Sunday May 29th was a busy day at Smith Rock, instead of dealing with crowds climbing I decided to try to set a fast time on this route, going in the same clockwise direction I have used previously. This was my fourth or fifth time linking these spires at Smith. The run was a total blast, as per usual, and a great way to see the high terrain in the park.
I started out at by scrambling the top of Smith Rock Group - I'm still not sure which point is higher so I topped out two different spires here, one which felt quite exposed at 5.6ish. I think any of these should be accepted because they are all of similar heights. I then traversed to the top of Misery Ridge using a climbers trail to cut some distance. From Misery Ridge I dropped down slightly to work my way onto trails to the base of Monument and climbed that spire via the North Chimneys. After monument I worked my way up the scar to the top of Eagles Crest, scrambled the back side of Wombat, and ran back to the play structure.
I took a light running vest and did all of the scrambles in runners, they all felt quite tame. A faster runner who knows Smith well could go much faster on this route, and additional time could be knocked off by favoring climbers trails and scree more. Crowds delayed me a few times as I avoided fast scree skiing above groups of climbers. I truly think the route-finding is what makes this route difficult.
Also, a big kudos to Lindsay Zadunayski who happened to start shortly after me and set the female FKT on her first time in much of this terrain.
See Strava for approximate split times.