eldiente

I have to ask, what crag do you climb at where this takes place? If I randomly picked-up a guidebook off my shelf and thumbed the pages, I'd bet that only 1 out of every 20 routes has an R or X behind it. (maybe even less?) Most sport climbs in the world are safe, recreational affairs. People bolting easy routes understand that they are establishing a route to be used by the masses and place the the bolts accordingly. Many of the new routes going in at Smith are put up by people that could free solo them in their flops but generously bolt it so the less skilled can enjoy it. Think of all the modern classics in the 5.6-5.10 range, most of these have gear so plentiful that my Mom could lead it. So I'd say that the current trend of new route development is going toward putting in new routes that are well protected and appeal to a wider audience. With so many well protected easy routes in the world, isn't there room for something with a bit more spice to it? As for Southern Belle.. I'm sure these guys weren't thinking of us when they put it up and nor should they. If there was better stances to drill from, you'd have to think they would have placed more bolts. Really gnarly and an inspiration.

I've had good times on Hood that time of year via the N.side. True, the weather will most likely suck, but if you get a break in the weather you can cruise right up there without having to deal with heavy snow and all that. Looking up Cooper Spur Nov 12th. [img:center]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/RziIOtvBUEI/AAAAAAAABpo/QJABrw0bCDk/s640/IMG_1664.JPG[/img]

I would agree that the current crop of Congress does not deserve a raise, some of them deserve to be in jail. Think about it this way. Your a smart person, got your PHD life is looking up. You're trying to figure what to do with your life. On one hand, you can run for a public office, let's say the Oregon House of Representatives. Sweet, that's a respectable job that that pays $21,600 per year. Or you can go work in the private sector designing widgets for 200k a year. No joke, there's no way in hell anyone with marketable skills is going to run for office with that kind of pay. Only trust fund babies without jobs can afford to run for office. Or look at myself, if I got elected to the House I'd have to quit my current job to attend votes in Salem. I would literally starve to death on that salary and have to take bribes from Big Oil to put gas in my car. I don't think paying reps more is going to fix everything, but at least make it a job that an honest person would want to take. -Nate

I give you props for telling it like it is. Too often TRs gloss over how awful the rock can be out there. Lose rock doesn't make a route all bad, there are some folks out there that love that sort of thing. However it is always nice to be honest when writing a TR so others know what to expect.

One thing about pay raises.... There is a good argument for paying elected officials more money, especially at the State level. These jokers are over-seeing billions and billions of dollars, making life or death discussions and get paid 174k per year. That's good money, but compare this to the kind of cash these people could be making in the private sector. Given the sort of responsibility were talking about, members of Congress ought to be the highest paid job in the land. Under the current system, the only way for a member of Congress to make a buck is to sell his/her influence to the highest bidder. Soo my proposal would be this. Higher pay, a lot higher pay for members of Congress. Strict term limits, campaign reform to get the private money out of it and after leaving Congress you have to wait XX numbers of years before taking any job in the private sector, no book deals no consulting no nothing. The tax payers fund your retirement. This would be sort of like the private sector and a non-compete contract that many of us work under, you worked for the Fed, now you can't compete against it for a few years after the fact. The end goal here is to make Congress a serious job that someone would want to aspire to as and end in itself. I want my elected officials to be smart and effective,unfortunately with our current system, anyone with brains is going to take up a job managing a trader joes store (you know those guys can make up to a 100k a year?)

Ivan, the fees and camp host have been in place for a while now. (most of this year if I recall?) I was bit skeptical of the fee system at first but now I'm stoked on it. $5 for a campsite seems fair to me, if you and a car of bros are there that comes out to a $1 per person. What can you do for a $1 per night? (aside from your Mom of course) The camp host down there is a strange one. He appears to be a rent a cop working as a contractor for the BLM. He's actually a nice dude doing a thankless job of running that place. I've forgotten to pay him a few times and he's always been very chill about it. Compare this to the FS hosts or BLM hosts, you forget to pay them and it is 5:00AM pounding on the tent with threats of fines and evection. -Nate

Ahh yes Peter was out there as well this past weekend. Very cool brothers and a proud route.

