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West Face (Aid)
Easy 5th C1,
Trad, Aid, 400 ft (121 m), 3 pitches, Grade II,
Avg: 3.3 from 32
votes
FA: Dean Caldwell, Byron Babcock & Bill Lentsch - 1962
Oregon
> Central Oregon
> Smith Rock
> (s) Monkey Face
ALL SEASONAL CLIMBING CLOSURES FOR CLIMBING AND SLACKLINING WILL BE LIFTED ON FRIDAY, JULY 7TH THIS WEEK. THANKS, EVERYONE FOR YOUR HELP IN OBSERVING RESTRICTIONS DURING THE NESTING SEASON!
There are many seasonal raptor closures with varying dates and specific boundaries. These generally effect The Monument, Kiss of the Lepers, Picnic Lunch Wall and/or Smith Rock group, and possibly elsewhere. These usually run from February to the beginning of August, but each closure is usually shorter than this, and is dependent on the birds' behavior. Check this site for details: smithrock.com/seasonal-clos…
Description
This climb also goes free at 5.12a A1.
P1 - C1+ or 12a A0- Start on the western point of the monkey at a 5 bolt bolt ladder. Then aid the crack at C1, cam hooks and offset nuts are usefull here, clip a few more bolts, then mantel onto ledge. 3 bolt Anchor at small ledge.
P2 - A1 - Aid the bolts to sling belay.
P3 - easy 5th C1 or 5.12a - Aid more bolts to a scramble into the big west face cave.
P4 - 5.4 C1 or 5.11B - Aid out of the cave on bolts to some free to the summit.
Descent: Rap down to the nose boulder then one double rope to ground.
Note: Pitches 2 & 3 can be linked with 60M ropes. This climb also goes free at 5.12a, except for P2.
Protection
Small clean aid rack to 2" include cam hooks and offset nuts. Mabey a Talon or a cheat stick. Quickdraws.
[Hide Photo] Will Maness making it happen on the 5.12a P1 of West Face. Artem Vee photo
[Hide Photo] Jerry King belaying pitch 3. 1/4" Rawls with rusty hangers. May 1971.
[Hide Photo] Pitch 1. Free at 12a. Somewhat hidden from casual onlookers below by nasty-hard face climbing or a bolt ladder, the W face provides THE sickest finger crack climbing at Smith. Doesn't get near…
[Hide Photo] JohnK leading the third pitch of West Face.
[Hide Photo] "Bomber" (for Back in the Day) first pitch anchor with 1/4" Rawls. May 1971.
[Hide Photo] Hook move right off the deck. There’s 2 holes, the upper one felt easier to climb up the aider, but both are equally bomber.
[Hide Comment] Done it twice incl. once with a 160 lb pig "for practice". Great place to learn aid on very exposed but very safe terrain (IMHO). Yes, lots of bolt ladders but position is spectacular!
Mar 26, 2008
[Hide Comment] Big props to the late Chris Pernel (spelling?)for replacing the ancient belay bolts back in the early 1990s, which made all future ascents possible. P.s. if you lost a Petzel zoom in the back notch cave in the early 1990s, send me an email and I can get it back to you. No longer need it now that there are nicer smaller ones available.
Oct 28, 2009
[Hide Comment] Climbed this as an aid route for a fun diversion, and here are the details:
P1 (130') C1 - Fun and engaging. I needed a hook to reach the first bolt, but I probably could have tried harder and made one free move to reach it. Offset nuts from small (#3/4 HBs) to the big aluminum ones are key. 2-3 sets recommended along with one or two sets of small cams to #0.5 camalot. I used a green and red camalot too.
P2 (80') C0 - STEEP bolt ladder, 23 bolts. Easy to back clean every other one.
P3 (100') C0 - STEEP bolt ladder, 19 bolts - but you might not want to back clean too many as they are pretty reachy. Skip the intermediate belay. You'll either need to free climb or hook for a move or two to reach the bolt off the intermediate belay ledge. The dismount into the West Face cave was made easy with a #1 camalot. The west face cave is littered with loose rock and the edges are sharp. BRING DUCT TAPE TO PAD THE EDGES (there are two)!!
P4 (60') C0/5easy - Thrash and dangle out the left bolt line to a ledge and then scramble to the top!
The rap down was super cool!
Gear: 2-3 sets of offset nuts from small to large. 2 sets of small cams to #0.5 camalot. One green and one red camalot. A medium hook can't hurt. There are ledges are each belay, so no belay seat needed.
Apr 27, 2010
[Hide Comment] I'm trying to free the first pitch. Has anyone ever tried to avoid the bolt ladder that free from the ground-up coming in from the left using bolts from other routes? Doing as a aid pitch is super good too. Its an amazing crack.
Apr 27, 2010
[Hide Comment] The standard method for freeing the first pitch is to start up Sheer Trickery, then head right after the third bolt to join the West Face crack. I don't know if the "direct" bolt ladder has ever been freed.
Apr 27, 2010
[Hide Comment] Note that if you want to bail the route at the top of the 2nd pitch, you will need to tie off a rope at the start of P2(to pull yourself back to the anchors) otherwise you are rapping into air(20-25 away from the wall) and will never be able to get back to the top of P1 anchors.
