Smith Rock, about 30 minutes outside of Bend, Oregon is a destination that should be on every sport climbers list of places to visit. It’s the birthplace of American sport climbing and home of the first 5.14 in the country, To Bolt or Not To Be. Beside that, our guest on this episode of the What When How to Train podcast series, local Justin Brown, claims that it’s the best example of this technical, old school style in THE WORLD.
That’s a big claim, but Justin, owner of Rhino Skin Solutions, stands by it. Littered with small edges, pockets, and horrible feet, most routes at Smith provide options for all sizes of climber to find their way through the devious technical sequences.

Watch our guest, Justin Brown, climb one of Smith’s best 5.14s, Bad Man.