Jonny Woodward at Smith Rock, 1986.

Hanging out at Smith Rock in the late 1980s was incomparable to any other place and time in the history of American rock climbing. On any given day, any given climber from anywhere in the world might be there. The place went from an obscure mud pile to a world class sport climbing Mecca in a few short years. I was lucky to catch the first wave of foreign climbers to visit, arriving in a mini van from Yosemite with two Aussies and a Brit. On a return visit I shot this photo of Jonny Woodward and Maria Cranor hiking below an impossibly steep wall that not long after sported several of the hardest routes in the area.