JosephH

Don't know how close the trains are to the lower town wall, but at Beacon that's one of the busier tracks on the west coast and the first time you bivy up on it you realize just how much the trains shake the entire formation. What I think really does the job on the place, though, is the vibration from the trains as thick ice is thawing, that as the ice load comes off it weakens or pulls a fair amount of stone in the process each winter/spring, just less so on the south face than the other sides. I suspect the west and northwest faces bear the brunt of it judging from the amount of rock that has been coming down them over the years. On the south face the majority of rock fall is, unfortunately, generated from the chutes and faces high above the start to the SE Corner.

The anchor's been replaced, but it still defies any notion of logic or sanity that they thought the trash they left was somehow better or safer than what was there.

The two middle lower orange ones are Lost Arrows. The top ones aren't, and not to be selfish, but to be honest I'd hate to see those soft euro spades not end up used for climbing as I still need to replace a couple of those out at Beacon.

Simply put, navigating any number of routes at Beacon requires a modicum of finesse and a shred of awareness and control over your weight distribution during moves if we collectively don't want those climbs to change on a weekly or monthly basis. I won't do apes the disservice of desrcibing what went on as 'aping' up the route completely oblivous to the impact of wailing on everything you touch. Beacon is subject to significant 24x7 vibrations from trains as well as a strong freeze thaw icing cycle and that inevitably leads to loose rock, but nature doesn't need our help in cluelessly accelerating the loss of holds or rocks that are stablizing ledges and trails. As it stands now we are likely to witness some serious over-winter erosion of the p1/p2 traverse past the tree and, if nothing is done about it, the disinegration of the area around the p2 crux moves. As it is today, the p2 crux horn and surrounding rock will be lucky to survive the rest of the season. I'm personally ok with dealing with that, but in all likelyhood the combination of existing and newly missing holds along with traverse erosion will make the line that much more intimidating affair for beginners and new leaders.

I'd take those soft euro spades and spike on top...

I normally try to be reasonbly objective in tone and stick to the facts in these posts, but I'll make an exception with this one. Someone basically thrashed, stomped, and strong-armed their way up the SE Corner recently and removed and f#cked up the p1 anchor, unnecessarily and dangerously trundled a bunch of rocks off the p1/p2 traverse, tore holds off the start of p2 and topped it off by yarding on the p2 crux horn so hard that now it's just a matter of time before it's gone. This party of climbers was either a) malicious or b) so extraordinarily inept, misguided, and unable to control their movement to the point they should just quit climbing all together or, at the very least, foresake even the idea of trad climbing ever again. So the deal with the anchors out at Beacon. Every anchor you could likely ever arrive at out there (unless you're climbing with Ivan) is actively maintained - they don't need to be removed, replaced, or 'augmented' with more sling material. The SE Corner anchor that was tampered with was even date stamped '08' - you could have trundled your car onto it and it would have held just fine. Instead, two 1" independent sliding X slings and 50kn SS rings were removed and replaced, with a great deal of effort, in order to replace them with a single piece of lousily installed 1" and only one of the two rings (the other they just took). Again, all the anchors you'll run into out at Beacon are bomb - they don't require anything. Of late I've heard a couple of people state "I was taught to never use existing anchors" - which is great and might make some sense if you're always in some remote alpine setting - but at Beacon just look at and examine what you've encountered and use some common sense - not static, dogmatic rulesets. In fact, static and dogmatically applied 'rules' is a lousy way to approach trad climbing. There are no hard and fast 'rules' trad climbing - every climb, every pitch, every hold, and every situation is unique even on a route you've done a thousand times. You need to rely on and develop your own knowledgebase, intuition, instinct, judgment, and above all, common sense, - not some mindlessly arbitrary set of 'rules'. And the 'loose' rock business. It's Beacon. The trail, ledges and routes all have 'loose' rocks on them; many of those 'loose' rocks are key foot or hand holds. If you're going to climb out at Beacon then you need to learn to accept and deal with that - to step, walk, pull, and climb lightly with control over your movements and weight distribution in order to be gentle on things. And if you find a hold that's slightly loose, well, it's probably been that way for decades and thousands of people have been using it and can likely use it for decades to come. Please don't yard them off simply because they happen to make you a little queasy. If you encounter something, anything, you think needs attention then just pm me / Ivan / kevbone / Bill Coe / etc., email brca@googlegroups.com, or tell Opdycke about it if you see him and it be dealt with straight away. But don't mess with the anchors and under no circumstances randomly pitch rocks off of routes - stack them off to the side in some nook, base of a bush, or small ledge and they'll get cleaned either some night or before the start of the next season. State="Off">

Tyler, pm with your address. I have a funkness, pins, and a few random hangers and bolts set aside to send you...

I was a witness to that spectacle of perils and unparalled off-route stems and reaches to a survivor's finish. Looked way too burly for me - and to think folks feel they have to leave Beacon for wide challenges.

They will be replaced by bolts if there is no place for a medium Bug or LA - the short angles won't be going back in as the don't hold for more than a couple of years max. My partner Tangen-Foster and I unknowingly did the FFA in between the time Bob started it and the time they list the FFA. We had no idea anyone was working on it and it was my partner's first time at Beacon and my first time back since a lone trip to Beacon in '80. We almost died trying to head up through the East Face roofs opposite the big tree in the first turn in the climbers trail, then did Stone Rodeo, and then Pipeline also freeing the moves from the Pipeline anchor up left to the start of the Silver Crow column base above the middle of the Arena. What can I say, it was a good day.

