Smith Rock Route Development Fund
Donation protected
Hi my name Chris Hatzai and I’m a local climber and route developer at Smith Rock State Park. Last year I made a gofundme page, and to my surprise, it actually generated some money. Through the online fund and hand given donations, I was able to raise close to $700. From that money over 200 bolts were purchased. From those 200+ bolts, 4 new routes were established on Puddy’s Tower and 4 new routes were established up in the Marsupials area.
As the 2018 climbing season rolls into Central Oregon, it would be great to keep the momentum rolling on new route development. As this will be my 4th year establishing routes at the park, it seems the FA bug has spread. Alex Reed’s Capacity Tenacity 12c and Mike Mejaski’s Star Crunch 11c are just a couple of the new quality lines established on Puddy’s Tower in the Monument area. Having this been the first time either of them had developed a climbing route, their hard work and persistance totally paid off. It’s evident every time you pull onto Star Crunch and Capacity Tenacity how good the quality of the routes really are. This is just the start for these two; it seems the whole experience of discovery, projecting and establishing routes have left them only wanting more.
With this new roster set, all the lines we have scouted out over the years are starting to come to fruition. We’re not just gunning for the hardest routes possible either, easy-moderate routes with high quality rock are being sought out as well. Along with new route development, we have also been implementing a more new school philosophy to our bolt spacing. While trying to keep to the roots of Smith Rock, since the rock we are starting to explore at times seems quite featured, more bolts have also been added to these routes to accommodate for these features. We are trying to create a fun, exciting, but also safe experience for everyone. With that said, we’ll space em’ it out if we can, but if it isn’t safe, we aren’t going to.
We’ve got almost too many lines plotted out, the only thing left to do is bolt them all. But first we’re going to need a lot of hardware. This is where you, the climber/user of the park, can help support our route construction endeavors. It’s a lot of work that we enjoy to carry out, but the finanical costs of developing tends to leave the pockets of simple rock climbers pretty broke. Sometimes construction efforts can be held up or haulted because one of us is needing to wait to get paid again before purchasing more hardware to finish our respective lines.
So on behalf of Mike, Alex and myself, I’m reaching out to the climbing community asking to help support our cause and to keep fueling our addiction of developing routes. With it being a pretty expensive hobby, each route on average costs 50-$100 (w/ no fixed gear.) It would be great to be able to share some of this financial burden with the community. If we are able to raise anything close to what we raised last year, we can at least bank on 4 more routes being installed in 2018!
Thank you for taking the time to read about our story and please share this on social media if you don’t mind :)
Here are a few links to the walls and routes established so far. Thanks again and climb on!
https://www.mountainproject.com/area/111226570/the-hank-collins-memorial-wall
https://www.mountainproject.com/area/113289846/4-puddys-tower
https://www.mountainproject.com/route/114024060/sharing-is-caring
http://bendrockgym.com/2018/01/30/smith-rock-development/
As the 2018 climbing season rolls into Central Oregon, it would be great to keep the momentum rolling on new route development. As this will be my 4th year establishing routes at the park, it seems the FA bug has spread. Alex Reed’s Capacity Tenacity 12c and Mike Mejaski’s Star Crunch 11c are just a couple of the new quality lines established on Puddy’s Tower in the Monument area. Having this been the first time either of them had developed a climbing route, their hard work and persistance totally paid off. It’s evident every time you pull onto Star Crunch and Capacity Tenacity how good the quality of the routes really are. This is just the start for these two; it seems the whole experience of discovery, projecting and establishing routes have left them only wanting more.
With this new roster set, all the lines we have scouted out over the years are starting to come to fruition. We’re not just gunning for the hardest routes possible either, easy-moderate routes with high quality rock are being sought out as well. Along with new route development, we have also been implementing a more new school philosophy to our bolt spacing. While trying to keep to the roots of Smith Rock, since the rock we are starting to explore at times seems quite featured, more bolts have also been added to these routes to accommodate for these features. We are trying to create a fun, exciting, but also safe experience for everyone. With that said, we’ll space em’ it out if we can, but if it isn’t safe, we aren’t going to.
We’ve got almost too many lines plotted out, the only thing left to do is bolt them all. But first we’re going to need a lot of hardware. This is where you, the climber/user of the park, can help support our route construction endeavors. It’s a lot of work that we enjoy to carry out, but the finanical costs of developing tends to leave the pockets of simple rock climbers pretty broke. Sometimes construction efforts can be held up or haulted because one of us is needing to wait to get paid again before purchasing more hardware to finish our respective lines.
So on behalf of Mike, Alex and myself, I’m reaching out to the climbing community asking to help support our cause and to keep fueling our addiction of developing routes. With it being a pretty expensive hobby, each route on average costs 50-$100 (w/ no fixed gear.) It would be great to be able to share some of this financial burden with the community. If we are able to raise anything close to what we raised last year, we can at least bank on 4 more routes being installed in 2018!
Thank you for taking the time to read about our story and please share this on social media if you don’t mind :)
Here are a few links to the walls and routes established so far. Thanks again and climb on!
https://www.mountainproject.com/area/111226570/the-hank-collins-memorial-wall
https://www.mountainproject.com/area/113289846/4-puddys-tower
https://www.mountainproject.com/route/114024060/sharing-is-caring
http://bendrockgym.com/2018/01/30/smith-rock-development/
Organizer
Chris Hatzai
Organizer
Bend, OR