Trip: Wolf Rock - Barad-Dur Date: 10/2/2010 Trip Report: Micha and I climbed Barad-Dur last Saturday on Oregon's "big wall" Wolf Rock. I've been climbing around Portland for a while now but have never climbed anything in the Willy Valley. You always here about people climbing these chossy towers down there. I smugly assumed that people climbing on the West side of the Cascades were too stupid to realize that there's good climbing to be had just over the pass. Jokes on me, Wolf Rock is the real deal with real rock and not as dirty as I would have thought. The locals down there are a riot. Chris (guide book dude) had a great time sitting in the shade heckling us from the ground as we cooked in the sun. I was going to bail but couldn't face the shame of having to go back down while they watched. At first I thought these jokers were just a bunch of local dicks laughing at us pale skinned Portland type. I changed my tune when he yelled up key beta at the crux pitch that I wouldn't have seen. Chris is very stoked on Wolf Rock and was excited to talk with us once we made it to the ground. Good guy. On paper Barad-Dur sounds easy, a short section of 5.10D and some 5.11 and a bunch of 5.9. I was thinking it would be an easy few hours. Not sure what happened to me, but after the first few pitches I got spooked and moved slowly the rest of the day. I was scared. The climbing isn't bad, just unnerving moving onto a big face with no clear route, just climb and hope you're on route and that gear will appear. Looking up at the roofs from the ground it doesn't look like something you'd want to climb, I mean there's no clear crack systems or anything. Rock feels like French's Dome or some of the face climbs at Beacon. The holds are huge, but some of them are rounded and useless, some are lose. I had a hard time moving fast as all the holds had to be touched and tested. I think if you stay on route the rock isn't bad,(I broke off just one hold) but moving a few feet in either direction takes you onto some ugly rock. Climbed the route in full sun in 75F temps, bad idea. I can't recall ever being so hot while climbing, just pouring sweat all day. We used Nate's beta here. Good but here is a few add-ons. Full pics here. P1-P2. 5.9ish link 180 feet. Bad rope drag, use lots of double runners. P2 has the worst rock on the whole route. At the P1 anchor move right on shaky holds. After a few spaced bolts look high and slightly left for a long, moss filled crack. Go for that and place #2 and #1 cam in moss crack. Climb this to the top of a tower like formation. P3 Chill, fun face climbing on run-out terrain. 5.8 or 5.9 P4. Easy ramp climbing takes hand sized gear. Below roof old fixed bolts. Clip with long runners and move left under roof (no gear that I could find) Keep moving left under roof but don't even think about falling. Keep moving way left, bad drag. The climbing under the roof wasn't hard, but I was not stoked on the position. All I could think about was taking a giant fall into that corner. Feels committing to keep climbing left under these roofs with no clear opportunities for gear. It looks like it might be possible to go up and over roof without traversing, might need a bolt to do this though (?) P5. 5.10D. Two move boulder problem traversing right. Beta here is to find key foot right on arete before turning the corner. Long reach around corner to jugs. Have faith, they are jugs. Not sustained at all and good bolts protect an airy whipper. Wild terrain. P6. 5.11 Crux. Whacky belay stance in the middle of a football sized roof system. Clip two bolts aiming for obvious roof cux and bolt. The under cling flake takes bomber .75 BD on a long sling. A few feet higher and clip bolt protecting crux. Nice undercling low and right of bolt. Beta spoiler alert. Clip bolt. Move left hands across sloped ledge, the far left side has a spike on it for left hand. Dead hang with this and cut the feet and bring the feet above head and heel hook/bat hang on the same ledge that your hands are on. (yes upside down 500+feet off the deck) Set the heel hook hard and punch left and to obvious flake. Shake out and hand traverse right. The trick here is to stem wide to some steps far right while traversing with the hands. Once your feet are over to the right, throw another heel hook and reach far right to hidden hold, it's there. Stand-up to good gear (Purple BD C4) Crux #2 is hand traversing the obvious hand rail to the right and blindly around the corner. It is easy despite looking hard. An orang master cam will go in the hand rail, have faith and move fast to easy jugs around corner. Whole pitch feels wild as all this trickery is done shoved up inside roofs. P7 200+ feet easy 5th class. Never found another anchor, belayed from a tree on easy terrain. 200-400 more feet of 4th class to the summit with hiking shoes on. Descent. Not that obvious. Traverse the entire ridge top (hey are we alpine climbing now?) until there is no more ridge to traverse and then head down and left. Guide says third gully but I'm not sure how they are counting. Gully is steep and lose and cuts out left at the bottom to a trail through some big pines. Took us about an hour to go down. [img:center]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TKpdXAfZxfI/AAAAAAAALP4/FW3AWUy77Zs/s640/P1010878.JPG[/img] Looking up P1. Route goes through roofs to the right. [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TKpdZAB7-MI/AAAAAAAALQQ/nIgkzf1dGps/s640/P1010883.JPG[/img] Looking up P3. [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TKpdbs9hlcI/AAAAAAAALQ8/Fcbnzyd5LcM/s512/P1010889.jpg[/img] Start of P4. [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TKpdcM7muKI/AAAAAAAALRE/vb4jzPxBpCM/s512/P1010890.JPG[/img] Looking up P4. Route goes right into roofs for P5 and P6. [img:center]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TKpdeX28_0I/AAAAAAAALRo/2yPotNA_9Js/s640/P1010898.JPG[/img] Cliche shot of Micha about to do the crux on P5. [img:center]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TKpdgiUHCCI/AAAAAAAALSU/7se9idVRjC8/s640/P1010906.JPG[/img] Looking down P6. [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TKpdizvL4uI/AAAAAAAALS4/WuWkHqA7-wI/s640/P1010912.JPG[/img] Summit Ridge [img:center]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TKpdoF5dLWI/AAAAAAAALUU/oatB_Hv2hy8/s640/P1010924.JPG[/img] Gear Notes: Single from Green C3 to #3BD. Doubles on finger sized gear. We never used nuts but maybe you could force them in. Many runners, lots of drag. Bolts are bomber. Approach Notes: Far right side of the wall, 15 minutes.

