This is a long post… In between some of the ACC outings, I went to Smith Rock for the first time, to climb with some friends! The drive from Seattle to Redmond, Oregon, is loooong one, so we left Friday night and got some pretty views along I-5.

One more shot before it got dark

We stayed in Portland that night, and got going the next morning. I had never been this far south in Oregon, and it was pretty neat

We eventually got to Smith, and started climbing! Lillian got her first leads in! Abbie crushed her routes

Also, Smith is just gorgeous

Sunset photo shoot!

Two weeks later, ACC headed down to Smith for the first trad lead outing. We would spend the first day following, and the second day leading on our own gear 

I had a busy week of work leading up to the weekend, and didn’t want to deal with the drive, so I decided to use some gift cards and fly into Redmond airport

I got paired with Aaron, who I actually went to college with. Small world!

We ran into Genna and Sasha on their route

Genna on P2

Anchor shenanigans

Sasha following and cleaning

The views!

Andrew on some crazy hard route

Teachin’ the kids?!

The next day, I was up to lead stuff with Aaron. Here’s my first ever trad lead!!!

^Lycopodophyta

It started to get super crowded, so we jumped on 2-pitch sport route, Bunny Face

We went to the Red Wall wall afterwards; to find some shade, and I led P1 of Super Slab and Let’s Face It. After that, we called it a day, and we all left for Seattle.

My return flight wasn’t for a few hours, so I grabbed dinner and eventually made my way to the airport

The views along the way were spectacular

Don’t know what this is, but that summit block is gnarly

Another neat peak

dat ridgeline

Tacoma!

The Olympics!

Also, along the way, were two trips to Squamish. One was for ACC, to lead a bunch of stuff over a weekend, and another was a trip with friends over Memorial Day.

For the ACC outing, I led a bunch of stuff around the Smoke Bluffs the first day, and led the South Arete of the Apron the following day

I didn’t take many photos, except for this one at the top of the apron, where Genna and Aaron topped out as we were packing up our gear

Over Memorial Day weekend, we had to compete with rain. On the one clear day we had, we ventured off to Murrin Park, and got some leads in over there. The views from the top of the climbs were pretty great

Michael leading Wicker Cranium

Diana working on A Little Testis, which was a great pitch of climbing

With all the skills and cragging outings complete, the next outings will be actual alpine climbs!