Climbing at Smith Rocks in the summertime takes some careful planning, a good strategy and some very persuasive talk to get people to go belay you on your "proj" in 90+ degree heat. Or, that is... it usually does. Famed "get a bunch of people to go climbing" expert Richard Burton managed to get several of us out there last weekend. To get the most out of a hot, dusty day, you need a bit of luck; such as not getting stuck behind a party of 12 on monkey face like Greg, Inga, Kristin and I did. But most of it comes down to planning. You need to:
- Rise early to avoid the heat- well... that's tough when you drink a lot of wine and climb with Tim "rise at the crack o' noon" Gradek
- Climb in the shade- rope-de-dope block and northern point: check
- Take a siesta during the hot afternoon- Below is a pic I shamelessly stole from new climbing buddy Rick. Man I love steelhead falls (sucks they took out the zipline though)
- Climb well into the evening- check
One word of caution though kids. Be careful doing kneebars or you might end up with something like this:
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