An excellent and difficult stemming/pressing problem up a right-facing, 90-degree corner. Somewhat relentless with a definite crux at mid-height, you’ll find lots of stances, but upwards progress is not so easy.

Starkist

Black Nails

Virtual Beach

Blind Dogs Need Bones Too

Chillin’ in the Penzo

Mojomatic

Natural Art

Unique Monique

Colorsplash

Just Do It

Approach Gully

Celibate Wives

E-Type Jag

[Redacted]

Land of the Lost

Drepane

Special Effects

Empty-Headed Hound

Bushwhacker

Conflicted Goddess

Yellow Fin

The Urge

Naxis

E-Type Shag

Atlas Shrugged

Up Country

Pink Primitive

Shark Infested Waters

Tomb of Love

Big Tuna

The Seep

The Sign Of The Priest

Hail Mary

This excellent stembox makes for a great warmup: Tightly bolted and fairly easy climbing for most of its length with a harder section culminating in a brief crux at about two-thirds height. Very enjoyable - the only detractor is it can be a bit sandy but this would surely improve with more traffic.

Stemming and face climbing with a “nails”-hard crux moving off a jug at mid-height. The route culminates with a fun and improbable pull around a triangular roof.

A worthwhile route and a good warmup.Begin by scrambling up and right across terraced ledges until about 20’ off the ground. Reach left to clip the first bolt and enter into a wide stem. Continue stemming and face climbing up to a ledge and shared anchor.

One of the best basalt routes in Oregon. 

Excellent arete and face moves; a classic basalt line.

Amazing stemming...long reaches between good holds.   The moves are well protected by bolts and fun. A good warm up for Upper Gorge climbers, a good project for mortals. 

  Being tall helps on this route as the stems in this shallow stem box are wide and the reaches are long.

Right of Naxis and left of Up Country, the left facing corner also includes face and arete moves and a cool bulge at the top on the usual excellent rock.

Pretty much the only column joint wide enough to crack climb in this section of the Upper.  A superb and physically demanding old school crack splits a sea of modern face climbs.

The *other* Just Do It. Unfortunately this one is of lesser renown and quality, and is nearly as unattainable considering it requires the audacity and ambition to actually carry a rack to the Upper Gorge. It is, however, a decent climb and a suitable warmup for Colorsplash and Hail Mary (both of which are excellent).See location details. Climb the right side of a 20' high stubby pillar to a large ledge, then climb the crack on the left to an anchor. Above a good rest at mid-height is a crux that is easier than it appears from below.

I'm noting the approach gully here as an organizational aide; it breaks the Upper Gorge into two sections. The Urge and Shark Infested Waters, etc, are all downstream to the west. The Seep, E-Type, Mojomatic, etc. are all upstream to the east.Depending on water levels and how overgrown the base is, dropping in here may be the best and/or only approach.

A fun "innie", Celibate Wives gets going right off the ground.  The real crux hits around the 4th bolt with multiple ways to attack the tough moves.  Commit to going left or right then you're rewarded with a great rest.  From here there is one more semi-crux sequence guarding the last bolt, but the challenge is from holding it all together.

Sweet jug haul through big roof!   Start with a pocketed arete up to a roof.   Swing out on jugs, race for the anchor.

This stellar arete climb is likely the most attainable of the Upper Gorge 5.13s.  If you're looking to round-out your resume with something hard from the Upper Gorge, this is the route for you.  With five known ascents, this is by far the most popular 5.13 in the gorge, and is only slightly harder than The Urge, but less technical.

A route for those who carry a rack to the Upper Gorge...it doesn't see much traffic. 

  Climb the clean crack above a pedestal that goes from good hands to fingers near the top. Step left on the ledge to a bolted anchor. 

  The route is easily identified by the perfectly circular soft ball sized hole at the start of the route on top of the pedestal.

A good route broken into two parts by a big ledge. Difficult moves up the initial corner leads to a ledge. Move right past a pointless chain anchor (straight up is the continuation of “Six Hits of Sunshine” - these two routes cross each other at the ledge), tiptoe up to make a clip, and continue stemming to a final runout to an anchor out left.

Another engaging sport climb in the Upper Gorge.  Tricky movement from bottom to top, but the meat of the climbing is in the middle as you pass through stems, liebacks, and steeper moves. 

 Initially this climb ended before pulling the overhang, but early on it was routed up and left.  The finish isn’t the hardest section, with big holds behind a block that seems very nebulously attached to the rest of the cliff.  This anchor is also hard to clean from. I balked here the second time I tried but my friend Forrest kicked the block on rappel and it seemed solid. If you’d like to finish the original method, traverse over to the Urge/Color Splash anchor. 

Begin with some awkward stemming to a roof, pull the roof (bolt over the lip with an upside-down hanger) on the left, and continue up easier ground to a high anchor.

This is a fun stemming problem a few climbs down from E-Type Jag.  It's a little crumbly because of so few ascents but would clean up nicely if the Upper Gorge saw more traffic.

