billcoe

Hi Ursula: The spot where Kendra James was recently shot is within rifle range (I'm not that good of a shot anymore, as my son repeatedly drones on to me about, so maybe not within rifle range for me, I used to shoot very well, now I can't hit shit as the eyes are going!). We have remarkably little crime around here in the houses - really.

Cluck, I think they deleted your post sir!! Must have been the wine talking. That or the fowl-mouthed chicken you call friend. Fav pic for me was in fact Cluck Jr on top: sir, thats on TOP after the crux moooves of Rabbit ears. BTW, was that a big assed wall back up in the hills behind rabbitt ears or what? I'll tell you about it later after I recoinoiter it and crank some moves with the choss posse. Bill

Silver Bullet Thurs would be good for me.

RBW, maybe next time - went climbing instead at the Butte with a couple of Pauls from the Bible temple worship domes. Hope you had a good time and the hangovers are not too severe. Bill

I don't have the full schizzel but I'll add some distand 2nd hand info. B-Rock: Hiker often = climber in the news. I do not know if he was a climber or hiker in actuality. I suspect that the news really doesn't know either. This guy slipped and peeled off of somewhere around near silver Bullet, wet. Other guy (27 year old blonde guy, second hand info sorry its so oblique) was further down, and the actual count of "pitch off the cliff contestants" I believe for the month (last 30 days) now stands at 3. The Oregonian is only counting Firefighter responses. Evidently an ambulance without the fire dept being called out is not to be counted. So the count down starts, area gets popular, folks get hurt, how long until this hits the radar screens and the city's lawyers pull the plug and close the area? Bill

Doolittle, why even waste your time, just bring a ladder and climb right past the hard shit. Then bolt the ladder to the wall if you think you might come back for a 2nd try should the first one fail cause the ladder was too steep. You could bash the aluminum directly into the crack it's leaning on. Yup. The you could claim "first ladder ascents" of lots of new stuff. It would open up all kinds of possibilities. You could even do a guide book.

Yeah, what he said: not sure I can hit it, but want to try. Bill

Hi Ruben: Mine are Beacon Rock. It has magic and power, the resting place of many many former local souls are there, peacefully and joyfully - I can feel it. Closing it to climbing has caused some pain, which I alieviate by swinging by just to sit and hang by myself at the base occasionally (last Sunday for instance). Anywhere 200' outside of the buildings in Yosemite "City" where 60,000 temporary visiting people exist and yet the trees are still swaying. Bill

Dohhh, meant Norm Thompsons, the yuppie clothing/outdoor clothing store: yup, must have been the wine talkin there. Yeah, I bellied up to the bar and my 12 year old bellied up to the cherries and we proceeded to monopolise and download the freebies as the wife shopped. All was going well till she looked over, and in what was a horrifing embarrassing moment for her, realized that the other shoppers were observing us in shock and awe much like you would watch a couple of starving hampsters in a vegtable bin as the wine and cherries flew. He kept asking for pulls on the wine but I told him no way, people were watching. At least she didn't grab our ears or nothin. Norm Thompson............ ahhhhhhh free wine. No wine at REI, just yuppie clothes. They have a small wall, but little kids are on it and they charge.

Look, REI sucks, go check out the new one in PDX. Oh great place to go buy psydo-climbing style CLOTHING. Or the 1 brand of wired nut they carry. End of selection. I walk in there and say, were's the friggan ski boots man, I want to use my divided and get my 20 percent off too. There wasn't a ski boot to be had in the whole store. I could have been in an Eddie Bauers except the last time I was in Eddie Bauers they had FREE wine and I knocked back 3 or 4 glasses till my wife came over and made me stop. No kidding: FREE. Free marichino cherrys too......ahhhhh wine and cherries. Note to self, shop without wife.

BillA, if I ever see that kind of crap you can bet it'll be "batter up" time and I promise to swing a home run for ya. I used to park my Prowler up at the Butte and always expected to see the convertable roof slit and the stereo jacked when I got back. One time- about 1978-I was up on top bouldering - my back to my motorcycle with my backpack on it, right there on the road. I didn't see anybody but lo and behold if I don't turn around an see my backpack gone. MF Sons of B's. They got a gore-tex coat (this was when you could buy the gore-tex material but nobody was commercially producing any gore-tex finished products) which a friend had custom sewn for me. Still, I've heard plenty of others have had it worse, maybe we should count ourselves lucky. The stuff is just that, Stuff. You can replace it, even though it sucks. While ago I found a fired (rifling grooves on it) 9mm bullet on my back deck. Sometimes I hear the pop pop pop at night from unfinished discussions which members of "the community" are having with each other. Regards: Bill

