By Robin Avery

In early November the Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC) at the University of British Columbia, where I attend, organizes a climbing trip to Smith Rock in Oregon. Smith Rock is one of those epic places you have to visit at least once in a lifetime. It's a sport climbing Mecca of sorts, a place where sport climbing was popularized in North America. The park is pretty accessible for the day traveler so it sees a lot of tourist traffic. For the life of me I don't know why Smith Rock isn't a National Park. It's a pretty small place considering the amount of bolted sport climbs it hosts.

Day 1: After the obligatory phaffing around, time wasting, etc... We started driving from Vancouver, B.C. around 3 pm. Arrive at the US border. We stop to use the washroom, and the Canadian Border Guards swarm in. Perhaps we got profiled? I guess an Insane amount of miscommunication lead to our friend getting detained, long story short, we have to leave him behind...in the end the Royal Canadian Mounted Police showed up, and they let him go. We never did figure out what happened in the first place.  Worst of all he had to take the bus back to Vancouver from the border.
One man down...