Smith Rock Climbing Guides — Local services in Redmond

Great Adventure! My family and I visited Bend in June. Months ahead of time I booked a 1/2 day private climb. We headed out at 2pm to benefit from shaded climb areas. We returned around 6pm. We brought a backpack with a water bladder and 4-5 additional large water bottles. I also brought energy bars, nuts and jerky for snacks.

Now for the climbing....Alex had a great easy going personality. He gave guidance, but not so much that it was overwhelming. We all got to climb and belay. This climbing is the real deal - Exactly what I was looking for. The first route we all climbed and belayed one another. Someone in our party was extremely frightened of heights. She gave it the ole college try and climbed a portion of the route-no pressure. The 2nd climb was a crack climb -me and my son completed. My boyfriend, who turns out is a good belayer, made this his main job the rest of the day. The 3rd climb was a chimney climb-basically climbing within a crack/walls of 2 rocks. My son and I did this climb. Last, my son, did a pretty difficult crack climb.

Booking the climb was easy. No issues. Alex, our guide motivated us to challenge ourselves within our skill level and we were all comfortable spending the afternoon with him.

We are outdoor climbing novices. Our previous climbing experiences minimal. All of us had some indoor and/or outdoor experience. Being a novice isn't really an issue. However, don't head out on this adventure if you have no fitness endurance and u think it just sounds cool. There is also a little hike to get to the climb...

The whole process of dealing with Smith Rock Climbing Guides was completely awesome. From the initial contact to working with David to schedule changes, everything worked out great. We got to the parking lot at Smith Rock State Park and we were very excited to get going. Derrick was our guide that day and he did an awesome job dealing not only with four different personalities but also bringing us to a spot that gave him a chance to evaluate our varying climbing abilities . Derrick did an awesome job keeping us in the shade all day and picking routes that allowed the two better climbers a challenge and provided the lesser climbers the ability to be challenged but also still complete routes. One of the things that really caught me off guard was the fact that Derrick pushed us to do the right thing every time climbing and pushed us to get better. He made sure that if we stopped to take a break we started at the same spot, there was no cheating and I really appreciate the fact that he genuinely cared about our climbing experience that day while still contributing to our overall climbing abilities. Finally I can't recommend Smith Rock Climbing Guides enough. We are already planning another trip out and will definitely be utilizing their...

The guide service was okay and our guide was nice. However, I got a grade III ankle sprain on a practice fall that takes months to recover. We read about best sport climbing safety practices after the trip we think the instruction missed some important details. I think the safety standards and level of instruction are oriented towards experienced people and not lead climbing novices. Otherwise I would give 5 stars because everything else went well.

----------- Response to owner response

Hi David, thanks for the reply. I respectfully disagree that the injury was nobody's fault. I was at some fault for poor falling technique which greatly increased the chance of injury, while instrustors are supposed to point out technique errors before they lead to injury, not after. They should also accurately assess and mitigate risk, since that particular route was slabby where poor technique could lead to injury. I don't want to hurt your bussiness, and I think it is a great business with a good reputation in the climbing community. However given the severity of the injury, I believe an appropriate response should be reflection of what went wrong and promise of future...