First Stop on the Rock and Road Trip: Smith Rock

  Terrebonne, Oregon
Monday, April 13, 2009

We arose at 3:40am to catch our flight home from Quito, arriving in Seattle 13 hours later. Jet lagged but eager to begin phase two of our trip, we raced through two and a half days of logistics in Seattle and embarked on the open roads of the west, our GMC Jimmy loaded down with food and climbing gear. For those dear friends we didn't get to see during our brief stay, please accept our apologies, and use this as an opportunity to get out of the city and meet up with us for some climbing or site-seeing along our next adventure. We'll post our most recent travel itinerary at the end of this post.

Our first stop on our rock and road trip was to Smith Rock in central Oregon. We stayed with our good friends, Lynn and Scott, who were just the best hosts anyone could ask for!

Some photos of the great rock climbing area. We had great weather which was a real treat after some of the climbing we were enduring in Peru!


Driving to Smith Rock. We scored some beautiful views of Mt Hood after some recent snow! What a peak!


Smith Rock and the Crooked Rock in all its glory.


Our good friend Dave Snow came down to join us for the weekend! Dave and Ben worked together at Microsoft (in the Education Products Group) and have been climbing together since. Dave grew up in Washington and knows the local areas like no other. To top it off, he is a hell of good climber. In his hay days, he was sending hard 5.13 problems in Smith, Granite Point and many other famous areas of the Northwest.

We also ran into Sarah from Seattle who happened to be in Smith at the time and she joined us for several climbs as well!


Ben loves to crack climb!


Who couldn't love this place?



Dave walked Screaming Yellow Zonkers!!


Lindsey living the life in our famous puffy jacket (Outdoor Research Refuge)


Lindsey enjoyed the moves of Ride the Lightning almost as much as she's loving the summery weathery (5.11b)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gundamma/3440951658/in/set-72157616649488329/
Cut and paste this link to view this video of Ride of the Lightening


The scene in the Smith Rock Gorge


Lindsey working the amazing basalt arete climb - Child Abuse (12a/b)


Lynn and Scott are the world's best cooks and they made some amazing meals that we go to part-take in (our friend, Sarah on the left). This photo is of locally-raised lamb they cooked the sencond night. On the first, they made us "Curry Copia," Lynn's dream business of setting out a curry stand at the entrance to Smith. We'd buy it for sure! They made us the most authentic green curry, barbequed chicken in the best peanut sauce, and Tom Yum soup. Man were we lucky!

For those of you who might be interested in joining us along the way, while we can't guarantee this will be the final itinerary, here's what we plan to have in store:

4/15-5/1 Indian Creek/ Colorado Plateau/ Mesa Verde (and stop off at Joe's Valley for some bouldering with Jim Johndal and Josh Mitchell), UT and CO
5/2-5/7 Red Rocks, NV
5/8-5/13 Zion, UT
5/14-5/25 Grand Canyon/ Flaggstaff/ Jack's Canyon/ Sedonna, AZ
5/28-6/2 Bishop, CA
6/3-6/20 Yosemite, CA
6/21-6/25 Lover's Leap (Lak Tahoe), CA
6/27-6/29 Elko, NV
7/1-7/10 Salt Lake City, UT
7/11-7/15 City of Rocks, ID
7/16-8/4 Jackson Hole, Grand Tetons, Wind Rivers, WY

More photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/benkunz/sets/72157616646028326/