Start in a little alcove just to the right of the E Type start.  After getting established a tricky palming move gets you to some good crack holds. Good luck trying to fit your right hands into the crack, and holding on to the arete on the left.  A fun crank from the ringlock crack to a good hold gives you a little respite. The second crux is more of the same, tiiny holds in the crack and ripples around the corner.  Then, without any respite, set up for a big deadpoint. 

  Like the Urge, expect this to feel plenty hard for the grade.  Its worth noting that pretty much all of Frizzel's testpeice's  in this grade range have been upgraded.

Yellow Fin may look a little scrappy at first glance, but closer inspection reveals a true gem. The rock is mostly great, the movement wonderfully varied, and the positions wild.  After a brief stint on straightforward holds at the bottom, you're quickly forced into compression between the two aretes. I'm 5'9" with a plus 2 and was just able to make the spans.  This section would be harder and likely more frustrating with a much shorter reach  After an optional shake around to the right, wrestle through a few more bolts of compression before a wild palming sequence to get established in the hanging corner.  Quickly turn the arete to the right and surf up fun in-cuts to the final roof looming above.  Execute a wild hanging mantle onto the slab and crimp your way to chains and glory up and to the right.

This is another basalt ultra-classic that mysteriously receives a sandbag split-grade in the guidebook.  As if there were any doubt this was at least 12d!  Unless you're a honed basalt master, this will probably feel like 5.13.  Perhaps the sandbag is due to the fact that the route is relatively easy most of the way, with a sinister double crux between the 3rd & 4th bolts.

One of the best moderate sport lines on Basalt in Smith.  Start by soloing a little pedestal, clip a bolt and enjoy the fun sequences, stem, crimp, jug, repeat!  You can top rope 4 5.12s off this route too!  At the top you can go up/right or left. 

A great route that shares its first two thirds with the classic E-Type Jag up the pocketed arete, then steps left to the obvious pillar for a rest. From here, continue straight up the large left-facing corner above, avoiding Jag's big roof via a smaller one. Finally step back right to Jag's anchor.According to comments on the E-Type Jag description, this variation (also known as X-Type Jag?) was also put up by Jeff Frizzell, a decade later, supposedly to provide an easier option for those that were "cheating" through the direct roof of E-Type Jag. It seems to me that many climbing E-Type Jag will still stem to the pillar (if not fully stand on it) before pulling the roof, but perhaps the most "pure," albeit contrived, way to climb E-Type Jag is to avoid the pillar entirely and pull the roof directly. That said, E-Type Shag is a great route in its own right.

“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”

 — Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged is another phenomenal climb in the Upper Gorge.  Overlooked in the initial Upper Gorge exploration, it links distant liebacks, underclings, and arete holds with improbable stems.  The business hits in the first 4 bolts, with some awesome technical & bouldery moves.  If you pass that you get a poor shake, and then straight into more hard climbing (12- to the top). 

Classic arete climbing on bomber rock! Starts off with a boldery sequence through the 2nd bolt followed by a 5.6 run-out to the 3rd bolt, don't be intimidated. Then comes moderately hard moves with multiple balance and dynamic cruxes.

A wonderful climb with some dashing moves up a bucketed arete. 

This excellent route is similar in style and quality to the Catalyst.  Its a bit harder than the Catalyst, however, with arguably better movement, though not as classic in appearance.

A very good sport route, Tomb of Love has some great movement.  The crux is a mix of stems and finger sized slots, and if you get through that you will be rewarded with a very fun pull around the roof.  Shares anchors with Hot Lava, the original 5.13 of the Upper Gorge.

This is the big prize in the Upper Gorge.  If there is a harder route on a basalt column anywhere in the world, I'd like to see it. 

  This route is the ultimate in a unique genre of double-arete column climbing, or "Outies" (vs. "Innies") as Jeff Frizzel sometimes called them.  If you're interested in achieving an ascent of this route, I recommend a gradual apprenticeship through the bolted columns of the Lower Gorge (routes such as Try to Be Hip & Catalayst) then working through the "outies" of the Upper (Mojomatic, Shark Infested, The Urge, Feminazis). 

  This route is sharp, thin and ultra technical.  The physical crux is getting to the 4th bolt, but the upper column is 12+ in its own right, without any significant rest.  As far as is known, this route has seen only 3 ascents.

Quite well featured face climbing by gorge standards.  The '92 guidebook suggests that it is often wet or dirty due to a seep in the leaky canal, but this has not been a problem. Not a classic but it would be popular in a more heavily visited area.

One of the few moderates in the Upper... 

  Start out with some face moves before moving hard right and gaining a dihedral. Stem and lieback up the dihedral to a bolted anchor.

Don't let the dirty and unprotected start dissuade you, Hail Mary is an excellent and well-protected climb that, along with Colorsplash, totally justifies the extra effort of bringing a rack down to the Upper Gorge.Begin by climbing up some loose and unprotected terrain (borderline PG13 but easy and reasonably secure) to a jug at 15' from which you can place a finger-sized cam overhead. From here the rock and protection dramatically improve. Typical Upper Gorge trickery is required to read the sequences, only this time you're executing above gear rather than bolts. Super fun and high-quality.

Stellar basalt sport climbing with a small sprinkling of trad climbs. Mostly upper grades 11's and up.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in (zz) Upper Gorge