It was raining in the morning, which is rare in Smith Rock. We spent most of the morning in the restaurant drinking coffee until it shows signs to clear up. It finally did and it wasn’t that late so we decided to give Monkey Face a shot.

We started from the base around 1pm. Grace and Jack are on the first rope, Yinan and I are on the second. Yinan led the first and second pitches. Pitch 1 is easy, but definitely not class 4 according to the guidebook. I’d say mid class 5 moves here and there. A somehow big ledge below the notch ends pitch 1. Pitch 2 goes up towards the notch and then follows the arete towards Bohn street. There was a bunch of people in front of us but Bohn street is big enough and there is plenty of bolts to anchor. It was a bit hot to get in the afternoon sun. I led the bolt ladder pitch which is short and sweet. 18 or so bolts closely spaced. You don’t even need to step high on the aiders. There is a little bit overhang and traverse just before the monkey mouth. There is a bunch of bolts and bars anchored inside the monkey mouth and it’s pretty spacious here. We walked across the mouth towards the panic point. It’s a bit airy but not to the point that I’d panic. I clipped the first bolt outside the mouth over my head when I am still clipped in the anchor. Then I stepped out and down a little to gain a ledge. The hand holds are well marked with chalk. It’s a little pumpy but foot holds are bombers. 4 or 5 bolts lead to the nose boulder. LD led the next pitch which is a low class 5. The route goes around the nose bouler behind it (you can climb above it too) and up the summit boulder. We rapped from the summit to the nose. Then a double rappel sends us to the ground. The free hang rappel is pretty exciting. That’s the highlight for a lot of people.

Beta and gear notes: pitch 1 and 2 don’t really need a lot of pros. One set of cams 0.5-3 plus a set of nuts should suffice. pitch 5 is hardly protectable. You can probably stick in a #2. Bolted anchors on all pitches except the first. Bring enough QDs (or biner chain if you prefer) and aid gears for the aid pitch. Pitch 4 is very closely bolted, leave your rack to your follower if you don’t want to carry it when leading. Do not do a double rope rappel from the summit (it’ll not reach the ground). Instead double rope rap from the nose boulder (with somewhat big rap rings).

In general it’s a fun and moderate route. And you’ll have a lot of bragging right.

I am instructing the crag course this weekend. Saturday I team up with Aaron and Jeff on R&D. Arron led pitches 1 and 3, Jeff led the other 2. I’d hang out in the middle. We topped out in 4 hours, which is pretty good for a 3 person team. The 2nd and 3rd pitches are a little wet. Jeff went off route on the last pitch and we climbed the lichened slab without good pros. It feels a little stiffer than the usual route. It’s probably a 5.7 friction slab and s pretty sustained for a long stretch. After we parted I went to check out the route I’d be climbing on Sunday since I haven’t done it before. A group of 6 are climbing it. By the time I got to the base they were already done. Loni wanted to check out a bunch of people at Castle Rock so I gave her a ride. After we parked she asked me if I wanted to climb to logger’s ledge instead of taking the trail. I repied “why not” so off we went. We quickly geared up and started on The Fault. I led the chimney to a ledge beyond the rappel tree. I used a fixed piece, a mid sized nut and a red metolius cam to build an anchor and brought up Loni. She then led the second pitch (1st pitch of Catapult) which has a few 5.8 moves. I followed and cleaned. The 3rd pitch is low 5 so I didn’t even bother getting the rest of the rack. I ended up placing one piece (the red cam I brough up). Loni followed and we broke down everything, coiled rope. 1 exact hour. We are pretty fast considering this is the first time I have climbed with Loni.

Sunday, I paired up with John and climbed Ground Hog Day. I already scouted the approach the day before and got enough beta info from the gang. So the job was pretty easy. I let John lead all 3 pitches. He was a bit nervous on the first pitch and got progressively better. We climbed and rapped in 3 hours, which is pretty good for a new trad leader.

We did the same stuff as last year except I’m instructing this time. I suggested naming these routes and Cebe gave me the honor. I have decided on the slab we’d climb on Saturday. I called it Saturday Slab. The route on the climber’s left is China Rose and the right is Black Flamingo. The big slab we’d climb on Sunday I haven’t decided yet.

Day 1: Nick and I started on Green Drag-on. I led the first pitch. It is a pretty straight-forward pitch. There was a place that would take a #2 and I didn’t bring. I took the chance to use a sketchy flake and placed a small Metolius offset. Not to my surprise it failed bounce test. Then I tagged a few big cams. In order to keep the ropes free of tangling, we continued on Town Crier and the other party went on the 2nd pitch of Green Drag-on.

