Smith Rock and smiling!

One week ago we left Squamish, stopped in Seattle to visit family, and drove to Smith Rock State Park, 40 minutes north of Bend, Oregon. We climbed for six days and today we are catching up with the real world and letting our tendons and skin recover. Smith Rock is known as the birth place of modern sport climbing and is home to some of climbing's most classic and difficult routes. It is characterized by teeny tiny crimpy holds and a rock type called tuff which resembles dried up mud. The cool thing is that the canyon is surrounded by a columnar basalt rim that has an entirely different rock quality, so it's like climbing in two entirely different areas within walking distance of one another. We've been slowly getting used to the climbing here and are excited to spend another week exploring!

The famous seafood stand at Pike Place Market

Classic

A very good climbing hold by Smith Rock standards

super classic- vertical, crimpy and run-out!

beautiful Smith Rock State Park, can't believe it's a desert!

Monkey Face! We'll be climbing it tomorrow.

The other past-time at Smith Rock...high-lining. No, we won't be trying it!

One unexpected aspect of Smith Rock is the weather. At night the temperatures can drop to 40 degrees F, but during the day they skyrocket to the upper 80's in the sun. We spend the day chasing the shade where it's dry and quite cool. At night we pull out our down jackets and hats! Tomorrow we are climbing a famous formation called "monkey face". Check out the picture below!

Last Shabbat we spent time at Chabad of Bend. The community is tiny here, but it is warm and welcoming as always! We plan on returning this week.

Hope everyone is enjoying the last bits of summer! We miss all of our family and friends. Being on the road certainly highlights how important that is to us!