If you met McGown I seriously doubt you'd 'mythologizing' him, I wouldn't, and I doubt he'd care much for it. He was just a guy who like getting out there and putting up stuff and did a lot of drilling and pounding up in the process; hell, he even pounded stoppers in. My point was that those guys undoubtably looked at that face just like you and I did, and McGown felt no compunction at all about drilling his way up stuff and even he left it be, as did all the others of the old guard.
But at least someone is acknowledging this was just about fun and something to do in the winter. Again, my concern is strictly the precedents it sets both for more of this sort of thing and for the fixed pro count. That many points of non-clean aid is simply asking Beacon to pay a lot of freight for your guys' fun and your collective proclivity towards aid climbing over free.
he and his generation left it alone b/c no one in their right minds would climb on this miserable side if they could just as easily go to east, west or south sides, not out of some deep ethical commitment
did i ever say this was about more than having fun, or that my purusit of fun overrode my sense of ethics? that was your assumption, and has nothign to do w/ me. you also make erroneous assumptions that i like to aid-climb more than free. there is essentially zero free climing to be had legally at beacon most of the closure.
i think you get off feeling like you're royal robbins or the like - if you need me to be your warren harding i'll be honored to attempt the part, though i doubt, even w/ signficant training, that i could equal his drinking abilities