billcoe

Right on Gene. As Ivan pointed out, most of the cracks on this beast are just an indicator that there is loose rock there. Some of the windyness (crookedness) of the route was to avoid it. There is a bad ass looking "offwidth/squeeze chimney" that looks like it has a difficult face approach. Ben and I got close to the base of it a few years back @ 100 feet up. There was a lot of loose rock to get through so slow going. Unfortunately, available time and Rotator Cuff shoulder surgery for each shoulder in succession plus the weight I put on laying around, pretty much means I can't get on that one anytime soon. Ivan and I got close to the top of it and it's at @ 500 feet high, and looking at it from close up, what appears to be a squeeze chimney is actually 8 feet wide. It may have to be on my tick list till I pass on given how difficult it will be, but like to see Ben go tag it. The high likelyhood is that some badassed kid will climb the aid line and drop in from above before leading it I'd suspect. You can see it here, looks like a crack right under the P4 traverse drawn in red. That's 8' wide at the top, not a finger crack like it looks in the photo. Another great TR Ivan! I think Ivan has the poets gift of naming, but still have a lurking suspicion that he's simply popping over to http://stupidbandnames.com/ and culling the dumb ideas out. Haha! Ivan certainly did all the heavy lifting on this route, and I'm very grateful that we could both contribute what the other did not have. (Ivan brought the strength, I brought the bolts:-). BTW, I'll get a iphone video up soon of how the mornings went, but basically the daily wake up call was the significant and loud splat of an Osprey hitting the water for a morning trout. Talked to old boy about it, and he seemed philosophical about sharing. Didn't bother him if a few took the slow fat trout he'd paid for, he'd often clap his hands together to scare the waiting bird of of a tree and thus get a momentary reprieve for his fish - but the morning Conga Line of Fish Hawks seemed pretty extensive to me. Ivan seemed to think that the birds had a low percentage of fish to hits, but I saw 3 trout taken one morning before Ivan was even awake. Anyway, Geoff will most likely be onboard for a return trip, be nice to get Ben on it too, but if anyone goes up there before us, please don't booty our gear. If you want to leave it at the base that's cool too(not much really, basically some draws on P5).

I'm sure that there will be challenges Joe. Hopefully with the creation of a more solid technical rock climbing committee we can better maintain a positive relationship and keep our communication open with park staff and the entire climbing community, addressing issues as they arise.

Oly, take a cleansing breath. Come back and approach it with your normal good humor. It's better for us all that way. Thanks for keeping Fairweather around too, he's a good guy - nothing wrong with a good argument now and then -it's election season anyway so it's time to break out the gloves (or take the gloves off). Video of Jackson Browne, famous Libtard. Yammering ends and singing starts @ 30 seconds in, good stuff - [video:youtube] Whoh, I just realized that if you type L.I.B.T.A.R.D. without the periods, it changes the spelling as "liberal". Lets try C.O.N.S.E.V.A.T.A.R.D. Hmm, no go - conservative. Rtard? Still good. WHERE IS THE "LIKE" BUTTON? LIKE!!!!

Ouch:-) LOL! I'll tie in with you any day Chad! Of course you get the hard pitches haha. I went to see the surgeon who had cut and stitched me before heading to Yos as it still hurt, and she gave me the juice (steroid) in the shoulder shot. She said, come see in 6 months and I'll give you another one if it still hurts. I've dropped 10 lbs since starting to work out again, so it's coming back .... although slowly. Adam Winslow showed up too (he'd moved to Santa Barbra), and it was like old home week. One day they wanted to take a rest day. The rest day consisted of hiking up North Dome Gully over to the top of Royal Arches, then up and cross country bushwhacking to about the mid elevation of North Dome, the over to top of the Falls trail then down to the valley floor on a real hot day. Thinking 11-12 miles maybe. Most of it was a blur except for where Ujahn and I did the George Kennedy move on Clint Eastwood in the Eiger Sanction and had hidden 3 Sierra Nevada pale ales in the bottom of Adams pack. We fished them out at a particularly thirsty moment after a lot of elevation gain. Adam was a good sport and we all laughed as we quaffed. Adam even insisted on carrying the empties out. Haha - good times.

hmmm

The are forgetful and always talking about their health issues and broken body parts. (begin old people noise) Been trying to rehab my shoulder (HEALTH ISSUE RAMBLING ALERT)surgery cause about every tendon everywhere near it was ripped to shit, both shoulders). Not too successfully, but getting out a bit now. Was just looking on my phone and I see a recent picture of Ujahn and I. (COMMENCE OLD PEOPLE FORGETTING ISSUE THINGY) I'm wondering, where the heck is that? No memory. I know it's recent cause it's near the top and sandwiched in some places I remember. (/ old people noise) I went to Yos with Ujahn last month. From the photo it looks like fun, and that's why I'm sharing it. If I had my glasses on I'd be close to looking like Grandpa Simpson. Maybe a couple more years and some mileage on me I'll be there for sure. Otherwise, I just suck.

