Spam from Monkey Face

Particulars
The Pioneer Route, Monkey Face, Smith Rock, Oregon

Difficulty: this route is rated 5.7 A0 and is only five pitches long. Only one short pitch is 5.7 but it is one of the most frightening things I have ever done. Getting off of this thing requires a really long free rappel. I find these things scary also. I can’t help from thinking, “If my rope breaks, or my harness, or my belay devise, I will go splat and have about 3.4 seconds to think about it while I free fall first.” Of course, the ropes, harnesses, and belay devises are designed to never fail. If they do (in the USA anyway), many lawsuits get filed and fortunes change hands. Just ask Ivon Chounard if you don’t believe me.

Appeal: some people like getting the shit scared out of themselves.
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Spam
I set out to do this with Will, Dave, and Isaac. My fiancé at the time came along to watch. She had accompanied Will and I on a previous attempt. She is a quicker study than Will and I. Dave suffered from poor judgment (he accompanied me on other climbs later) and Isaac from inexperience. We all made it up to the Bohn Street ledge without any difficulty. There is a good place to bail from this ledge. None of us had the good sense to do so. Isaac and Dave set off up the bolt ladder above and Will and I sat and waited. Neither of us was able to think of a good excuse to go home. When it came to our turn, Will led up the bolt ladder to the cave. The bolt ladder consists of expansion bolts placed in holes drilled in the rock about every three feet or so. Each bolt has a bolt hanger attached to it. To climb it, you use a pair of little ladders made of nylon webbing called aiders or etriers which you clip to the bolt hangers. The pioneer route sees a lot of traffic. I don’t know how long the bolts have been there and I don’t know how many climbers have used them. I do know that most of them are loose and some of them are so loose that you could pluck them out with your little finger. No one does. Everyone wishes them to stay in place. Somehow they do. I think.

Once Will and I made it into the cave, we had to wait on Dave and Isaac again. Hanging out in the cave is not that much fun. The floor is slopey and polished. You can’t stand. If you drop anything it will skitter over the edge and be lost to you forever. There are, at least, plenty of bolt hangers on the floor of the cave and I clipped into one of these to enhance my safety as we waited for Dave and Isaac to get up their courage and get out of the cave.

The 5.7 pitch above is called Panic Point. To lead this, you go to the edge of the cave and clip a quick draw to the highest bolt hanger you can reach, clip your rope to that, reach up and find hand holds, squirm your body around so you face the rock and climb on up. It doesn’t matter if you look down or not. Nothing can block the image of the 500 feet of space between you and the ground at that point. You know it is there whether you look at it or not. You would think that all the adrenaline that this must generate would make your hand feel stronger. It doesn’t. You feel weak as a kitten and this 5.7 might as well be a 5.14. After the panic passes, get on up there. Once past this, there was only a little more easier rock to the top.

The decent consist of two raps. The first takes you over the cave – watch out that you don’t hit your head. The second is a long free rappel that brings you back near the starting point. The Springboard is an over hanging lip on the opposite face from the cave. It is an excellent vantage point to watch the entire climb and decent. The wiser members of your party will hang out here.
Logistics
Smith Rock is an Oregon state park and features tent camping. It is also possible to find a cabin to rent in the neighborhood. Terrebone, Oregon is the closest town and you can find breakfast, dinner, or a cold beer there. Bend is the nearest place with an airport and Horizon Airlines flies here from Portland, Oregon. Alternately, you can drive from Portland in about three hours.

The Pioneer Route along with many other great climbs are cataloged in Climber’s Guide to Smith Rock by Alan Watts. The book is pretty hefty and it is likely that you will find lots of great climbing here.