Justin: it is a valid question, which I think unfortunatly more than likely has no one answer. Interesting story happened to some friends of mine though: they were approx 150 straight up, on a stance big enough for 2. Smoking a doobie. Up free-solos another guy I know, says hi to them, and to their astonishment asks if they would mind if he puffed some. They fork over the smoke, long drag and a couple of healthy coughs later, up he goes past the easy 10a crux. Directly above them. Unroped. Moral of the story: Sometimes it's better not to ask or think about it. Just take another drag and let it go. Bill

COUGH *bullshit* COUGH *bullshit* COUGH *bullshit* PLLLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEEEEEE, Lummux, everybody spends more time than that on free porn, you might save that for your wife. If you'd just pony up the money, a broadband connection will have this playing in less than 30 sec. Not only that, but the huge side benefit is that the free porn comes in faster as well. Distle, thanks man, great stuff, really appreciate the sharing. Triangle traverse (maybe the one before, the wide crack) was playing horizontal though. Much better than just sitting watching the rain coming down outside like it is right now. Thanks again: Bill

I heard of a guy who found a shi*t load of Northface Dome Tents and all kind of awesome sleeping backs, packs, gear and food at Camp 4 in Yosemite once. Evidently all these people just went off and left the schizzel. One of my best booties was coming on an old old friend who had moved up to Seattle and came back with some of his buddies to repeat some favs. They got a #2 cam stuck about 20" up, and were lamenting the loss (up there stuck in the rock laughing in thier faces in full view) as they were coiling their ropes preparing for the hike out when I bumped into them. I freesolo up, IT COMES RIGHT OUT! ( a little wiggling) I get down and give the cam back to my friend. Best bootie is happy bootie. Also, most of the times I will try to come back the next day if I see some bootie (if I can), figuring the owner may come back first. Found a Smith guidebook that must have fallen out of a pack that way on the back side of Smith Group. Saw it Saturday, look to see if it had a name in the cover somewhere (it didn't). Put it right back down and left. Climbed all day Sunday, on the way out I walked over and the book was right where I had left it next to the trail in full view apperntly as yet untouched. Slipped it in my backpack. I got into quite an arguement with a friend over this once in Yosemite. Someone had left some Fires (when they were the hot shoe) near the Devils Kitchen area. Late in the day, we are the last naked climbers lounging stoned in the water, my friend tries them on and they fit him. He's thinking "bootie", and certainly a major upgrade over the ratty EB's he had. I'm thinking somebody will be looking for the shoes the next day and counsel leaving them. Strong discussion ensues for at least 10 min. The arguement got resolved when he agreed to leave a "found shoes" notes at camp 4 bulliton board. Guess we could have thought of that before we argued it out. Dohhhh. Hard to say what bootie is sometimes. I still feel somewhat guilty using a locker which was obviously an abandoned bail biner I found at the top of boardwalk rappel out at Beacon a couple of years ago. Shouldn't but I do.

Hardly use chalk anymore. Sorry, can't give up the spoon or the pink bottle either.

That Asterick pass climb (5.5) at Smith is SWEET but a little runout. Behold me in all my glory cause I only placed three pieces of gear. Oh Asterick is "SWWWEEEEEEET", no question about it. I'm not gonna dog it next time I follow it either like last time. I used to hear that complaint about elite climbers spraying. I think it is due to the fact that most of them which I have been around, really- really focus on their climbing. To the exclusion of damn near everything else typically. They don't talk about bowel movements, their kids, the local sports teams or all the rest of the trash us mortals discuss, cause they are so focused on climbing. So when you are around them, that's what gets discussed. It's not usually spray per-see, just the main thing in their life so it gets talked about, read about, and dream't about near 24/7. If they have a success on a hard route it gets shared, as it should be. On the first part of the thread: I too noticed folks are climbing harder. It's good to see. It surprises me we don't see more accidents from folks getting in over their heads as part of the learning process. _________________________________________________________________ Still striving for moderate in my advancing age..........

I feel ashamed, I just learned that PETA doesn't mean P eople that E at T he A nimals. Bill

Skyclimb, thanks for sharing, I appreciated it. Sounds like a sweet little variation. But I could see a replay of the Joe Simpson thing should you and NOLS decide to do a climb together. Regards: Bill

Man, thanks for the TR Scott, I can almost feel the breeze on my forehead and the sun on my back......ahhhhhhh, damn what a feeling. Sounds like an exellent time was had by all of you - thanks again for sharing. Bill

Too sore, went last night, soloed then went up and bouldered. Where were you guys, I needed a belayer.