I couldn't see the vid, but does it start out "smoke em if ya got em"? As of today, Oregon laws on pot possession all but became nill (decriminalized). Not a smoker here but know lots of folks who are. Means lots of real good and honest honorable folks whom I know and climb with are no longer criminals. About time. Long overdue. We still have too many other bad laws, time to get a few more off the books.

That's great advice Mikey. My son gave me a new bi-color last month and I just had the end come off when it was pulled on a rap (assuming in lieu of it getting stuck) I never had one get stuck, but I could see where in some of the wild places you go it could easily go way beyond inconvenience to being deadly.

SICK! (in the vomiting green pea soup way, not in the youthful "crazy good" version) That's the kind of TR that's best viewed from the luxury of the computer and not firsthand:-) Good photos, made my palms sweat - thanks for sharing. It seems to me that the moss in the gorge repairs itself within 15 min or less. Was out there walking around one day and found a flat spot and a moss covered boulder to sit on to catch my breath. There are trees and thick vegetation everywhere. While resting, I see what looks like a moss arch right by me, a brief exploration and some quick moss peeling revealed that I was on the old highway, but it had been totally reclaimed by nature and invisible. Except for the arch, which rarely occurs like that in nature, I would never have known. Nearly all traces of mankind had been erased just by man not keeping nature at bay. That's why they spray a shitload of 2-4D herbicides on the roadsides twice a year, to keep it at bay for a while. Amazing. People in California have no idea what we do to get a good burn on.

Mate? He has too much integrity for Hillary. Besides, she doesn't swing that way.

SELL IT OLY, YOU JON AND DREW WILL BE RICH!!! WOOT!

Hack into the mainframe and fix it. Easy peasey, and it will teach the bitches to screw with your pasttime.

Diet is killer important for alpine speed. (After the fact John Frieh had mentioned The Zone Diet, and I think it's very worthwhile read) Also, when I went to Nepal the first time, taking some weight in a pack and speedwalking the one of the nearby hilly urban trails on my lunch hour for the entire hour made a huge difference once you get over there and are puking your guts out hourly and ever 10 seconds your bowels are emptying all while hiking while being higher than Mount Rainer. There's no way you can duplicate altitude, but good diet and working your cardio regularly will certainly help. Dude I use to know back in the day, Roger Smith,. that few strong climbers could keep up with, only ate raw vegetables and swam for exercise. He killed it on the hills. Unfortunately, his bones got brittle.

Good job Topher. I'd looked at that direct start and choose to do the (easier) curved one. Wouldn't want to flip off anywhere at the start on either one of those routes. Good to see he's sending route updates along to you Tim. I'm not good enough to do this route right now, either start, but hopefully will work up to it soonish. There had been a slightly looshish rock at the higher crux that was a good hold and piece of pro combo. Given no mention of it, I wonder if it's gone. If you are leading this, keep an eye out @ 3/4 of the way up.

Plaidman soiled all the peckers that I hadn't already trashed. Tomahawk in blank "rock" That's Plaidman up there.

HOLY CRAP, IT LOOKS LIKE I OWN AN OLD DESIGN CHOUINARD IN THERE!! FER CHRISTS SAKE DON'T PAINT THAT PUPPY!!!!

John, just bumped your thread in partners. You need a workout tomorrow after work?:-) PS, Ivans looking to stuff it into a shallow drilled hole - that Captain hook wouldn't fit into a bathook hole. PS, I have one for rent if anyone wants:-) It's crazy heavy. The pointy leeper and Modified Grappling hooks do the trick. Both the Petzl and Grivel make pointy hooks too. Kyle has some Brad Jarrod ground donw/modded BD's that would do the trick I'd bet. Mine looked something like this till I got liquered up and slathered paint all over the shit.

Correct, and it needs a thread revival, @ 10 years after John started it. ...any of you old women even climb any more? I'm finishing up 2 big shoulder surgeries, right one still hurts, but Ujahn and I wanted to get our lap on tomorrow so that when Beacon opens soon we don't have our manboobs whacking our knees trying to hangdawg the corner. As much. Whacking our knees ...as much. If you can give world class belay and want to hang with an old man and a cripple, maybe give a route a go or 2, speak up. No drytooling.......