Day 2: we jugged the first two pitched we led the previous day and started on pitch 3. Nick has done this pitch before so it’s my turn. It’s a fun and short pitch. It goes up and left from the belay station reaching a roof. A few steps of traverse brings you to a fixed piton. Then I’d be lowered and do a pendulum to a thin crack on the left. I sticked a cam hook into the crack and made a couple cam hook moves. When I saw a chance to put in a brassie, I did. However it pulled through after I committed and I was now on the piton again. I had to do the pendulum once again. This time I wasn’t so lucky, the cam hook just doesn’t want to stick in. I had to grab Takeo’s arm. We joked about it. It’s aid climbing :). The thin vertical crack goes to another piton under a roof. Getting over the roof is quite awkward. Once over it, there is a couple of bolts for the anchor. Nick then led the next pitch, which is a zig-zaggy pitch with lots of pitons and bolts. Following is quite strenuous. We rapped from the top of this pitch and called it a day.

Day 3, 5/1. This is the last day of our short trip. Jack and Grace are leaving so it’s just the two of us. I hardly slept the night before and woke up at 5. After a breakfast at Starbucks we were at the park gate 2 minutes after it opened. Our plan was to climb Cat in the Hat and Yinan would lead as much as she wants. We wasted about 15 minutes on the approach making a wrong turn and began climbing right before 8. We linked the first 2 pitches. Yinan led all the way. She was a little off route near the top of the final pitch after the bolt and went to the right too much. Otherwise it went pretty smoothly. She felt that it’s a harder 5.6 than Solar Slab and there were a few sketchy moves. The first one being a move on the first pitch, about 40 feet off the ground above a ledge. Then the crux pitch (pitch 4) is a bit sketchy to her as well. I agree it’s not an easy 5.6 and it could be a bit airy in places.

Day 2, this is the big day of the trip. We were debating between Solar Slab and Olive Oil the evening before and we thought Yinan could get more leading experience if we do Solar Slab. So we woke up a bit after 5 and had breakfast at Starbucks and headed over to the park. We were at the gate at 6:18. By the time we were at the base, there was already a team on the second pitch of Johnny Vegas and it looked that they were very fast and wouldn’t hold us up. Another team was ahead of us but they took the gully. We would later beat them to the ledge by 15 minutes.

We started off Johnny Vegas a little before 8. I led the first pitch in less than 25 minutes to the bolted belay station. I have climbed Johnny Vegas in the previous trip so route finding wasn’t an issue. It’s not an issue anyway though. Grace followed and led out the second pitch, which is a runout. Yinan came a little behind Grace and we shared the narrow ledge. Grace was a bit slow on this lead and it took her about 45 minutes to reach the next belay. I followed and started off the next pitch.

Pitch 3 is a runout too but less serious than pitch 2. I slung rock horns all my way up which saved tons of time placing pros. This is a pretty long pitch and the last part is a low angle slab which made dragging the rope some serious work. The 4th pitch is rated 5.0 and it’s more like class 4. We didn’t unrope here because that’d make rope management more difficult. We could hear the team in the gully and I knew we were going to beat them.

I took a 15 minute break at the ledge to wait for Yinan and Jack to catch up. Grace decided she wants to lead out on Solar Slab and off she went. The first part is a 5.4 runout but it looks even easier. Then you reach the base of a 5.6 hand crack. Grace put in a piece and went for it. Strangely she wasn’t using the crack at all although she’s a good crack climber. I would later find out that the face is an easier option although it didn’t look so from below. She reached the belay at the tree and I followed. Yinan led this pitch right behind me and made good time. The next pitch (2nd pitch on Solar Slab) goes to the left to a small tree and goes up left with a lieback. I somehow remembered it’s a 5.4 lieback and was surprised that it felt much harder. I’d later find out it’s rather 5.6. Anyways, there is not good placements for a while, so don’t fall here. It reaches to the next ledge on a flake. There is a big hole behind the flake where you can bivy. You go inside the hole and climb the chimney (5.4) and out of the flake. You can also stay right on the face and it’s a 5.6R. The top of the 2nd pitch is a relatively big ledge with boulders and trees. However the bolts are on the right of the ledge for easier rappel. So you’d have to do a little hanging belay which is not too comfy.