I've had good luck renting condos off VRBO.com or CL.com. This is a good option if you can get a bunch of people together, we rented 2bdr condo for $75 a night next to Whole Foods, we did 5 of us in there and enjoyed cable TV every night. Nate

Trip: Smith Rock - Abraxas/Tombstone Date: 9/29/2010 Trip Report: A bit of beta for those of you enjoy a good crack pitch in a somewhat strange location..... Watt's new guide describes the Tombstone (5.10D) pitch on the Monument " Over hanging hand crack on perfect rock rivals the most spectacular pitches on Monkey Face." I can confirm that this pitch is fantastic, the best crack I've done at Smith and as fun as any of the other "big" classic cracks you can think of in the PNW. Unfortunately The Tombstone pitch starts 350 feet off the ground is and guarded by 5.12 terrain and lose rock. [img:center]http://www.mountainproject.com/images/37/95/105803795_medium_ba52f4.jpg[/img] The Monument. The Tombstone pitch is straight above the pine tree in the foreground of this picture. It climbs on the smooth looking section as the wall changes from tan to red. Technically the Tombstone is pitch 5 of Abraxas (5.12R) Our plan was to climb all of Abraxas to get at the Tombstone pitch. No luck there, we did the first two pitches, bailed, hiked to the summit and rapped in from the summit to climb the Tombstone. I was expecting lose rock, but Abraxas is stright-up disgusting. Every hold was either covered in sand, or would break off and have to be thrown off. There was a large group of climbers on the routes at the base of the wall and no amount of warning or yelling would get them to move or put a helmet on. I asked nicely several times but was told "were fine, we'll dodge them." Yikes! Side note. If anyone has climbed all of Abraxas I'd love to talk to you. Please PM me or post. Is there any possibility of this route cleaning up to be a good climb? So we onsite free soloed the North Ridge of the Monument at 5.1 to gain the summit. (Kidding aside it actually a fun jaunt to the summit with really nice views, there is about 20 feet of scrambling in a chimney that is more like 4th class, the rest is just scree gully climbing) From the summit the rap anchors are on the far West side of the formation behind a block. When rapping down you will want to move skiers right. Note the rock here is lose, trundling down rocks onto the beer drinking La Pine locals at the base of the wall is a real possibility. One 70M rope will get you from the summit to the anchors on top of the Tombstone. 60M will leave you short, or you'll need two ropes to go from the summit to top of the Tombstone. Rapping from new anchors on top of the Tombstone to the start of this pitch requires two ropes (about 150-170 feet for the Tombstone pitch) The pitch is steep enough that we placed a few cams to keep us close to the wall while we rapped. Sorry no pics of the actual route, check out Watt's guide for a good picture. The pitch itself is rad. More like Indian Creek stye jamming than Smith tuff. The crux is low on .75 and #1 jams. About mid-way through there is a roof/bulge thing to go over. This would be hard if it weren't for the perfect #2 and #3 hands. Higher up a few horizontal cracks allow complete rest. If you have small hands the #3 sizes sections might feel hard for you. For comparison sake, think of Gold Rush at Trout but steeper and longer with a lot air under your boots. To get off the Tombstone, we climbed a lose chimney system (5.6) up and left from the top of the Tombstone. Easy but not much gear and horrible rock. Lot of work for one pitch of climbing, but really fun to be hanging out in nice position away from all the crowds. Such a fun pitch we spent most of the day sitting up there running TR laps till our skin was ruined. DId anyone see the sunset last Sunday at Smith? Amazing! -Nate [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XHOuJdzAB9k/TKA2pAt4IlI/AAAAAAAAA-8/S_oZ3BCCmeo/s800/DSC01569.JPG[/img] Hiking around near the summit. [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XHOuJdzAB9k/TKA20yVZWhI/AAAAAAAABAE/fXe7V01bkJI/s800/DSC01585.JPG[/img] Summit. [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XHOuJdzAB9k/TKA2w6uP76I/AAAAAAAAA_k/YQUe00psu-s/s800/DSC01577.JPG[/img] TR lap near the top of of the Tombstone pitch. The rock at the very end of the pitch is kinda junk. Rest of the pitch is very clean. Gear Notes: Lots of hand sized gear. Triples #3s and #2s. 2x #1s and 1x .75 for the start. No small gear needed. Approach Notes: Hike up gully left of the Monument. Short 4th class chimney to summit block. Rap anchors are on the West side of the summit block.

