Smith Rock camping??

That climb with the 30 foot first bolt, if it's the one I'm thinking of probably testament slab, takes a nut. Alan Watts book is good but a little out of date, new edition is in the works, you can get by with Mountain Project on your phone but use the app and download, don't assume you'll have data. Coverage is not 100% in the park.

Ah! Maybe my stick clip will do. If I'm at Smith it will be with a trad guy, so I just need to be able to haul my sorry ass up the things somehow. A literal haul if I hafta.... :-/

Best, Helen

Yes! Monkey Face West Face Variation Direct is a great line up the Monkey and will hold the shade all morning if you start by 7 or 8 and keep a decent pace. 

Alrighty, I'll ask my rope gun about Monkey Face, eh? I don't know if it's something I can do, but I promise I'll look it up.

Cooking? I know that's in a communal area, but does that mean bring a stove, or build or share a little fire? How close is the communal area to car parking? Don't wanna be humping any more crap around than I have to.

EDIT to add, might want to head into town to eat, also, or even Bend?? In the afternoon, maybe?

Thanks! Helen

Getting excited, even though the heat has arrived. It's going to be over 100 here today. Ah well. I'd just as soon roast elsewhere, hanging with climbers, as not!

The climbing shop (redpoint) in Terrebonne rents stick clips if yours is not long enough as well as guidebooks...like $5 a day or something. They are good people there. Also, really nice place to stop by for an after send brew once it gets hot. The cooking area is like 10 feet from the parking area at the bivy...unless the parking lot is full and you park on the road as someone suggested. However, I hear they are getting more aggressive about ticketing if you're not in a marked spot.

You might want to check out rope-de-dope. it's a good beginner spot, and nice and shady for large parts of the day. It has a nice grassy picnic area and probably the shortest approach in all of smith. Also, it's pretty much the only place in the park you can scramble up the backside and set up a TR if 20' runouts to the first bolt are not your style. That said, I just got back from the city of rocks and found some of the old school sport routes just as runout as smith so you might feel totally comfortable. The lower gorge is also a good option if your partner is a trad climber. Start on one side for morning shade and then hop across the river to the other side for afternoon shade. There is about an hour at noon where the sun is directly overhead when it'll be too hot to climb, but otherwise it's a good all day location. 

Old lady H wrote: Alrighty, I'll ask my rope gun about Monkey Face, eh? I don't know if it's something I can do, but I promise I'll look it up.

Cooking? I know that's in a communal area, but does that mean bring a stove, or build or share a little fire? How close is the communal area to car parking? Don't wanna be humping any more crap around than I have to.

My wife Barbara did Monkey Face for her 59th birthday.  The fellow that rope gunned it for her had her use ascenders the leg that goes up into the cave.  

For cooking, the parking lot is a circle. In the middle of the circle is another circle that is the cooking area.  Trunk to cooking area is about 30ft.  There are several good restaurants in Redmond, which is closer than Bend.  There is a Brewery next to the Fred Myers grocery store that has pretty cool souvenir t-shirts as well, I forget the name of it.

Hm. Wrong time of day to be reading this. Now I'm hungry!

I'll be printing this out, so I can take all the beta with me, if I go west. Thanks so much, it really means a lot to me.

Best, Helen

More questions, now that I'm getting closer to go time...

If it's Smith, yeah, the river is right there. Anywhere to swim that's shady though? The last thing I'll need is more sun, but flailing around in some water could be nice.

My local rock is columnar black basalt, which gets unclimbable, or at least a lot more slick and difficult when it's hot, even in the shade. What about Smith? Is it harder in the heat, the actual climbing? 

Thanks! Helen

Old lady H wrote: More questions, now that I'm getting closer to go time...

If it's Smith, yeah, the river is right there. Anywhere to swim that's shady though? The last thing I'll need is more sun, but flailing around in some water could be nice.

My local rock is columnar black basalt, which gets unclimbable, or at least a lot more slick and difficult when it's hot, even in the shade. What about Smith? Is it harder in the heat, the actual climbing? 

Thanks! Helen

According to the guidebook you shouldn't swim in the river due to the 2 composting outhouses nearby.....

Climbing in the hot sun at Smith will definitely be harder, especially if the sun is shining on you. The black rubber of your shoes will become painfully hot. I can personally attest to that.

I have not found the basalt columns in the gorges at Smith to be harder when it was "hot" . Mind you, we were shaded.

Yeah, the crooked river is nasty. My suggestion for swimming would be Cline Falls in Redmond. I doubt the rock is as bad as your dark basalt but it is still pretty terrible in the sun. Cools down quickly once it’s shaded though so if you keep moving around to stay in the shade you can comfortably climb all day. 

Thanks! Ugh.

I have no intention of being in the sun at all, if I can help it. Thats the summer version of screaming barfies, for me, lol! I'm another one who will attest to the black rubber getting painfully hot, even some black sandals I had on today. Our basalt was getting noticeably slick yesterday morning, and not even in the sun yet, so we packed it in. Alpine starts really help this time of year! That sounds encouraging, if we chase shade, late afternoon/evening might still be doable. I can drive into town and pig out on somethin or other in some AC, in the afternoon. I'll throw a swimsuit in, why not, but I'm not such a huge fan of rivers, etc to swim in anyway.

Thanks so much, you people are super!

Best, Helen

Crawl over Asterisk Pass first thing in the morning, then turn skiers left, shade until around noon. Siesta, back over Asterisk Pass, up Misery ridge trail for afternoon shade.

Dallas R wrote: Crawl over Asterisk Pass first thing in the morning, then turn skiers left, shade until around noon. Siesta, back over Asterisk Pass, up Misery ridge trail for afternoon shade.

Sooo....skiers left would be my left if I'm jumping off the cliff facing out??? :-)

And, well, crap. How literal is "crawling"? Based in the Climb on map, some of the approaches might be slow going, for me at least.

Thanks! I'm stoked for this trip, no matter, wherever I may roam, lol!

Helen

Old lady H wrote:

Sooo....skiers left would be my left if I'm jumping off the cliff facing out??? :-)

And, well, crap. How literal is "crawling"? Based in the Climb on map, some of the approaches might be slow going, for me at least.

Thanks! I'm stoked for this trip, no matter, wherever I may roam, lol!

Helen

Yes, you understood.  Crawling (scrambling) pretty literal.  The first time we went over the pass we roped up, by the 5th time we didn't bother.  Coming up from the bridge it's easier to step out on the exposed boulder than to go through the tunnel.  Going down the other side there is a huge knob towards the bottom that allows you to step off the ramp rather than follow it all the way down.  

When you get to the bench from the bridge side before you start up the last crack left of the asterisk look 90 degrees right, you will find Kathleen finds and edge, a wonderfully exposed 5.7 sport, then scramble up between the ridges to the left of that, but to the right of the asterisk ridge, and look down, you will find a shady little pocket that has Little Indian Princess, Am I Evil and Lunatic to Love.  

Most of the snakes there are the harmless Gopher Snake, they look like a rattle snake and will even shake their tail against something to simulate a rattle.  Round heads not triangle heads.  

Ok we miss that place.  We volunteered there for several months, we ran the visitor center, got to keep the RV at the ranch house.  We would take our climbing gear to work every day and go climb when we got off.

It was always a good debate as to whether it was easier to go over Misery Ridge or Asterisk Pass.  You'll learn to love the water fountain by the bridge.