billcoe

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

B-rock, could it be you might have traded the bike for your blue shopping cart? Chance to upscale? Noticed the shiny new blue shopping cart. If I ever run away from my wife I'm grabbing it so I at least have a home on wheels.

Wow, these falling off the top of Butte stories look like they are going to start hijacking this thread. Sorry. Hope to see Chris Ts and Petes smiling faces and happy visages there tonight!

Yes, a close read backs up what CBS says. They defined stretching and warms ups as different things. Slow news day for sure.

Texplorer said it all except for one thing. If you sleep at the base area and shoot for an early jump. Make sure you bearproof your packs, hang them up or you will be awake most of the night f*en with the bears.

Ivan, although I can come and go when I want here, the responsibility is like a prison. So, I could leave here at 2:30, but if we're busy it would be like the capt. of the ship bailing first and saying "Dudes, good weather gotta go." So if we are busy it will be hard to creap out too early. If everybody would remember that yesterday it rained. It's slick at the muddy top after a winter of moss growing. Most of the accidents at the Butte are from falls off the top, I'm not kidding I've seen it more than once and heard many stories. Sometimes climbers just clipping into the anchors. So best to use a long rope at the top to be or backup the anchor, tie off that tree and be clipped into it if you need to get close to the edge for any reason like setting up anchors or just grabbing the rap lines. (Hill street Blues, "lets be careful out there" kind of deal.) Don't be causal, I picked up and delivered to the emergency room with my former climbing partner Bob the nurse one of the most experianced, best, most knowledgeable Oregon climbers who merely slipped off the top and rolled to the very F*en bottom of the hill doing cartwheels all the way downhill. It was pretty loud. Broken wrist, 2 broken ribs, ruptured spleen, punctured lung blah blah. He was just "hiking" around to come climb with me. (Breakfast cracks) Nothing that surgery, emergency room trauma Doctors, more surgery, stainless steel screws and 2 months in the hospital couldn't fix. He credits us with saving his life as he repeatedly insisted he was fine and just wanted to go home. I haven't seen any cash from it yet:-( b

I'll be there, be nice to have company picking up the trash, noticed that the area below Wall of shadows to silver bullet has a bunch of trash. Best place to meet is the dead end where Skidmore teminates (@ 94th)so we are all on the bottom to start.

Hi Ivan: Ujohn and I will be there. What area do you want to meet at RB? Bill

OK, here's one thats pretty good. Beacon is closed till July. This ones a great free route, but nobody does it, there's chains at the top too should you deciede to TR it. I thought I did the FFA (named it "free bird"-real origonal eh) but the book lists it as a Mcgowen FA called Wisdon Tooth. Rocky Butte, next route due west of Bird of Paradise, it's about 20' from the top of Birds of Paradise, or further at the base as you go down the cliff towards the Grotto, back up the chains with a rope on a tree well back from the edge as they're rusty. It's a huge swing out if you blow it on TR, and other than me I've never seen but 1 party do it in the last 32 years. It would nail fairly well IMO. If you had some rurps, there is an incipiant seam which, if your lucky, may blow off the key ear shaped feature, a loosish flake 1/2 way up. Don't have anybody standing underneath you as this thing would weigh over 100 lbs and kill a person. Barring having rurps, best pieces would be a #4 friend behind the flake, bongs would be diecy and expanding - although if you are toprop nailing hey, so what. Most of the pins would be leapers or angles. So you know, there are lots of routes further down that direction which we've done before any of those houses got put in, I don't think any of them are in the book either. I wouldn't co-operate with Tim when he called me for info.- pick one and nail it to the top, nobody goes that way, which explains why no one has chopped the bolts on "wisdom Tooth". I am only speaking for myself here, no one else. Won't crank me a bit, it's the closest thing to a choss pile to PDX. Take the advise not to nail a common route though. You might have somebody else get cranked at you anyway.

