The loose game plan was to climb a day and ride a day. Saturday was our day to climb so we got got moving and put a plan together: The Zoo. The crux for the approach was to determine whether to go via Skull Hollow or via the regular Smith 'trade route'. We opted for skull hollow as the hike up and over Burma road was brutal.
Time wise, it was probably about the same to go via Skull Hollow or the Smith side. The Skull Hollow was a better option as the hike in was mellower and more importantly it was away from the hordes of people.
After a nice hour long approach with amazing views, we descended into the drainage were the Zoo sits. We opted for a nice mellow 5.8 to start with. It had been a while since either of us had been on real stone so we wanted to find our groover and flow before jumping on anything more demanding.
It felt a little awkward at first but I tried to remind myself of how that seems to be typical for me on many first climbs of the day, and somehow I always seem to overthink the easy stuff. Perhaps because the mind has the opportunity to wander a little?
We did a quick lap on the warm up and then moved over towards the platform where we did a couple more routes. We stepped up the grade each time and somehow managed to keep climbing without falling. There was only 1 other party there so it was very different feel than what we predicted was playing out at Smith proper where people were probably waiting in lines to jump on the stone.
It was a 4 route day - not a ton of routes but probably about the limit for us considering we had a nice long 1 hour hike out back to the car. It felt good to get back on stone and it also felt good to force the body to work hard and also get the lead head back on outside.
Overall, it was a really pleasant day on steep stone at Smith...yes, I said steep stone at Smith!
gimme gimme!
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