In the course of four glorious days of climbing at Smith Rock, I successfully climbed several moderate routes. I would highly recommend these routes for a beginning leader. What follows are some brief descriptions, listed by order of difficulty, as well as some lessons learned, .
Left Slab Crack (5.4 Trad)
Chris and I broke this lead [...]
All the tedious lectures and meticulous preparation came down to this: three weekends of climbing at Smith Rock, a climber’s paradise. In the 6 days of climbing we were required to get three evaluations. Much to my dismay, I had to kill the first day re-testing on some of the skills that I had failed [...]
The Mazamas Advanced Rock class is designed to keep you off the rock for as long as possible. Leading rock climbs is serious business, and safety is the Mazamas’ (as well as my own) number one concern. Week after week, I would sit through lectures on topics such as: gear placement, building anchors, rock rescue, [...]
I still can’t believe it’s over. About three months ago, I walked out of my first Advanced Rock lecture filled with fear and disbelief that I was actually going to take on the task of trad leading. I had just barely begun trying some easy leads in the safety of the rock gym and I [...]