Super Slab

 

 

 

 

5.6 ****

 

Trad Three Pitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super Slab is a fantastic, easy multi-pitch climb that anyone who climbs can use to get some mileage, a bit of exposure and some fast moving through easy crack.  I usually bleed a lot when I do this climb, but I bleed a lot no matter what.  We call this my blood tax.  The rock dmands it.  It demands it like a pig needs slop.

As you move through the first pitch, ledges inter-mixed with a few slightly verticle face and crack stretches, you can really take your time to enjoy yourself with very little physical exertion.  If a challenge is what you are looking for, move onto something else.

It is a fun climb, one in which you get to stop, rest and smell the rat shit.

I have lead and cleaned this route and I can't decide which I have more fun.  I think leading gives you that further feeling of independence.

I do know this has tended to be a great start for people breaking into free-soloing.  I wouldn't know myself.  I don't have the head for it.  There are a thousand reasons to not free-solo and I am sure there are most people who can't really think of a single reason, but free-soloing has a world that seems as perilous as setting yourself on fire, running in front of a tank to yell racial epithats at the driver while showing naked pictures of the tank commander's mother.

 

The concepts of free-soloing are wrapped within each individual who does it.  No one gets to understand it except for the person who does it.  In the bhuddist world this would be known as enlightenment. 

The other fun part about climbing Super Slab is you get to climb just above the Misery Ridge Trail and across the Crooked River Canyon to a back parking lot.  This is the main trail around Smith Rock.  People drive out to Smith Rocks in the droves.  They hike down into the canyon and then up the switch backs of the Picnic Lunch wall, sweating, puffing, huffing and having less oxygen in their lungs than the moon Io.  They wander down the trail and then hear you climbing and clinking up the route.  They stop and gape up the cliff, wondering what the hell and why the hell you are doing what you are doing.

The top of the first pitch is a great place to sit and look out onto the "other" side of smith.  You get to hear the roar of the river down below you and watch the buzzards and tasty pigeons catching the updrafts above and all around you.  I have had more than a few tasty pigeons scare the crap out of me flying out of the crack as I startle them.  The nasty cracking of their wings wakes you up from your leisure stroll up the climb.

The second pitch is a fifth class scramble along a ledge.  The drop isn't that bad, but it has little to no protection.  There is a single pocket you can place a cam in and a small flake for a smaller nut.  Neither on really makes you feel very good.  I don't know of anyone who has had to test either of these placements, but a fall isn't going to make your day.  There is a sandy ledge down below that is going hurt.  It's not hard, but it does get your heart going a little bit.

The crown jewel of Super Slab is it's fantastic last pitch.  It has exposure that you don't get on either the first two pitchs and the actual difficulty of a 5.6 climb.  Neither of the other two pitches really makes you have to work at it at all, this one makes you really have to do some climbing, not hard climbing, just real climbing.  The crack widens out, but you always have face holds that will get you up the cliff.  The top-out is the only real verticle slot on the entire climb.  Two parallel cracks open up forming a red, rough oblisque you can grab either side of.  The protection needs to be around 3" so keep your bigger stuff for the top of the pitch.

You get a choice at this point, a double rope rappel or the Gully of Death.  So if you don't really like Gully's of Death, bring an extra rope along with you.  A simple hint: Do not drop the rappel down the middle of the route.  Be courteous.  The Gully of Death is a simple hike out walking along the side of a gully that spills out of the top of the Picnic Lunch wall.  The problem is that it slopes down at a grade that makes you think you could roll out of the gully with enough momentum.  You won't, it just makes you think it a bit.  Right at the top of the gully you get to climb a small wall with some exposed, unprotected moves to get you up it.  As you climb, every time you look over your shoulder and get to see the gully spill out to a two hundred foot drop.  Pretty but not a great confidence builder.