JosephH

Anyone have email or phone to friends or anyone who could verify he's ok...? Got to be pretty damn busy shutting down bases given the timetable.

Yeah, another case of GF aid and they were a pain in the ass to clean off as were the ones someone scratched into the rock another time.

The move straight over the bolt on p4 for sure as, given the rope stretch, it would be an ugly fall if you blew it standing up. I have the p2 mantle burned into body memory so I don't even really think about it anymore, but the pinned p3 dihedral stops me up short and makes me think it all through again every time I do it. Not me, but it doesn't surprise me. Also more rock out of the left side of the Wrong Gull pillar - can't be long for the world and that pillar is really going to clear a path to the tracks when it goes. Miss it already, one of my favs, but I don't think it's safe to do anymore.

That right there is a damn straight classic dem-vs-us, someone-gone-done-us-wrong, conspiracy rant. It's got it all. Absolutely love it. Well, let's take it from the top... Despite whatever Jim would like to believe, there has been "nest activity" in the past several weeks with adults coming and going from the nest and in fact there was finally fledge activity today. We did have about a ten day gap where we couldn't seem to catch the fledges out so couldn't make a definitive call on their flight capabilities. And, lordy, unfortunately without definitive observations, the rock can't be opened early. Wish it was a spit into the wind, guessing sort of deal, but it's not. But it sure is heartening to hear Jim is spending so much time down at the boat launch with binoculars, given that's the only place you can make "nest activity" observations. No activity here... As for "made no effort" - wow, that's it! You got me! I've been driving up to Beacon and staring through binoculars for hours at a time for the past two weeks instead of climbing just to fuck with you. Genius. In the end though, it is good to see some honest talk about what you really think. As it is, we can all be glad there were no fledges in nest given the phrase "emergency re-closure" had been bandied about on Friday.

Well, it would be way more productive if you all just watched the governing state and federal laws / policies and the people who would have to say yes to you, instead of me. Or take a road trip to Eldo and talk to those guys about how they manage their relationship with the Colorado State Parks - good climbing and I'm sure they'd be happy to show you around.

Karl was working hard on climbers' behalf to get it open Friday. David is inclined to open the 15th, but wants to know if the fledges are in the nest - i.e. everyone wants it open tomorrow, you, me, Karl, David - but if the fledges are still in the nest that would be complicating. They might still open, but then again they might not - I don't know because I have no role or say in that. Let's just hope the nest is empty. The are several good size owls out there, two closely associated with the South Face - neither are Great Horned Owls. There was a Great Horned Owl out there nearby to the west for a number of years, but a couple of years ago it was found with a broken wing highly suggestive of Peregrine strike. No Great Horned Owls were seen close to the rock since then until quite recently which has just added to the speculation. P.S. I spent nine hours "supposedly monitoring" in the past eight days that I'd rather have spent been climbing. And I didn't do it "for the biologist", I did it in the hope of climbing as early as possible.

I'm no one and speak for no one but myself. I'm just trying to give you a heads-up things are highly unusual this year, that there is uncertainty with regard to the true status of the fledges, and there is a outside possibility the open could be stalled if the fledges are still in the nest. The WSP could decide to open Monday even if the fledges are in the nest - it's their call to make - but that decision would entail significant complications of its own.

That announcement may have been a tad premature as this is a highly unusual year relative to the fledging. Here is why... There were three chicks observed to be on the verge of fledging on the 28th and one was observed flying briefly shortly after that. What's been problematic and atypical is there has been no sign of the fledges since during the many monitoring sessions over the past ten days. At this point, the fledges should basically be an all-day sky-riot back and for across the South and East faces; instead we're seeing nothing. Given they're too young to have already 'flown the coop', the possibilities are they died on their first attempt flying, or a recently spotted Great Horned Owl got them - both highly unlikely to have gotten all three fledges. Other possibilities would be falconers (unlikely) or some disease / genetic condition. And last it's possible that they're still just down on the nest for some reason or another (also I should think not necessarily a great sign). Three fledges are up and about at Cape Horn and so, due to the lack of observation data at Beacon, WDFW has asked that the nest and ground below it be inspected on the 14th. If it were found that the chicks are still just down on the nest it is possible an emergency brake will be pulled on the open, though that would be a WSP/BRSP call. Again, it's a complete puzzle at this time and a highly atypical year so there is no knowing what will be found. It should also be noted that Karl (BRSP head ranger) was pushing hard for it to be open yesterday, but that the observational / confirmation data just didn't support David making that call. [ P.S. Be sure and say hi to Patrick, the new BRSP seasonal ranger. Patrick has been a zoo guide at the San Diego Zoo, a guide at Glacier, and is a climber who has climbed at Joshua Tree and the Valley (though sport, not trad). He's has come to work at Beacon because of the climbing and is looking forward to getting out on it as much as we are and also to learning trad. ]

Well then if you and Steve would simply stop posting crap like Steve's initial post about 'anchor vandalism' above we wouldn't be doing this sort of bullshit at all. Ivan, the bolts on SS all looked reasonable when I checked them other than a bunch needing to be cut short. My offer of the battery Sawzall is still good and you guys should consider it because a fall with the rope across one of those long bolts is gonna likely cut a rope or if you fall past one and catch it it's going to gouge the shit out of you and probably tumble you real bad to boot.