I'm not that excited about cams with extendable slings on them. I used to own a rack of Trango cams that were set-up with double slings on them. I found that I never used the slings in "extended" mode. When I actually needed to put a runner on the cam, the extended sling was too short to make much of a difference and I would end up just putting a proper runner on it. The rest of the time I was too gripped to fiddle around with extending the sling and would just clip the rope in the "normal" way. -Nate

The Interwebs as my witness. I'll solo YW naked if these guys can go a whole month without talking about Beacon rock on CC.com. Anyway, the weather is the splitter this weekend. Who wants to get out and do some rock climbing?

Quick question for you guys.. I would bet that you have each other's email address, why not just email each other directly instead of posting to CC.com? Not even kidding here, you guys all know each other, seems like a phone or email would make more sense vs posting what on a public forum. Sort of like if I invited my Mom to this forum so that her and I could argue about what were doing for Christmas dinner. (There's got to be a good Mom joke somewhere in here, chime in if you got one) Ah better idea just hit me, why don't you guys just IM each other or use one of the many video conferencing services available to talk about Beacon rock? Having two way conversation is tough on a internet forum....

Sorry Doug, but I don't think Jaime's bum arm was the only thing that messed up your climbing plans this past weekend, awful weather! Yes doing the p5 variation that that moves right to Outer Space would be a nice way to go, fun cool down terrain. Whereas the proper finish on Hyperspace feels like a fist fight right up until you top out.

Calling in for a late exit pass is super easy, it takes just a few minute. I do it almost every time so I can relax at the end of a climb and have a beer without fear of being ticketed. For alpine starts, consider buying a 2x4 from Home Depot, the 2x4 can be used to jam the tire spikes down so that you can drive into the park through the exit gate before they are open. (This also might get you arrested, the Vegas jail could be interesting at that time of the day. Only the foolish locals use this method)

Climbing jug hauls is hard on the hands, especially if you haven't gym climbed in a while. The Circuit seems really hard on the hands as they set steeo jug hauls with sharp holds. 1.) Climbing on smaller holds. This will keep the jug blisters at bay and probably be more realistic training as there just aren't that many overhanging jug hauls around the PNW. Seems like all the hard problems around the PNW are thin and crimpy. If your injured, consider trying to use open grip holds, sloppers and the like. This won't hurt the tendons as much and still gives you a good solid pump. If you are at the Circuit, trying climbing up and down on the black plastic pipes a few times, easy on the hands but oh my that blasts me every time.