Put a couple of round through the "no climbing" signs will ya? Also, I'm hardly a local, but if ya really want to drive steel, call Jim Opdyke up and ask him, most of the current locals consider themselves "students" or something like that of his and no one would give you crap. So, 1st) just ask Jim. He's a great guy too. 2) Blast the signs. 3) Don't get caught. 4) Have fun. 1 more thing: please don't think this is a critisism, but you might seriously think of dropping down a caliber or 2. even a .45 with standard loads for instance. That way your bullet won't go through the sign, ricochet off the rocks, skim across the Columbia river and peg some unsuspecting soul getting out of their car at Broughtons Bluff millions of miles down river. (BTW my 9mil will ricochet off the water and carry across most of the way across the Columbia, you can actually see the bullets!) Again, just a suggestion, don't want to piss anybody armed with a 44 mag off or anything.

Describe it (brand, size, etc) and you can have it back.

Here's one example of why the guide book may not be always correct on things: - the 2nd pitch of "flying Dutchman" at Beacon would have been good. Long thin crack, perfect for blades and arrows. 1 caveat: it used to be thought imossible by all the hard men of the day (I'm talking guys who could crank 5.12-13. Now Mark Deffenback tells me his partner just went and FFA'ed it at only 5.11. Mark led it and confirmed the rating. So, probably OK to nail it as it was impossible cause the crack was so small 10 years ago, but it has somehow gotten larger as current climbers can get up it and now find it relatively easy. So, none of the old fat climbers would care as we generally can't get our lard asses up a 5.11 crack anymore, but guys like Mark might care if you downgrade it to 10A by widening the crack for our fat stubby fingers. I'll try and e-mail my friend Andrew Trzynka for the location of the bridge over the Tualatin river he had shown me 20 years ago. Real sweet crack takes arrows, Leepers and sliders (ballnutz) size. Imagine a 200 foot overhanging crack, it's perfect and no one can see or hear you. The pin scars are Wiz Macobsons, not mine BTW, I'd never overdrive..... cough *bullshit*, cough * bullshit. It would be sweet practice for you, but don't zipper over the creek or you could drown real easy. Wis ripped once and cratered into the mud-bank once is the story, (I missed that one) it's probably slightly expando if you think about it, be nice to have some Ball Nuts going over the river. Regards: Bill

Next pub club at the Yak and Yeti, you're buying.

Whoh dude, you had me sucked in till the hiding part. Whew, there were some people who lost loved ones in this war, I was sitting here calulating the odds of a father losing 2 of them when you pulled me out of it with the in hiding and Saddam finish, good one. BTW: Saddam, and this is the honest to God truth. I met some Kurds at my local park a few years ago who had been sprited out of Iraq in @ 1992 due to working for cough: cia, cough: cia, er...lets just say another Bush. I'm sitting there asking the American escort how these guys wound up in Portland, Or. of all places. She told me some interesting things (I'm guessing about the cia part of course, she merely said they had worked for the Americans), but the most interesting was that one of them had been one of a handful of survivors who had lived through an airborne gas attack. Everyone in the village was a friend or relative. He was "lucky" enough to be able to watch them all die as he and only a few others were the only ones with gas masks. All the women and childern died. Most of the men. I wonder what reply he'd give you Saddam? I know what I'd be thinking. BTW: I'm not kidding about this part either, as the war of words escalated pre-gulf war 2: I bought gas masks for my relatives, and every child on the block (10 of the childrens sizes). My wife thinks I have a screw or 2 loose of course. Regards to all but one of course: Bill