If the bolts are stainless. The fixed pins at Beacon placed in the 60's and 70's were, on a percentage basis, in way better shape than bolts placed in the 80's and 90's. From my replacement experience checking essentially ever pin and bolt on Beacon's South face, I'd say short pins of any variety, angles, and knifeblades just don't hold up over time. Medium-to-long Arrows, Bugaboos, and most soft Europins all were still basically bomb decades later where a high percentage of the non-stainless bolts (almost all of them being non-stainless) had gone to shit in a decade. Oddly, the most truck bolts out there are the old split-shank buttonheads - the homemade and early commercial hangers have all but evaporated, but damn those split-shanks are stout. So that's been my experience on sea-level basalt in the Gorge but your mileage may way seriously vary if you're talking alpine granite where I suspect pins are subject to a lot more expansion/contraction cycles. Bottom line though, is that all fixed protection - pins or bolts - need maintenance sooner or later.

Yes, seriously, 54 anchors had BOTH bolts spinning free in their holes. So which of the replacement anchors has a bolt spinning in the hole? No doubt what you think of any route you can't lead.

Well Dennis, it's all just part of the beauty of being someone I've already been and still enjoying it (and do feel free to try and lead any of my routes if you have any doubts about that at all). Steve, which part of 54 anchors had both bolts freely spinning did you miss. And maybe the math is bit challenging as well - let me give you a hand with that: 72 / 2 - 36 < 54. But hey, don't let the details bog you down.

I have replace several anchors in my time and never once did I remove the old anchor. Simply added a new one that is safe. Just saying....... Say away. That wasn't the deal with the Lisa Lantz (the WSP Resource Steward). And the only 'historic' anchor of the 72 was Schmitz, Levin & Caldwell's anchor on Flying Swallow and it's still there. But double-up 72 anchors? Seriously? Yeah, that really happens everywhere.

You're definitely welcome, but hey, head over to the ranger station or Opdycke's any time you get nostalgic, they have every bit of that 'historic' trash. Of course feel free to gloss over the fact 54 of 72 of those replaced [pre-]historic anchors had both bolts spinning and two of those anchors were going to kill someone what with one bolt breaking solely under the resting weight of the breaker bar and the other three breaking in under a third of a turn. Oh, the friggin' humanity...! And 'uncharted'? Dude, there's only one stretch of uncharted rock out there worth trying to climb. The rest? It was all oh-so-well-charted in the 80's and 90's.

The anchors were replaced so I shouldn't think folks would believe it hadn't been climbed.

It's definitely climbable on gear.

Wonder if rt. 97 isn't going to get a tad busier as well.

Jason, great point. If that's the case then it's good to know the original primer did at least work and didn't come off in sheets as the paint did. And if corrosion played no significant role then I guess it does just further point to the basic failure being that the truss beams were way under-spec'd for the job all the way around. At least you look at the first aerial shot, all of the beams look like they were designed 'to the bone' with no margin for anything going wrong.

The truck did make it across and with only a small dent in its load (impact point circled in blue below). I'd guess off hand the bridge deflected considerably before the collapse which probably would have given the whole experience a real 'slo-mo' feel. The roadway also likely 'folded' and 'tore' from the hit side of the bridge on across the roadway like a zipper which would also have slowed things down a hair. Couple of interesting points from recent photos: first, is the role corrosion played in the collapse, check out the points where the beams bent - most of them had recently been prepped for painting due to rust (green circles); second is the fact the bridge had no strap or block siesmic retro-fits of the kind done throughout downtown PDX bridges after the Oakland quake so the bridge section ends just slid off the piers with no resistance (yellow circles).

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57586034/bridge-collapse-in-washington-state-blamed-on-tractor-trailer/

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57586034/bridge-collapse-in-washington-state-blamed-on-tractor-trailer/

Would imagine the first span on the other end of the bridge has also taken hits so it's probably not just a matter of repairing the collapsed span. Even if they attempt to do that I would guess the whole rest of the bridge will have to get a retrofit before they'd let traffic on it again. Does sound likes it's going to be a way extended clusterfuck. At least there's a nearby bridge they can reroute with.

The bridge design is a series of triangular and inverted triangular trusses with low, curved horizontal beams directly above the roadway connecting the two sides. This was the entrance span at one end of the bridge which collapsed. According to a bridge survey of the span it was rated functionally obsolete, in part because of the design due to trucks hitting the low side of the first entrance horizontal. The force of a hit there would be immediately transferred to the beams supporting the roadbed by the second sidewall diagonal beam which terminated at the spot the roadway collapsed. Speculation is that the outboard (passenger-side of the slow lane) of that curved, overhead entrance-span horizontal took repeated truck hits over time, basically jack-hammering the roadway support beams each time and eventually weakening them to the point of collapse. Think carabiner 'micro-fractures', but for real, and probably combined with stress corrosion cracking.

I didn't say the biner itself was annoying as such, but rather the lack of symmetry in the latching strengths on the one I used was annoying. If the latch strength on the weak side deteriorated any further, however, I'd have some serious questions about the manufacturing execution of the design.

Probably not a big deal, but after seeing one where the latch on one side was a bit funky I've checked out a bunch on the rack. The surface finish of the magnet and latch face can sometimes be rough causing uneven latch strengths. Again, probably not a big deal, but it was enough to irritate me the one time I used one. I'd say if you're going to get one then examine the latch surfaces closely and note whether the latch strengths are symmetrical.