Does Hans do his 2 hour show in 15 min. trying for a slide show speed record each night? No offense to Hans - he's pretty much a phenom. Bill

Hi Sketch! Last year, 2nd pitch I believe. The rap stations are fine to use, hangers and blah blah OK.

Cool Tex. I love that place. I learned something just the other day I didn't know that you might already know but I'd better share with you about drilling new bolts out there. Turns out there is a "board" or something you need to consult or placate before you place a bolt. I was out at the Butte the other day and a friend mentioned he was out at Beacon quite sometime ago,and somebody was ragging hard on the "assholes" who had placed some bolts out there *cough* me, *cough* me. I don't think my friend "gave me up" but the guy telling him the story was evidently quite pissed at the person in question who had placed some bolts (me..., OK it was Bob, I was the first person to lead the pitch after the bolts were put in). Anyway, the guy telling my friend the story was suggesting that who-ever had done the new bolts he was pissed about was in line for severe ass kicking/head beating should this dude catch up with them/him/it/me. I was surprised..... I tend to be very conservative about placing bolts, hell, I only added a bolt to the Boardwalk rappel after finding somebody had left some gear in the crack to back up the 17 year old (now) rusty bolt and angle piton combo. I didn't ask anybody either. I added 1 nice stainless 3/8 to the rappel and took my pin back. In fact, the only bolt on that route had only been added a long time after the fa after 3 solid trad climbers had suggested some beginner might auger in if they pitched from the top. That one was put in on lead with a hand drill. So, years later, I have broken my hand drill and I help rap-bolt 1 pitch with Bob McMahon and Dave English and it's a consitutional crisis or something. So you now know, as do I, hand-drill only, on lead, no roto-hammer. So, my friend says Gary Rall from Portland Rock Gym sits on the board, next time I know to call Gary. The only sad part of this tale is that I really like Gary, and it's been so long since I've seen him I'm not sure I'd still recognise him, he's a real good guy though, I'm just lazy and busy. So, - the moral of the story is stay in touch with your friends and consult the board before drilling at Beacon Rock. Evidently the proabition extends to chains too, Mark knows this as Jim or somebody personally returned the chains Mark had put on 2nd pitch of Young Warriors as I understand it. F**ck man, you need a rule book or something anymore. I don't want to F-with anybody elses trip or get into mindless fistfights over ethics, I just want to climb. Sure I might have loved fighting as a kid but I grew up and want to be done with that kind of crap. -so- if it would help..... I suggest the following rules and regulations to help folks for Beacon: Hand drill -Good (this can also be refered to as a hand-job, also very good of course) Roto-Hammer - Bad Rap-bolting - unfrigging unbeliveably bad. Rap-bolting WITH a roto-hammer - best just have the plot picked out to be buried in advance. At that point I don't think anywone would be alive to try and hang-dog the route into submission!! So don't even think of bringing an air compressor. Beacon Rules: Regards: Bill

Ivan, FYI, there is a hardcore group at Beacon who are so anti-bolts that it is unbelivable. So, I'd definatly be very careful at Beacon in case that anti-bolt thing applies to pins as well. Tex: was that you who freed the Dutchman 2nd pitch? Kudos dude, although its a bit embarassing to find out its only 11. Usually the way a Beacon FA works, first person up has loose rock, dirt, moss and extra choss. That would describe the bottom pitch of Dutchman, which we did while it was raining as well, but the upper pitch was as clean as it comes. There were some real hard climbers showed up later and just rapped after doing the first pitch and looking at how hard the 2nd LOOKED. It LOOKED harder than 5.13 and there were at least 2 5.13 climbers look at it and rap without trying that I know about. Thats funny. BTW, history point, I named the route "Flying Dutchman" after Jim Opdyke flew off after he pulled some pins on the first pitch (aiding) and took about a 20'-25'er or so. He was pretty close to the ground at that point, so he lowered off and ducked under the tarp which we'd pitched to stay (relatively) dry and moss free, and I got to finish the pitch while he warmed up. So unless guys like Ivan have been showing up nailing it so fat stubby fingers like mine might fit in there. .....good job Tex. BTW, was that you who did windwalker as well? Nice. Mark sent me some sweet pics. Kind of makes you want to evict the perigrines and get out there right now. Regards: Bill

A good pump was had by all, thanks everybody! Bill