Posted by: dave c at 01:00, July 15 2012.
The last time Ginni and I attempted to climb at Smith Rock in Oregon, it was snowing. That was a few years ago, so when friends Chris and Dave suggested a trip to climb there I jumped on the invitation.
It’s a bit far to drive to Oregon in one day, so we decided to camp at the City of Rocks for a couple of nights. This gave us a day of climbing at one of my favorite areas (I’d spent a week at the “City” just a few weeks earlier).
We had an enjoyable day of climbing before continuing on to Smith Rock.
Since this was our first time climbing at Smith Rock, we explored a new area each day, and found excellent climbing in a very scenic setting.
In addition to the great climbing I also had time to photograph at sunrise and sunset, finding some nice compositions contrasting the vertical walls of Smith with the nearby snow-covered volcanoes.
While Chris and Dave continued to explore Smith Rock I took a couple of days to head up to Portland and visit my old friend and climbing mentor Gary. On the way up to Portland I made a brief detour to visit Mount Hood – a beautiful mountain that I would like to climb one of these days.
Since Gary is also a keen photographer we decided to head over to the central Oregon coast for a quick photo trip (after first stopping at the famous Portland Japanese Gardens). Despite the rain (and partly because of the rain) we managed to find some good photo opportunities, making this an enjoyable side trip.
Back to Smith Rock for a few more days of climbing.
With the wildfire situation at home becoming more serious, I decided to cut the trip short. A brief stop at Crater Lake and then back to Colorado and the smoke from the wildfires. I will definitely put Smith Rock on my list of climbing areas to return to.
For more images from the trip, please click on this link: Slideshow