Killing time at work here... Joe might have you on this one Kevin. Say in 100 years when we are all dead, should we never replace any bolts because the FA didn't want the bolts replaced? What happens when the bolts literally fall out of wall, can we still not replace them because the FA asked us not to? I'm too lazy to replace bolts, so I give high-fives to everyone who does. Shame on people that add more bolts to established routes, weak. (Although side note, I enjoy the retro-bolted climbs at Smith, lets punters like me get up routes that are way above my pay grade. Still weak though) -Nate

I read about it online, I'm claiming the FA on this one.

Trip: Snow Creek Wall - Hyperspace Date: 9/11/2010 Trip Report: Hypersapce has been on my mind for a while, never seemed to work out as whenever I'm near 11-worth I'm thinking about alpine type stuff. Alpine climbing didn't really happen for me this year, the summer was two days long. As a consultation prize for our missed alpine objective, Jaime and I took a trip up Hyperspace on Saturday in fantastic Fall weather. (Side note, I like to say I've been wanting to do Hyperspace for a while, but in fact I've been secretly intimidated by the Pressure Chamber pitch and was looking for someone to rope gun for me. Jaime had already done Hyperspace and promised me it was mellow, perfect I'm thinking, I'd chill out in the back seat all day and let him do the work) Jaime hurt his shoulder the week before, he put on a good game face and was stoked to get me up there. It became apparent that he was hurting more than he let on when he asked me to grab things off his harness because he couldn't bend his arm that direction. Very kind of him to belay for me all day even though he was really hurting, I respect that. I don't have many pictures to share, but here is a few thoughts on what we found. Blake's beta is good P1.Normal start to Outer Space. I almost killed my injured partner on the first pitch traverse by forgetting to put in any gear to protect the second. The slabs were wet and Jaime was rightly cursing me as he slid around on the wet moss. Sorry man! P2. The Psychopath pitch 5.11. Brilliant finger crack, the kind where your like oh please let me lead this pitch, oh please me first! Jaime was kind enough to let me give it a go. I hung at the middle crux, lowered off and pulled the rope, botched it again, pulled the rope, third try it went. I was upset to miss the onsite but I was climbing with tunnel vision and using bad internet beta that told me to layback the crux. Wrong! Here is the correct super beta *laughs* Spoiler beta alert. Mellow straight-in jamming. The crack begins to thin, look left for small crimp/knob thing, this is key. Dead-hang this crimp and put in gear, no worries about plugging the crack up with gear as you won't be using the crack proper for the next few moves. Crux is here, keep left hand on crimp/knob while shuffling right hand up the edge of the crack working toward obvious wide spot/flake thingy. Keep both feet left of crack while shuffling with right hand, sort of barn-door feeling but once you latch the flake you can cut your feet and march them over to right side of crack while hanging off flake. Put in yellow Master cam here and punch it far right to Smith style jug bucket, chalk-up but don't bother trying to put in any more gear here as it is too thin. Move left on crimps and top-out left on sloppers. Very engaging sport climbing styled finish. Red C3s or Blue Master Cams are very useful on this pitch. [img:center]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4107/4988549411_c13f2c7caf_b.jpg[/img] Pitch 2 below the crux. P3. 5.9 hand cracks and just fun. Pulling the roof is much easier than it looks. P4. More thin, looks burly from belay but not too bad a mid 5.10. In Blake's topo he links this pitch with the next. I elected to break these pitches in two as I was getting drag. P5. Blake says you can go left via dirty 5.10C corner or right via over-hangging face. I did the overhanging face thing at 5.11. One of the best pitches of the climb, reminded me of jug hauling out at Ozone with gear. I love this style of climbing. Magically all of the jugs had good gear by them, wait until your on a jug to place gear. Red C3 or Blue Master cam is helpful for protecting the lower part. After the face climbing bit move back left into dirty crack to finish. This was sketchy for me, there is a lot of dirt/moss and not so much gear. A Green C3 saved the day here. Very excited to have gotten this pitch clean, one of the more enjoyable pitches I've done this summer. [img:center]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/4989178248_9ca7c430b7_b.jpg[/img] Looking up the 5.11 face pitch. P6. Brilliant as well, lay-backing and jamming with feet on knobs to get the pitch started, and exciting move left onto huge flakes. Flakes feel hallow, will they break off on some poor sap? Higher up there is many options, the flare chimney on the right seems like the best option. I was surprised, half way into it I'm full chimneying across an airy gap. Yeah! Left shoulder is in and there is a thin crack behind you the whole time that takes small cams. Keep eye open for a jug ledge climbers right in chimney, this jug allows some rest before some awkward moves left around chalk-stone. P7.Pressure Chamber. No luck for me on getting Jaime to lead this one, he's been in pain all day and can't lead. Bummer. Actually the Pressure Chamber in general is a big bummer, the whole pitch is rad crack work right up until then. I was hiking along getting big in the head thinking the send was in the bag, only 10 feet of climbing separated me from a clean send. That 10 feet turns out to be a real whore, even after numerous falls and 100% effort I'm still unsure of the proper beta. I figured out how to get out of the chamber via wild behind the body stemming, but getting into the Chamber is confusing to me. I was using #1 sized jams and trying to campus through it, sort of worked but it was taxing as hell. Any ideas on this one? I did see some chalk far left on a finger crack, maybe work in from there? P8. We belayed above the Chamber so the last pitch started out with some airy lay-backing to a left foot traverse. The traverse isn't hard but made me gulp, walking the plank comes to mind. The crack above is a bit dirty. Pulling the roof is hard, #1 sized hands with feet crushed up under you. (Being short would be an advantage on this) After doing the equivalent of 100 pull-ups inside the Pressure Chamber, I was spent and had to push hard to get over this bulge with feet dangling in the air. The run-out to the summit is easy 4th class but gave me awful drag, might be better to belay below the summit tree. I'm a fan and very much loved this route. Has a nice adventure feel to it with lots of sustained pitches. Thanks to Jaime for letting me do this one, heal up soon man! -Nate More photos here Gear Notes: Doubles Green C3s to #2. One #3. I found triples in the finger size cams to be useful although nuts could be used instead. We brought the #4 along but didn't really need it. If you belay high and left of the Pressure Chamber, you would need a #4 for the belay but I found the belay right above the Chamber to be secure off medium gear. Lots of draws, there is a lot of ledges to go around and over. Approach Notes: Snow Creek.