Well shit Buckaroo, I think you just sold me on slide aiders. However, I've never seen them used. Yates ya say are better than the Metolius? As far as the OP goes, Ivan and Shapp have good advice on the West Face route for Smith things, I'd try the North Face of Monkey before the East Face, it's more reasonable. Another route not mentioned that we use to do anytime it was raining: The Great Roof. It's up on the ridge and I have not seen it since Beth Rodden freed it, but I saw in the photos that someone had put in some new bolts, so it might actually be too easy if you clip the bolts, but it would be good training and bet it's "safer" than it use to be. I suspect that no one will be on it as it's 14B and a long hike and you can have it to yourself.

I popped over to get any newz of this. http://www.kgw.com/story/news/local/2015/06/04/mt-hood-climber-fall/28480939/ The age is about right but it wasn't me this go round btw. Always sorry to see stories like this. Condolences to unnamed persons friends and family.

Nope, we're all much better at spraying than climbing and it's damned disappointing when we get out there any more. Dudes like Mikey and Blake and them types don't have our spray power. Sure, they're kick ass climbers and that but they have to sacrifice their lip flapping skillz which we are not interested in at all. We are going to 40 pages here. Good day sir....... I SAID GOOD DAY SIR!!!!

I've been putting a tag that I've marked the pertinent info on with a felt tip pen (date bought, diameter and length and the rope brand). BIG BLOCK LETTERS cause I'm old and the eyes are going. The tag is clipped onto the rope bag with a removable cable tie. If I'm going someplace knarly, I usually leave the bag at home, but I have put clear tape over some tags, which are paper, to keep them together. Something like this except the color The tags have been really good for may reasons: * That rope some unfortunate rockfall chopped the end of but you love the rope so you keep it now has the 60M crossed out and it says 47M in big block letters. * The 200M roll of static that you got a great deal on and then chopped up into a 70m 70m and a 60m WHICH ALL LOOK ALIKE, you will NEVER fuck up and grab the 60m when you really wanted to grab the 70m. * Your (My) favorite skinny rope (which did a FA last month), that Beal 9.1 joker that you have been getting good mileage on cause you love it so much: you will start to realize you don't want to fall on it everytime you grab it to go out when you look and see the date on the tag: 2007! Which truthfully, still seems like @2 years ago so it's your new rope in your mind. The math, however, shows it to be purchased 8 years ago. This passage of time is confusing to me. So I've felt tipped the year onto my slings as well. One of the guys at BD had a good blog on how much weaker his skinny rope was than he thought it would be when tested. If you swap out rope bags, the rope identifier tags get swapped as well. Takes seconds. One more thing, I use Blue tags for Dynamic ropes and Yellow for Static. Then I have 3 piles: one static, one dynamic, and a pile of new ropes that you bought on sale still in plastic. Grabbing the right rope as you hit the door is simplified, or if your kid shows up hinting that he needs a 70M for long routes at a new place. Bamm, rummage the pile and toss him the one you think is best. On the tubing idea. That sounds interesting. Hadn't thought of it. Heat shrink tubing can come with adhesive on the inside, I'd suggest that. I tried felt tip marking the ends: not too successful at that.

I'm so sad, I was going to go for "clownpunchers" but the internet says no. Clownpunching is something else. So I'm at a loss.

I played hookey from work and hiked the Hamilton Mountain loop just uphill from Beacon yesterday and noticed that as well. WTF? It seemed that the upper forest looked perfectly fine, but the lower sections had some issues. Never seen that look before. There might be some damned serious wildfires this year. The warm and wet spring will leave a lot of dry underbrush by fall. Anyway, of interest was that they had the road up to Hamilton trailhead parking closed for "work", that might have been a simple license plate camera installation job, although I was unable to confirm that. I read your work here (excellent stuff BTW) but I must have missed that accident missive. Should I do a search or can I just ask: what happened?

Not sure exactly what occurred as there are 2 differing news stories. It was clearly at the Butte, and just a few days back last Friday. I hadn't heard anything about it and then stumbled on the story. Does anyone have any knowledge of this accident? 1st version: Rock climber suffers fatal fall. http://www.katu.com/news/local/Rock-climber-suffers-fatal-fall-at-Rocky-Butte-302254791.html 2nd version: Man looking at view falls. Story says: "The man walked beyond the fence before he fell." Wonder if that's the Bluebird/Toothpick area. http://www.kgw.com/story/news/2015/05/01/man-dies-in-fall-rocky-butte/26745859/ In either case, RIP Jacob Bradley, at 30 years old you left us much too young.