Monkey Face

A few months back my friend Dave and I planned to make a trip out to Smith and go up the Pioneer Route on Monkey Face. After one non-starter weekend we decided to make a go of it on the long weekend. Despite the threat of bad weather and large crowds (3x as many cars in the car park as I'd ever seen before) we made the hike out to the Monkey and surprisingly found only one other party high up on the route. I guess the Smith Rock sport climbers don't like walking. It was on! Dave hadn't been rock climbing for quite a while but because the weather was looming and we had a late start we decided that he'd be able to get a refreshed en route. As usual with the Pioneer route, the A1 pitch is a bit of a PIA but the rest of the route is fantastic and we made it up without any real problems (though certainly not a speed record).