Smith Rocks

After our climbing session last night, i've finally kicked into enjoying Smith Rocks ... not that i wasn't enjoying it before but it felt like i had to work at it, we were getting up before dawn and heading in to climb and having to stop when it got too blisteringly hot in the sun but yesterday we decided to wait till the afternoon and that made all the difference. Climbing in the shade and having a nice warm breeze that wasn't getting any hotter was what i'd been looking for, plus we had a cool adventure which, i guess felt like one of our first proper multipitch adventures. It was only a 2 pitch climb but Ula wanted to lead the first trad pitch, a 3 star crack climb up a thin ramp, and i finished on the second pitch, which was a 4 star sport climb that was pretty easy but had some amazing exposure along an arete ... i think they'd added a grade just for the position.
Out first couple of days here were actually spent as rest days about 1.5 hours from Smith Rocks at a place called Elk lake, up in the mountains. We spent the time just hanging out, slacklining, swimming and eating before heading back down to the heat of the valley ... there are alot of rivers around Smith Rock but they're not in great condition for swimming. We have another climb planned for tonight, which i'm pretty excited for ... a 3 pitch 5.10b that looks fantastic, hopefully a good report coming