Wrong Gull is one of my very favorite climbs at Beacon. And as eldiente said, that is the most stepped on pin out there. Doing it without stepping on it makes it significantly more challenging. That pin did get checked and is bomb, but why would you get there and be in a decking situation when there is good pro all the way up to it? I'm guessing the mystery chalker has just overlooked it or it would basically just be a short white streak up the rock. P.S. Pretty much all the pins anyone (but Ivan) is going to run into have been checked and were either good or were reset or replaced - with the exception of the two short angle on Stone Rodeo which I doubt would hold a fall at this point (need to get up there and replace them).

Tyler, a #1 KB on the west side will be lucky to make it 10 years as a viable piece of protection - particularly on a piece of stone that doesn't see all that much travel let alone maintenance. I respect that decision, but you guys should consider carrying funks and a couple of medium and long Bugs and LAs in your kits for random replacements and just funking out old junk.

Don't know what he said, but common sense would say you if you are on a rope and going more than an ape's reach then you are either abandoning, fixing, or doing without anchors and pro - or you're going back and retrieving them - there can't be any other way.

As opposed to the Bush administration that flushed two trillion down a toilet in the mideast and another couple here at home fighting any plausible form of credible financial oversight while wholesale selling the government off to 'contractors' and corporations. Do we have more moronic 'wit' and 'observations' from the right...?

Hard to tell from that photo as it's clearly after-the-fact. But in general, you're either leap frogging two or three daisies with gear, or, if you're using a longer piece of rope off of an anchor and leaving gear, then you're going to have to go back down and retrieve it one way or another.

Farrgo, not slagging anyone for what's been done, just trying get the practice stopped and offering help and pins.

Kevin, wrong - it's just a matter of kids these days simply not knowing the reality of the performance of pins. But if anyone is going to do that then at least clean the damn pin. But friggin' don't kid yourself, you're retro-bolting at that point. But then I keep forgetting, you never saw a bolt you weren't in love with the instant you saw it.

If it's Tyler or anyone else, I'd be happy to supply pins for such endeavors. In general, pins need maintenance just like bolts, but there's no reason to be shooting in bolts next to good pins or pins that just need to be reset or replaced. Almost all the pins out at Beacon have been checked, reset, and/or replaced and it's not that hard to learn to do it; you just need a funk cable to go with your drilling setup given you already have a hammer for the bolts. Most of the older pins at Beacon have far outlasted the bolts for being bomb, even bolts placed in the 90's most of which are shite now. Please don't retro existing pins with bolts unless they are smallish pins (particularly small angles) which don't holdup. Just learn a enough pincraft to check, reset, and replace them. I'd be willing to help out and pins are also available on ebay all the time.

We should also not kid yourselves about one thing, which falls under the 'Darwin never sleeps' category - the principle outcome for our trillion dollars in Afhghanistan and Iraq has been the perfection of sophisticated IEDs and plasma weapons from cell phones, $5 dollar RC toys, and copper pans and, in turn, greatly enhanced asymmetric warfare tactics for third world countries.

It had everything to do with the world's reaction to eight years of Bush and their disappointment with the pace of "change" under Obama. Given that lack of rapid "change", you should be happy with the way things are. Had he stopped being a Chicago politician and actually stood up the right would really have something to be upset about; as it is now, the right's current infatuation with themselves, their hallucinations, and their indignation is about as sad a spectacle as I've ever seen. The difference with the left's hand wringing during the Bush administration was that no one had to invent a bunch of bad fantasies to accuse them of - their reality was better than most conspiracy theories. The lot of them, like most of the Reagan administration, will be remembered almost to a man as the felons and traitors they are.

We could put one in right alongside IB and call it 'the treadmill'.

Studliness. Is there really any reason the North Cascades shouldn't be sporting a dozen or so of them...?

I don't like the new ones...

It's a bit odd, but I have four #7s and one #10 I'd like to trade for two or three #9s if anyone has such a complementary odd mix of them... I'd trade 2 for 1 as well if you only have one #9 available.

Ha, the Skousens - I bought my old place in Hood River from Cleon's nephew Joel. It was the original Luthern church in town built by Rev. Eliot of Eliot Glacier fame. They're an interesting clan that's for damn sure. I actually spent some time around the family before and after the deal closed and really enjoyed all their kids. As for the religion, philosophy, and survivalist bombshelter aspects of what Joel and Cleon espoused - well, that's a different story. They've made no shortage of money off the fringe right, however. Can't say I really understand what they're getting for their money, but that's another story. Edit: Nephew, not son. All three nephews are influencers of the fringe right...

I'm not misreading his intentions. I simply think in most instances it's a bad idea to switch mindsets and interrupt the flow and rythmn of free soloing by attempting to suddenly deploy gear mid-pitch. When free roped-soloing I do free-solo pitches, but I never attempt to mix unprotected and protected climbing in amy pitch. Doubly so if the climber isn't way solid and highly experienced climber. But again, that's just me.