Grace then had a little problem with route finding for the next pitch. The topo shows a 5.6 crack to the left and a 5.9 crack right above the belay. However it turned out the 5.6 is the one above us. When Jack came up we discussed our time. It was 12ish and we had 5 pitches to go. We were doing 45 minutes per pitch average so far. We were a little short of time although not bad enough to call it off yet. Then we spent too much time on this pitch. Jack decided to start leading before I followed. He ended up on the next belay only a little after Grace even he started half an hour later. This pitch (pitch 3 of solar slab) goes up the crack and a little bit to the right. I don’t have much recollection of it though since I followed too fast to make up the time. We stayed at the belay for less than 2 mintues and started off the next pitch, which is a short one. It’s a runout pitch again. There are 2 cracks on either side of a juggy face. It turned out the face is probably the easiest way up. I put in a few pieces but I wasn’t proud of any of them. I reached the belay before the runout looks too serious. This ledge is pretty big, enough for 4-5 people comfortably.

Grace then started pitch 5 which according to supertopo is a 140 ft pitch. The crack goes straight up and after about 80 feet, Grace saw a couple of bolts on the right. We believed in the topo and she continuted up. After about 150 feet out, we realized that the topo might be wrong. Grace was finally out of rope and built a gear anchor. I raced up and discussed the route with her. We both believe we are now on the upper middle section of pitch 6, about 25 feet below a slung boulder. I later confirmed when I saw that bolder on the next pitch. The next pitch is pretty easy and straight-forward although I didn’t really see the trees which are shown in the topo. So I missed the bolts of belay 6 and continued up untill I had no more rope. I found a rap station there and belayed from it. I suspected this is the end of pitch 7 already and Jack later comfirmed. So we did the route in 6 pitches instead of 7.

We high fived once Yinan topped out and began descending. It’s now 3:20. I spotted the bolts of belay 6 on my way down and we regrouped here. This is when I dropped my belay device and I heard “tink tink tink” and it was gone. “Fuck”, I cursed and collected 4 D shaped biners on Grace’s rack to do a carabiner brake. I’m never a big fan of carabiner brake but it’s a bit easier to autoblock than Munter rappel. To speed things up, we decided to try rappelling in paralell. We’d fix both ropes to the anchor and Jack and I would each rap on one rope. The next two people then do a normal rap. The idea is that we can each untangle one rope on the way down to save some time. After the first rap, Jack and I had a discussion and we both thought we didn’t save much time this way and it added to the complexity of the system and we were both not very comfortable with it. So we decided to abandon it and go with what we would normally do. We want to get down fast but we want to get down alive more. At this rap station, Jack made a mistake and there was a moment he was not connected to the anchor at all. We were all very scared. Three more rappels bring us to the base of Solar Slab. We took extra caution to avoid having the rope going over jugs and cracks. Fortunately we didn’t have much difficulty. It was around 5 and we felt much better being out of the exposed slab. The topo shows that you can also rap from the belay 3 of Johnny Vegas with only two rappels. We discussed our options and decided not to go that route for a few reasons: 1. we don’t want to down climb the last pitch of Johnny Vegas although it’s quite mellow; 2. It’d require us to coil and uncoil the rope if we do that; 3. We have both rapped off the gully and Jack has done it millions of times; 4. we can split up into two ropes if we go down the gully.

Another hour and half later, we were finally at the base. We packed and hiked out. All cars are racing out of the park which closes at 8. When we cross the gate, the clock on the car showed 8:00, sweet. It was a long day, 11 hours on the rock, but super fun. This is the longest route I’ve done so far.

Day 1, we had a late start. After breakfast at a Starbucks and discussion on what route to do, we packed and arrived at the base at 10ish. We started on the route a bit before 11. There are two teams in front of us. One of them is already high up. Another one is doing the first pitch when we arrived. They stopped short on pitch 1, not sure if it’s a route finding issue or they are just polite so that we can jump on the route as soon as possible. Anyways, Jack led the first rope and Yinan followed. I led the second one as Grace belayed me. The first few moves off the ground are the crux of the pitch, maybe even the whole route, technically. They are certainly stiff 5.7s, some even rate them 5.8. You can set a good piece below the roof, but you definitely don’t want to fall when you traverse under it. After you go over the first roof, all rest of the pitch is pretty straight-forward. We stopped at where the first team belayed, which is a large boulder. The official belay station is about 40 feet up on another ledge. Grace led the rest of pitch 1 and to belay 2, which is a pair of bolts in a chimney. Rope drag was an issue since Grace short clipped a couple cams.

I led the 3rd pitch, which is supposedly the crux pitch. I took the 5.7/5.8 varation on the face rather than the 5.6 chimney. It looks a bit harder but I was able to set 3 finger sized cams above the bolt. After that, it’s a serious runout. I looked down my last piece, prayed and went for it. There is probably a few soft 5.8 moves but in generally not too bad and the fall is mostly clean. The variation then merges with the chimney route, at which point I was able to stick in a #4 camalot. That made me feel a lot better. If you have a big bro of this size, I’d recommend bring it to this route. Another 20 or 30 feet easy moves finish this pitch under a big alcove. Jack praised me for leading this pitch fast (it was fast, I guess, it took no more than 15 minutes), I said ther is no place to put pieces anyway. Yinan and Grace led the next pitch. The first 30 feet of the pitch is rated 5.5 but we all think it’s sandbagged. Getting over the roof is a bit sketchy. After that it’s supposed to be 5.0 all the way. However I didn’t look around and followed the crack where Grace put in the pros and it felt like a 5.6 or 5.7.  End of this pitch is a huge platform where the tunnel begins.

