The fall brings great temperatures, great friction, and big sends! The only bad part about the autumn are the crowds in "the park" as we call it. When the people venture from their dark, dirty cities and come out to enjoy our backyard, we try and find the "special" spots, and this past Sunday we found one. Venturing about an hour from the car, we set off on our approach to the backside of Smith Rock State Park to a 5 pitch route called Wherever I May Roam (5.9 II) 400'. It's completely bolted, and we stretched it into a few hours. The climbing was good, and the positioning and exposure were great! Although not difficult, it was nice to get up off the ground and climb a route that we had yet to do. That, and this was one of Katy's hardest multi-pitch climbs to date. Granted she climbs 5.12 single pitch climbs, but multi-pitch brings a whole new dimension to her mental game.
"My goal is to have photos on multi-pitch climbs where I'm actually smiling." Katy told me before we got on the route. This one made her frown for a few pitches, but after a nicely exposed arete, she confessed that the fear makes her somewhat excited to do longer, harder routes.
"We're working on it [the fear]." Said Katy at the top.
