Eaten by the Monkey’s Face!

Well, we weren’t eaten. But there was indeed a Monkey Face! That’s the name of THE rock tower at Smith Rock. The day before, we could already admire it from far away. It’s really shaped like a monkey’s face and a prominent, solitary standing tower with smooth, steep walls on every side – such a sexy peak! Most of the routes to the top are pretty hard, but there was a chance for us. A good easy route is the Pioneer Route, 5.7 A1, involving some aid climbing. The only problem: you need two 60m ropes to get down. We just had one. Well, because it was weekend and a lot of people were pooling at the campground, we thought we could sure find someone who will do it as well so we could rappel together. In the evening, we talked to a lot, but either they weren’t climbers or had other plans or didn’t want to do it. Not as easy as we thought… But it ain’t over till the fat lady sings (such a great expression, I had to use it again)! The next morning, we tried again and after a couple of noes, I gave up hope. But Philipp didn’t – and we indeed found another couple willing to join us! Nate and Natalie neither knew anything about the route nor had much experience regarding multi-pitches, so we explained our plans in detail. We were really happy they were still up for it. So, we quickly made our way to Monkey Face. Standing in front of it does make you think how it could be possible to climb that for 5.7… But we did it and it was simply AWESOME! First, there are some nice, easy pitches to a ledge where you’re already up high with much exposure. Then follows the strenuous aid pitch, where we pulled ourselves from bolt to bolt. Sometimes they’re further away than you want them to, and the wall gets steeper and steeper until it becomes slightly overhanging. Philipp did a great job leading that. You end up in a large cave, the monkey’s mouth - fortunately, it didn’t bite. After that, I led the pitch to the monkey’s nose, which was really fun. You exit the cave by an airy traverse on the wall, and instantly you’ve got a 50m deep abyss underneath yourself. No wonder it’s called “panic point”. On the summit, we all were really happy and relaxed a bit in the sun. But climbing up actually wasn’t the highlight of the day. It was a 50 m long, completely overhanging rappel. Wow! Even Philipp and me, used to rappelling, got a tingling feeling in our tummy. After all, it was such a great day and we were happy to get to know such lovely people. We can only admire Nate and Natalie for being so brave to climb such a route, unexpectedly, with complete strangers. We’re really thankful they joined us on this amazing adventure!

Click to watch video of aid pitch and the amazing rappel