Smith Rock Update

So with the guide out I'd like to keep an updates of the new routes I've been doing. 

• "Spare Air"  5.7 A3+  FA: Tyler Adams & Ryan Lawson - January 2010
  This route begins to the left of Scarface in one the East side of the Christian Brothers. Insanley steep! Start with a couple steep hooks, to a bolt. Nail beaks up seams past four bolts to a belay just left of the "5.15 project" belay. 27 beak placements where used on the first ascent: Finish on the last pitch of "Air to Spare".  About 50' of beaks off the belay leads to rotten free climbing (5.7) left and into the "Hobbit Hole". Figure out one of many ways to get out of the "Hobbit Hole".
  Protection: Beaks, 2 LAs, 2 baby angles, some cams to 4".

 
Tyler Adams jumaring past pitch one on day 2.
 
Ryan Lawson starting pitch 2. Photos: Jake Ringold
• "Taco Tuesday"  5.6  FA: Tyler Adams & Adam Cox - June 2010
  Located on the "Swiss Cheese Wall" just to left of the Marsupial Wall. This is the left of three routes there. Jim Ablao bolted the other two in May of 2010, the furthest right is 5.10a and to its left 5.8. Both of high quality. Taco Tuesday starts up a ramp heading towards the right, then move left and more or less straight up easy buckets to the anchor.
  Protection: 6 bolts.

 
Adam Cox chillen at the base.

The Sups!
• "no name"  5.9  FA: Tyler Adams & Cathy Power - January 2011
  About as secluded as possible but now that theres two routes out there why not check it out! Located near the route And Justice for All wich is about a half mile to the east of the Kangaroo. "no name" starts about 15' to the right of And Justice for All. Climb up steep jugs past seven bolts to an anchor.
  Protection: 7 bolts.

 
Killer action shot!
 
Yay! First first ascent!
• "The Bratwurst"  A1 or 5.13?  FA: Tyler Adams & Will Nazarian - Febuary 2011
  Located on the South face of the Kangaroo. Bolted on lead inteded to be a free climb. Could be aided with some beaks but why bother. Super solid stone. Hopefully free soon.
  Protection: 7 bolts.

• "Free Hookers"  5.9  FA: Tyler Adams & Jake Hector - March 2011
  Free Hookers is a free route that crosses my first first ascent at Smith "Loose Hookers" 5.6 A1.  Free Hookers was bolted on lead and is pretty good quality if you looking for a fun, reasonably protected adventure route to the top of the Mudpile. I acctually added a bolt where the routes cross!  Its fun see what I climbed with out bolts when I was such a noob. The start begins about 15' uphill from the start of Loose Hookers. Climb left past two bolts in rotten looking rock continue left and up to another bolt. Head right to a bolt and mantle left into a scoop, climb past another bolt to a low angled slab to a fixed KB. Continue 40' up easy rock to the summit.
  Protecion: 5 bolts, 1 fixed KB.
  
• "Lost Again" 5.10a FA:  Tyler Adams & Alan Watts - March 2011
  I was able to get Alan out of climbing retirement for this off the beaten path route it located on Dissapearing Tower to the East of The Wombat. The route starts on the uphill side. We tryed what we belive to be the original route to the top, when a missing fixed pin created an unprotected boulder move we looked elsewhere. From the uphill saddle I traveresd out onto the South face. A 30' traverse to the right leads to a short but physical overhanging crack. Surmont this crack and gain a large ledge. Place some protection in the obvious crack then traverse right and climb to the summit via the face to the right not using the crack. A classic Smith adventure route.
  Protection: Gear to 3".

Alan Watts on top of Lost Hardware Pinnacle, Dissapearing Tower is to the left.

• Brad Englunds Pecker - "Piolet de Oro" 5.6 A1  FA: Tyler Adams, Bill Amos & Dustin Fric, April 2011
  Brad's Pecker, was named in honor of Brad Englund who has inspired me to just keep doin what I'm doin and love every minnute of it. The pecker is located just north west of the New World Buttress. The pecker is on of the finers summits of Smith. Sure to fall down sometime in the next thousand years, if you took a sledge hammer to it you could have it on the ground by the end of the day. So go get some while its still there. Begin with a rotten mantel to then aid past four bolts to another mantel onto the summit. Figure out how to rappel off the one anchor bolt.

• Angel Flight Buttress - "Call Yer Mom" 5.9   FA: Tyler Adams, Forrest Kaye & Ian Roth, 5/8/2011
          While rapping into replace the bolts on Angel Flight Buttress, I swung over to the left arete and spoted this line. You share one of the same bolts on the Angel Flight Buttress route, but the bolts on Call Yer Mom do not interfere at all with the original Angel Fligh Buttress line. So with this route it adds another fine 5.9  to the cluster of 5.9 over in that area. While dodging intermitent rain squalls we managed to nail the FA on mothers day, hence the name. Thanks Mom!

Forrest on the second ascent.

Ian belays Forrest in a minor drizzle.

Where the Wild Things Are

October of 2009 produced three new routes and two unclimbed pinnacles in the Menagerie.  I got lucky and got to team up with one of my hero's Tom Bauman for the first ascent of The Snake in the Outback area of the Menagerie. Tom is hardcore, he's been doing first ascents in the Menagerie since 1964. He is one of the best ground up choss climbers ever, so this was a privilege to get him out of climbing retirement for a first ascent of an unclimbed pillar that probably had not been seen by a human in twenty years. Tom's memory was a little foggy and he is still not sure if it was the spire he thought he had seen years before, either way it was good enough for me, but out there still, the real Snake may exist. Up next was the first ascent of The Zebra, the last unclimbed spire in the Keith Creek drainage.  Comparable to The Beast in difficulty, I managed to take a thirty foot fall onto a #1 pecker.  Brian's perfect belay kept me from hitting the deck. With adrenaline surging I yarded back up to the pecker and free climbed up to where the sling I was in the process of placing was still hanging off the horn, I hurriedly clipped in hoisted myself up a full body length higher than I'd been before and quickly drilled the most terrifying bolt ever.  With the bolt clipped the danger was eliminated and the summit was reached easily the next day. That climb still lingers sweet. Brian and I also established a minor new route on Boulder Dome, but like many times in the past Tom thinks he may have climbed parts of it during a first ascent thirty years prior. With trails getting cleaned up any many bolts being replaced, The Menagerie is sure to become the next Smith Rock in a few years.