Before I get burned a the stake for Heresy, if you read it closely, it does re-iterate that "Warming up" before is a good thing.Full text follows from AP story: "Sun Mar 28,12:07 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo! By IRA DREYFUSS, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Stretching does not live up to its reputation as an injury preventer, a study has found. "We could not find a benefit," said Stephen B. Thacker, director of the epidemiology program office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). Athletes who stretch might feel more limber, but they shouldn't count on stretching to keep them healthy, he said. Thacker and four CDC colleagues combed research databases for studies that had compared stretching with other ways to prevent training injuries. They combined data from five studies so they could look more closely for any benefits that might emerge as a pattern. Their report is in the March issue of the American College of Sports Medicine journal, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. People who stretched were no more or less likely to suffer injuries such as pulled muscles, which the increased flexibility that results from stretching is supposed to prevent, researchers found. And the injuries found in the study typically happened within the muscle's normal range of motion, so stretching them would not have made a difference, Thacker said. Other research has found that warmups, which increase blood flow through the muscle and make it more ready to respond to exercise, can reduce the risk of injury, Thacker said. Being in good shape also helps. Strength and balance training reduced injuries as well, he said. People such as gymnasts and dancers might be exceptions, because their activities require great flexibility, so stretching might improve their performance, Thacker said. In case future research does find a benefit, Thacker has no problem with athletes continuing to do gentle stretching. That's not the case with stretches that include sudden fast movements, called "ballistic stretches," which have been found in other studies to raise injury risks. The study's findings make sense, said Mike Bracko, director of the Institute for Hockey Research in Calgary, Alberta. "We have done some work with hockey players showing flexibility is not an important variable," he said. A strain typically happens when a muscle has to react suddenly to control an athlete's movement, Bracko said. An example would be a tear in a muscle in the back of a sprinter's leg as it contracts to keep the muscles in the front of the leg from moving the knee too far forward, he said. Two other researchers said, however, that there may still be value in the stretches that coaches require, and athletes do. Lynn Millar, a professor of physical therapy at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Mich., said her experience in treating people with injuries tells her that those who don't stretch may find they can't move their arms and legs as far as they used to, and this could set them up for injury. "Unfortunately, a lot of us don't have a normal range of motion," Millar said. Stephen Rice, director of the sports medicine center at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, N.J., said he values the experience of trainers and athletes. Flexibility is an element of fitness, and stretching ought to make a person more flexible, Rice said. "I would say the conventional wisdom has a certain amount of wisdom to it," he added. " eom I cant help but think that flexability is a good thing in our sport for injury avoidance. Regards: Bill

The Alameda is close, another close one is the Laurelhurst brew pub which is on @41st ave right off Sandy Blvd in the Hollywood district. I'm thinking of maybe skiing Saturday at Meadows and climbing at RB on Sun AM. Any one interested, Sunday should be nice? 1 question for Winter, what is BoPrey? You hanging around the Peregrines after hours? Hey, not to stir up the piss pot any more than it is, but how about the via Ferrata idea over by Flaky Old man so that the descent could have something to clip for all the folks who head that way? Just a thought no yelling please if you feel it's a bad idea: I'm just tossing it out there for discussion.

OK, lets do a good weather dance.

Sketch, I'd love to join in the fun, but I may be following you around already. I was soloing Birds of Paradise last night (Tues) and there were 2 - 3/8" holes drilled in the crux! Could be you had already chopped those and left holes? Could be a multi-stage process whereby somebody drilled the holes and is collecting cans to buy the bolts and hangers later? Well, somebody apparently recently decieded that finally after 40+ years of no bolts this route needed some? Perhaps we can take up a collection, buy some nuts and teach someone how they work? Otherwise, I'll help you chop if someone stuffs bolts in there. The good news was that I was up there all by my lonesome!!!!!!!! Whooo Hooooooooo! The bad news is that being fat, old and alone is a real pisser but there's nothing to do about that. Also: this Thurs may be wet, you planning on doing aid? Regards: Bill

A day at Smith can make you feel like that as you wander around, seeing millions of people on all the routes you can and want to do, and nobody on the routes you know to stay the hell off of. But hey, you think you have problems? Hell, my arm was cramping on a 5.7 yesterday. Hell, it was bolted. I should have untied and jumped I was sosoooooo embarrased! I've been fat for awhile, but now I'm definatly getting old, and feel it. Fat and old. Hope you resolve it, don't think there's help for me.

I just read the sign this weekend. Don't know what the point is, not a slide show. She's probably showing up to try some hard routes at Smiff and trying to make a dollar for some factory while shes there. Maybe you can get a body part signed with a sharpie. Don't know what the cost would be. Maybe it's sold by the inch. I could get off cheap then. Did John Long sign any of Minxes body parts like she had suggested? Regards: Bill

Oh, does EOSC in Lagrande still have an outdoor program? Used to be some real strong alpine climbers there. Good luck.