June 2 dawned clear with the promise of plenty of heat to come at Smith Rocks, just outside of Terrebonne in Central Oregon. Fourteen SAC members and friends gathered to hone their rock skills at Smith's Staender Ridge. Starting early (well, not exactly an alpine start!) at 8:00 am gave us the opportunity to work on six different pitches before the heat sapped all of our energy. Opportunities included the confidence building "Lollypop League" and "Munchkin Land" to the more challenging and longer "Parking Lot Crack" and an unnamed difficult pitch (est 5.9) led by our rope master, Todd Wonder. Thanks to Doug and Todd for all their help in making this a productive and enjoyable day at Smith. And thanks to Steve for his inspiring extra round-trip trek to the cars for forgotten gear. Several folks took advantage of the local bivy (some the night before and some the night of the climb) and climbed more the following day.
Many of the climbers expressed interest in having another practice day at Smith, plus there were several climbers left stranded on an alternate list. We will explore the options of scheduling another day at Smith this summer.
Participants included: Doug Adair, Steve Axethelm, Todd Wonder, Beth Higginbotham, Stephanie Rockford, Ty Moffett, Jillian Cornejo, Diane Moody, Diane Dobbs, Mark and Lynda Williams, Dana, Karin, and Rich Margosian.
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