a 5. Have fun and enjoy.

 

*Trout beta can be found easily enough on mountain project or just a google search will yield the online guidebook.

 

If your thinking Trout has less crowds your kidding your self. I went up there with the Mrs. to check out what all the hype was about. There where about 12 climbers up there hogging all the classic lines. Now that the secrets out, it can be a bit of a mob scene. You'll find less crowds in the Lower Gorge now and more quality lines. Don't get me wrong Trout is great but EXTREMELY OVER RATED.