Funny stories, friends, and a lot of pictures

We're now two weeks into our stint at Smith Rock and things are going awesome! We've got friends in town, an awesome place to stay, and some sweet projects. But before I get to that, a quick story from our first night at the Smith campground. So, Mark and I pulled into the campground around 5:30 pm after 11 hours of driving, ready for some food and sleep.  In the shuffle of getting gear out of the truck and getting everything set up, I set my iphone down on the tailgate of the truck.  Once we had made dinner, and felt more or less settled in, I realized that I could not find my phone.  Thus, we tore apart the car, and the tent, but still couldn't it.  So, as a last ditch effort (at this point I was convinced somebody had swiped it) I called up my Mom and asked her to use the Find My iPhone app.  (Which if you are unfamiliar with, can track your phone, and make it play a sound even if it is on silent.)  So my Mom played the sound for a good fifteen minutes, but still no luck.  Just as we were about to give up, Mark noticed some guy looking at the nearest trashcan very inquisitively.  He said he heard some electronic noise. A glimmer of hope! We started searching the trashcan; sure enough, my phone was sitting inside the Vons bag we had used as our trash-bag for the evening. It must have gotten knocked in during the shuffle of cleaning up. Sort of a high stress start to the trip, but it all worked out for the best in the end.


On a similar note, Mark and I drained the truck battery the other day.  We were parked in an awkward corner spot, so it took quite a bit of effort to get a jump; but we finally made it happen with the help of some generous strangers.  We moved on and vowed to not charge electronics when the car was not running.  Fast forward less than 24 hours.  Mark and I decided to hang out in Bend for the day to wait for our friends Greg and Alix to show up.  We grabbed some dollar ice cream cones from McDonald's and sat in the parking lot using their wifi.  We figured this was a good time to charge the iPhone, iPad, another cell phone, listen to the radio, run the AC, and keep the headlights on.  About 45 minutes into this I had an "oh crap" moment and big surprise, the battery was dead, again.  Luckily Greg and Alix were almost to Bend, so they gave us a jump with the added ambience of thunder, lightning, and hail raging in the background.  #welearnthehardway

Other than those mishaps, everything has been going really smoothly. The biggest event to happen in the last week was definitely our departure from the bivy, and our arrival at Greg's Mom's house in Bend.  We are beyond thankful to be staying here.  The house is gorgeous, the view is awesome, and we are just really psyched to be here.  Plus we got a home cooked meal tonight from Greg's mom!  I should also mention that we are on a golf course and Greg and Mark have already started getting in some holes after climbing.  Check out their golf attire!

On Monday, the four of us went out to Smith, warmed up in the sun, then proceeded to get worked!  Let me back up first though.  Greg is a longtime friend of both Mark and I, and is going to be climbing in more or less the same places as we are until the end of summer.  Greg is awesome, he crushes, and we are excited he is finally up here.  This summer, Greg is travelling with Alix, who he met last summer in Squamish.  Alix crushes, especially in Yosemite where she has done several big walls this season!  That is by no means the only type of climbing she does, but I am more or less hung up on it because it is awesome.  Climbing El Cap is a dream of mine, so the fact that she has done El Cap twice, and in great style, is super impressive.  It is also awesome to have another girl along to climb with and project climbs with.  

Okay, so back to climbing.  After we warmed up in the sun, we moved onto the Dihedrals and I got on my project.  Right now I am working on Latin Lover (12a).  The climbing is thin and technical, and everything I wanted in a Smith face climb.  So far I have all the moves figured out and I two-hung it yesterday!  I am not sure if I will get it clean before we leave but it would be awesome if I do.  If not, the climbing is fun and it is the first 12 I have ever tried to lead, so I feel pretty accomplished just having made it to the anchors by myself.  I think it is inherently pretty hard not to get hung up on a project so I am trying to not get too tunnel visioned on it, but I still want to give it some full hearted goes. Mark and Greg both sent Latin Lover that day (Greg flashed!) and Alix took it to the anchor on TR her first day at Smith!  All three of them got me even more motivated to try hard on it.

We also got on Heinous Cling which is an ultra-classic 12a in the Dihedrals (we only climbed to the first set of anchors, which is 12a, whereas the full line goes at 12c).  I got on it on top rope and got pretty shut down.  That said, it is a really cool climb, but I don't think I am going to project it.  Mark sent it second go!  Two 12's in one day!  (Have I mentioned that Mark is crushing?!)  He has some exciting projects but I will leave that up to him to fill you in on.

Here is Mark on Heinous Cling, sorry about the less than stellar phone pictures, but at least I was finally able to get some pictures of him climbing!

We left Smith that day pretty dang worked, and it was obvious that we were all pretty tired when there was absolute silence when we finally sat down to eat dinner.

Today, we headed out despite an iffy forecast and still got some great climbing in.  Alix led Chicken McNuggets (10b), onsight!  I think the climb is really hard down low and I was super impressed.   After that, Alix and I got on Vomit Launch (11b).  There was a stick clip left at the base which was really convenient since the first clip on Vomit Launch is pretty scary.  Smith is pretty notorious for high first bolts and stick clipping the first bolt is a pretty common practice to prevent hitting the ground if you  fall before clipping the first bolt.

I know I talked about Vomit Launch a lot in the last post so I will just say that the climbing is still amazing.  Here are some pictures of Alix on Chicken McNuggets, me struggling with the stick clip, and some pictures of me on Vomit Launch.  There are a lot but since we finally have other people to climb with and are able to get some climbing pictures I just couldn't narrow it down!

I'll try to post more regularly, so the posts won't be so long in the future.  Also, I think I have made the album with all of the pictures set up so you don't have to sign up.  Or at least I think so...let me know if this new link is any different than what I tried last time. https://plus.google.com/photos/101111521267452402944/albums/5886093434377638865?authkey=CPv0zMDLs9WTFA

Until next time,
xoxo Lauren and Mark