After a solemn phone call from Mark re: weather conditions passed down from Saturday's group the Sunday climbers regeared and headed to Smith sat. evening. A bit dissapointed but excited nonetheless (Many of us would like to reorganize for another Hood climb ANYTIME (mid-week, ect).

Mark, Alex, Josh, Ian, and Tiffany arrived at Smith Sat. evening and spent the night under some Central Oregon rain clouds. Sunday morning came too early, and after a quick gear-up at Redpoint we were at the park and at the bottom of the crags at around 9am.

The weather was off an on, with clouds forming and the wind coming up in the afternoon, climbing in the shade was abit chilly. The first time on outdoor rock Josh and Tiffany took to climbing quickly, with Josh leading Easy Reader (5.6) after only two previous routes. We lost Mark and Alex to the backside around noon, after Ian, Alex and Mark had a humbling experience on Ring of Fire (11d). i finished up with a barefoot climb of Seasonal Effectiveness Disorder,in the gullies (5.10a). There were a lot of people and many a line on the front side, Smith is sure getting busier each year..
Climb on,

 Ian Farquhar

Alex and Marc, after leaving Ian Josh and Tiffany to fight the frontside Smith Rock crowds, headed to the backside and did a bunch of climbs. Alex flashed his hardest lead to date, a wild diahedral that combined with some face climbing to link up a long, gnarly route. Marc forgot the guidebook at home so were not sure of the name of the route but it went mid 5.10 for sure. We met up with Sayfe who was chillin' (literally) on the backside with some friends. They had a very productive day as well, climbing several hard sport climbs and some moderate gear climbs. So a good day was had by all with no thoughts of the nasty weather up on Mount Hood that we would have been climbing in Sunday morning. I'll take a shirts off tanning day at Smith any time over whiteout conditions on the mountain!

Marc Romano

In the mothership loaded and ready to go

Smith rock; more than you can imagine

Late afternoon in the fall; the Smith rock group 

Autumn of 96

Asterisk pass

Mt Jefferson thru the Asterisk pass

Monkey face

Pioneer route on Monkey face

The 5 gallon bucket being climbed by Anthony Sheroda

Chuck Lindsay doing the 10 gallon bucket

The 10 gallon bucket filled with  OMC members

Marc Romano doing his thing on the 5 gallon bucket