Jan 2, 2014
[Hide Comment] Only did P1 as we were pressed for time. Some notes: Andy's rack notes above are good, however I brought a set of brass nuts and didn't place any. I also had a full set of Stoppers and DMM alloy offsets. The offsets were very useful. I cam hooked twice, more for the experience. Not mandatory. Perhaps those spots are where the brass would come in handy. A fun aid outing, for sure.
Feb 24, 2014
We started late and ended up reaching the west face cave after dark and had a difficult time finding the bolt line out of the cave. Since it's not totally clear on here, I'll point out that the route continues out of the cave from a point on the left side of the upper lip of the cave. If you end up stuck after dark, just look directly up from the line of the 3rd pitch bolt ladder and you will see two anchor bolts, followed by three bolts moving to the left, leading to a small ledge that continues to a run-out 5th class scramble to the summit.
May 6, 2014
[Hide Comment] Climbed this aid solo great route for testing out your skills. Some notes: - Soloing this takes a long time. I took 13 hours car to car, I'm still learning and my jugging was slow, but expect this to be a big day - Cam hooks are super useful on P1. You could probably lead 75% of the pitch on just hooks if you wanted. - The only gear I used after P1 was a BD grappeling hook and a blue metolius. These were used to get to the first bolt on P3. I elected to do a somewhat spicey hook move instead of climbing to the first bolt which looked like 2-3 moves of 5.10(ish). - be careful entering the back cave at the end of P3. There is a lot of loose rock on the ledge and anything you kick off is likely to hit the hiking trail below.
Rack: 2x medium cam hook, 2x large cam hook, 1 bd grappling hook, 1 set off set nuts, 1 set nuts, 1 set brass nuts, 2 sets offset cams (finger sizes), cams (metolius blue through #1 BD, doubles up to BD 0.5)
Jul 22, 2019
[Hide Comment] Please avoid the use of cam hooks in soft rock (which I would consider Smith Rock to be) especially on a classic free pitch such as the P1 West Face Crack. Cam hooks can blow out the edge of the crack, turning nice stopper placements into worthless and ugly flares. Cam hooks are very much frowned upon in the soft rock aid climbing mecca of Zion.
Sep 5, 2019
Avg: 3.3 from 32
votes
Access Issue: 2023 Seasonal Raptor Nesting Closures
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Portland, OR
Bend, OR
P1 (130') C1 - Fun and engaging. I needed a hook to reach the first bolt, but I probably could have tried harder and made one free move to reach it. Offset nuts from small (#3/4 HBs) to the big aluminum ones are key. 2-3 sets recommended along with one or two sets of small cams to #0.5 camalot. I used a green and red camalot too.
P2 (80') C0 - STEEP bolt ladder, 23 bolts. Easy to back clean every other one.
P3 (100') C0 - STEEP bolt ladder, 19 bolts - but you might not want to back clean too many as they are pretty reachy. Skip the intermediate belay. You'll either need to free climb or hook for a move or two to reach the bolt off the intermediate belay ledge. The dismount into the West Face cave was made easy with a #1 camalot. The west face cave is littered with loose rock and the edges are sharp. BRING DUCT TAPE TO PAD THE EDGES (there are two)!!
P4 (60') C0/5easy - Thrash and dangle out the left bolt line to a ledge and then scramble to the top!
The rap down was super cool!
Gear: 2-3 sets of offset nuts from small to large. 2 sets of small cams to #0.5 camalot. One green and one red camalot. A medium hook can't hurt. There are ledges are each belay, so no belay seat needed. Apr 27, 2010
Bend, OR
Morrison, CO
Portland, OR
Portland, OR
Anchorage, AK
We started late and ended up reaching the west face cave after dark and had a difficult time finding the bolt line out of the cave. Since it's not totally clear on here, I'll point out that the route continues out of the cave from a point on the left side of the upper lip of the cave. If you end up stuck after dark, just look directly up from the line of the 3rd pitch bolt ladder and you will see two anchor bolts, followed by three bolts moving to the left, leading to a small ledge that continues to a run-out 5th class scramble to the summit. May 6, 2014
Corvallis, Or
Some notes:
- Soloing this takes a long time. I took 13 hours car to car, I'm still learning and my jugging was slow, but expect this to be a big day
- Cam hooks are super useful on P1. You could probably lead 75% of the pitch on just hooks if you wanted.
- The only gear I used after P1 was a BD grappeling hook and a blue metolius. These were used to get to the first bolt on P3. I elected to do a somewhat spicey hook move instead of climbing to the first bolt which looked like 2-3 moves of 5.10(ish).
- be careful entering the back cave at the end of P3. There is a lot of loose rock on the ledge and anything you kick off is likely to hit the hiking trail below.
Rack:
2x medium cam hook, 2x large cam hook, 1 bd grappling hook, 1 set off set nuts, 1 set nuts, 1 set brass nuts, 2 sets offset cams (finger sizes), cams (metolius blue through #1 BD, doubles up to BD 0.5) Jul 22, 2019
Homeless