Sorry can't help you with the upper pitches, we were using Wild Turkeys as a way to get to the start of Borderline. I didn't look-up. Although I do recall there is an anchor right where the finger crack ends.

The first pitch of Wild Turkeys is indeed good good fun, a bit tough to place gear as your always standing on these slick slopers, but aside from that it is a joy. I don't have the guide-book, but I was thinking mid to upper 5.10 (?) -Nate

If you prefer gloves or chalk Chalk? Does that mean I can free-climb the comp rout? Sweet!

I use the Mammut ProCord 6mm for my pull cord, so far it has worked well. 6mm is still big enough that you can rap on it the normal way in a pinch (This happened last weekend in Squamish, the rap rings were these huge ovals that were too big for a knot or biner to jam up against. Ended up tying the 6mm to a 10mm lead line and rappelled as normal.) I normally tie a bite on a eight with an extra long loop. The loop has a locker on it that gets clipped back to the rap line. The mental security blanket for me is knowing that there is no possible way a locker can fit through the rap ring. I read a recent accident report in one of the mags about a guy dying because he failed to put a biner on the loop and the knot slipped through the rings. Beware of getting the rope stuck, the knot is bulky with the locker attached to it and when it gets stuck, all you have is a pile of 6mm static cord in your lap to work with. Jaime B and myself once had the pleasure of re-leading a full pitch at RR with the 6mm cord as our lead line. [img:center]http://www.canyonwiki.com/wiki/images/thumb/f/f0/Autoblock_lockeds.JPG/448px-Autoblock_lockeds.JPG[/img] -Nate

I had the same problem once. A local told me to park in front of some house at some random address. I asked why I would do that and was told that it was the safest place in town as a drug dealer lived there, the tweekers were afraid of him and wouldn't touch any of the cars parked there. -Nate

Thanks this a good start! Is there some sport wanking at another cliff neat Gold bar? I seem to recall someone tell me there was good sport climbing at crag neat the stop-ligh/traffic jam on Hwy 2. Thoughts?