You enter the tunnel by moving to the left. You can place a small piece right off the ground. Then it runs out at least 20 feet. Don’t fall or you are guaranteed to deck. Be very careful with the rock surface here. It could be quite slippery since water probably has been running down in the tunnel. After 20-30 feet up, I was able to find a place where I can sit on the back wall and put my feet on the front wall. It’s a very comfy position. I was even able to find a good size pocket on the back wall where I placed a #0.75 or #1 camalot. It’s a bomber placement. After that, you veer to the left a little bit, following a bulge with a think crack. You can place a blue TCU in the crack but I doubt it’d hold a serious fall. You go up and left from here without pros then traverse to the left above a wedge. The rock is pretty slippery and there is no good holds. But I was not worried since the wedge will catch a fall within 3 feet. The traverse leads out of the tunnel into a big crack/small chimney. Stay left of the chimney to a ledge to finish pitch 5. Rope drag of this pitch is more serious than any other pitches and that’s what I expected even I used double slings wherever possible. The rope was stuck in the cracks a few times when I belayed from the top as well. I had to ask Grace to place a piece and hang on it to free the rope. The final pitch starts on the right of the ledge and follows a crack system to a roof, which is probably the crux of the pitch, especially for short people. I was however able to high step onto a good hold about my chest height and push myself up so it wasn’t too hard for me although strenuous. We topped out before 4 and began descending the gully. It was very windy the whole day and it began to drop snow flakes when we were on the final pitch! I don’t know how often it snows here but my bet is not too often. We spent a little time trying to find the base. So you definitely want to take note where you left the pack (or bring everything with you on the climb). Very nice climbing today.

I was helping with Stephen McKim’s intermediate mentor group the last weekend. We went to Castle Rock on Saturday and Icicle Buttress on Sunday. It was mainly an instructional activity for me but here is the log nevertheless.

• Followed Sabre both pitches
• Followed Sabre P1 and led P2
• Chicken Gully/Cave Route, led pithces 2, 4, and 5. P1 is a mossy and shady friction slab, pretty ugly, 5.3ish, I’d say. P2 is a scramble, placed 0 pieces. P3 ends at a pine tree with some old rap slings. The ledge is huge. Don’t quite remember how the route is like since I ran up too fast and was out of breath. Move to the left above a hig boulder facing a crack to begin P4. Placed a couple cams (in the range of Metolius #5-#8)  in the crack. P4 ends in the cave. P5 is the crux. Out of the cave, traverse to the right, follow a series of undercling crack to a bush. I awkwardedly slung the brach then stepped on it to gain access to the ledge above it. It’s probably a 5.5 or 5.6 move. The rest is a scramble and rope drag is a big problem.

• Mush Maker 5.7, TR
• Level Head 5.6, TR
• Level Head 5.6, LD
• Mush Maker 5.7, Mock
• Slacker 5.4, LD
• X Factor 5.8 TR
• X Factor 5.8 TR
• Cutting Edge 5.7 TR

• Day 1, I led half way up Iron Horse, took a fall above the fixed pins. The left aider caught my foot and flipped me upside down. It’s pretty steep so that I didn’t hit anything. The aider bruised my foot a little bit, but not serious. However I was not mentally ready to move on so I asked to be lowered. I ended up following the pitch.
• I then led pitch 1 of City Park, a classic easy aid route. I cleaned it after Liang led after me.
• Day 2, I wanted to do Iron Horse but it was taken so we ended up doing City Park again. Liang led the first pitch and I led the second. It took us 5 hours in total including sorting gears.
• Beta for City Park: first pitch is a 70 meter rope pitch. Bring lots of small offset nuts. I used a 0.3 Camalot at one place. There is a crack that can take an M size Metolius SuperCam near the anchor but can be freed easily. The second pitch begins with an old quarter inch bolt followed by an awkward diehedral. The diehedral takes a handful of small brassies and a couple of large stoppers (I used #10 and #11 BD stoppers). I then used #5-#8 of Metolius cams. When the diehedral disappears, there is a bolt on the slab on the right. I did a couple free moves (not hard but very scary) above the bolt to a big ledge. I freed and french freed the rest using one 0.3 Camalot.