The Snake.

The Zebra

On top of The Zebra.

Jeff Thomas climbs the first pitch of "Dream Boat Annie" on Royal Arch. September 2010

Jeff Thomas climbs the first pitch of "Dream Boat Annie" on Royal Arch. September 2010

The Bridge. Photo: Greg Orton

Mai Hyman, Will Nazarian & Tyler Adams on top of the South Rabbit Ear. Photo: Greg Orton

Morgul Vale

Here is a topo of the Morgul Vale. The second to last bolt on the 6th pitch was moved about 15' to the right, making the route easier to follow and the rope drag not so bad.

Morgal Vale.

Wolf Rock 2010

Wolf Rock stands as the largest monolith in Oregon. So why no one did what we did this year before really blows my mind? During the past year we where able to add about 18 pitches to the South East face of Wolf Rock. With a low snow pack we got things going in early March, kicking it off Chris Fralick and I went up to attempt to finish the third pitch of the Coriolis Effect/Mystery Route and encountered too rotten of rock for a ground up attempt that day. On the ground with the whole lead bolting kit in hand I decided to start up the three bolt abandoned project left of Get Up Stand Up, this went extremely well and resulted in T.R. a three start 10a, with the ease of this route it set the tone for bigger and better things to come. Later in April we bumped into Wayne Arrington, the master of Wolf Rock whom established Coligula, Gigantor, Barad-Dur and Pooh Corner at Wolf back in 70's.  Wayne told us we should go up on Gigantor and add some more bolts and make it climbable. In its current condition it was surely a death route, not attracting any repeats other than Wayne him self. Now I normally wouldn't be too into fully retro bolting old routes but with the blessing of the first ascensionist, being his idea it seemed like a must do. Not even knowing and still not knowing where the actual route went made it basically a first ascent in its own right. So we created the eight pitch 5.9 Morgul Vale aka Gigantor V2.0. The final push to the summit was the last climbable day at Wolf Rock this season, the next day the snow and rains began thus putting a close to the most productive season in Wolf Rocks history.

Routes completed in 2010:
T.R. - 5.10a - one pitch - FA: Tyler Adams & Chris Fralick
Steppen Wolf - 5.7 - two pitches - FA:  Tyler Adams & Chris Fralick
The Underdog - 5.10d - one pitch - FA: Chris Fralick & Tyler Adams
Frog & Chimp -  5.8 - two pitches - FA: Tyler Adams & Bill Amos
Cerberus - 5.10c/d - one pitch - FA: Chris Fralick & Tyler Adams
The Cross Roads variation - one pitch - FA:  Tyler Adams & Jack Maylunas
Morgul Vale - 5.9+ - eight pitches - FA: Chris Fralick & Tyler Adams
Ian's Route - 5.10a - two pitches - FA: Ian Roth & Tyler Adams

Also John Rich, Randy Rimby, Dave Trepp, Peter Fralick, Brian Gilbert, Jake Hector, Jake Ringold and Kirk Winkler all helped out in some way or another.

Wolf Rock on a wet June afternoon.

Chris Fralick on the first ascent of pitch two of Steppen Wolf. 5/23/10

Brian Gilbert on pitch one of Steppen Wolf. 5/30/10

Brian Gilbert rappelling Steppen Wolf. 5/30/10

The South East face from the base. 5/30/10

Wayne Arrington checking in. 6/5/10

Jake Ringold on rappel. 6/5/10

Jake Hector at camp, rain or shine. 6/9/10

The ladies at the base. 6/12/10

John Rich starting up the first pitch of Morgal Vale, while Cathy Power takes a nap. 6/12/10

John Rich on pitch one of The Morgal Vale. 6/12/10

Jake Ringold on belay duty while Cathy Power, Veronica Schmitz & Jake Hector look on. 6/12/10

Foliage. 6/13/10

Peter Fralick on the second ascent of The Underdog. 6/13/10

Ian Roth on the first ascent of the first pitch of Ian's Route. 6/22/10

What the hell? Tyler Adams atop pitch two during the first ascent of Ian's Route. 6/22/10

Fred Spencer following Chris Fralick up Chimp & Frog. 9/25/10

Peter Fralick belays Chris Fralick on pitch three of The Morgul Vale. 10/5/10

Unknown climbers on Barad-Dur. 10/12/10

Unknown climbers on Barad-Dur. 10/12/10

John Rich leaves his mark on pitch five of The Morgul Vale. 10/12/10

Tyler Adams takes over the bolt gun on pitch five of The Morgal Vale. 10/12/10

Chris Fralick on the first ascent of the 140' Cerebrus during final summit push of The Morgul Vale. 11/5/10

Chris Fralick and the junk show during the final push on The Mogal Vale. 11/5/10

The crew up high. 11/5/10

Tyler Adams on pitch five of The Morgal Vale. 11/5/10

Wolf Meadow or Wolf Marsh? 11/5/10

The car. 11/5/10

Chris Fralick launches into the unknown on pitch six of The Morgul Vale. 11/5/10

Chris Fralick walks off the summit after the first ascent of The Morgal Vale. 11/5/10

The masterminds at the base. 11/5/10