JosephH

Bill, Mark is just saying he'd like to get after that line. The big A-frame roof is what I had originally planned on as it seemed to have hand/finger crack in the top of it. But now that we're up there it turns out to just be a water stain and doesn't appear freeable. The red line we're on is the most plausible free line through the roofs (at the moment). The crux is like a tall, narrow 'A'-shaped chimney which is too wide at the bottom to chimney or stem - you have to face / crack climb up the back wall a bit before you can get into a chimney sort of mode - the difference is this flared chimney is more than 45 degrees overhung and you get completely squeezed out of it at the top. All in all, it's very un-Beacon-like climbing through the roof. That flake panel you're speaking of, I did end up climbing through it on roped solo and then trundling it from above in a stance, as it was just too dangerous to have anyone below belaying. I tagged a second line just in case, which was a good thing because the trundle did chop my lead line.

The 'D-viation', though now that I've been up on top of that big orange block it's still not making me very damn happy. So far it's been a pretty x-rated affair above the high anchor though now it's down to an 'r' rating. By the end of the next go we hope to have that down to a mild 'r' and a single rope, but at the moment it's still serious business on double ropes. Bill, cool pics - that blue tint really gives it an extra-choss feel...

View from above the first roof - yellow as planned, red as being realized...

Shane and I need to get back on it but I'm going to be out of town for a week starting wed. Just now starting to feel like I'm geting in good enough shape for it all.

Good post - I'll keep Adam in mind. Sorry I missed you guys out there yesterday...

Carolyn, I know Chuck Boyd and rushed to check their blog tonight on seeing the news. Was relieved to to see they were just back in base camp at Broad Peak. Wonder if now they won't end up just supporting rescue / recovery efforts. I don't believe they have high altitude porters with them, so if the fixed lines are now gone off the bottleneck on K2 I suspect it will be a tough go for them if they were to decide to still try it - if the mountain even remains open.

It was the second pitch I was interested in, thanks.

Good going guys - glad to hear that anchor finally got a ledge on it as it's a sweet spot! All the column routes should see more traffic. Ground Zero got more or less cleaned out hard three years ago, but that was then. How about some more details on flightime as that's my next project relative to mid-anchor, good cleaning, etc.

No need, Jim doesn't want it moved. Where it is works for me for LW, so I don't mind, but it's pretty worthless for YW. Again, I'd say there's pro right at your feet at the mantle and then it's only two short moves off the stance ledge to place a cam in the bottom of the slot.

I would do that as well. I've never felt the need to place anything between the bolt and a yellow TCU at the bottom of the hand slot, but I'd say if you did you'd be better off putting a piece down just below your feet at the stance before you mantle up into it than to place anything in the choss once you're up there. If you have your weight distributed over evenly across both hands and both feet you should be immune to anything coming off. I have rapped from that anchor a couple of dozen times. I have a 60m rope. I have to down climb like 3 feet. No big deal. All my 60's must be 16 feet short because they all end up eight feet short and if you did blow the transition since the big trundle you'd be landing on the rock you formerly used to step around at the top of p1.

Kevin, glad you got a chance to get out. Yeah, I cleaned up the shitpile when I got to the ledge the other day hence the 'janitorial staff' reference. I'm with Bill, that would be a no vote from me as well. You have a bolt below you and pro right at your feet at the mantle up if you want it and then solid pro at the start of the hand crack. You're at most 'run out' something like fifteen feet over very easy terrain in between. The rock is fine enough if you're careful and distribute your weight across all four points of contact. I'd be with you for removing two of the three bolts, keeping the one by the pin. For me, I'd say if anything move the first pitch anchor down so a 60m reaches the ground - pretty much marooned and worthless where it is since the big trundle...

I'm not Ivan, I don't know who's been doing it. But it's been going on for several years now and it just gets a bit disheartening after awhile to keep coming upon so many of them.

I'd be worried, except I suspect your aim and bowel control is no better than than this weekend's shooter. And god knows what your car would smell like by the time you did roll into town...

Beacon was definitely never worth the drive from Seattle even before the gas prices shot up...

It might entice them to shit on the most popular ledge at your favorite crag. Given I was out there at the time and nearby it could also just mean their aim was bad...

You could tell from yesterday's crowds of folks unfamilar with Beacon that high gas prices are really starting to bring in folks on weekends we otherwise wouldn't see. Some of them are prepared to deal out there, many were not. Could get ugly before the season's out. Hope we don't end up with a bunch of accidents.

If the fact that both kevbone and I climb there doesn't by itself deter most folks I'm not sure what will...

Total shithole, moss, choss, poison oak up the wazzu, we've have near continous rock fall on every side, trains that make climbing intolerable, overgrown routes, a clutch of resident psychos, and shit flying down on you night and day. Go elsewhere, please...

Rad, Malcolm is only speaking for Trango and about the Cinch, not the grigri which is fine. It (the Cinch) has some of the same issues as the Petzl Shunt relative to the amount of pressure can apply to the rope. Again, this is due to the counter-rotating nature of the design. I sometimes anchor off the first bolt if nothing else is available, but as Feck points out it is less than desirable, better to set up an anchor or use a close tree if either could be had. Dmuja, nothing big so far. My sense of it is you really need to match the diameter of the rope with the Eddy to get the right mix of the rope running through it, yet still catching when necessary - around 10mm seems about right. Need to set up a test spot somewhere and give it some more formal testing one of these days.

Yep, right smack in the middle of the dirt instantly after the first root. The guys who were up there when I got there had covered it up with dirt and rock. I ended up getting a plate-sized piece of moss from above the ledge, getting it all up, and then launching it between YW and Stone Rodeo. Sucked big time. The cig butt thing has been bugging me for several years and it's a really unbelievably inconsiderate, self-centered, and childish deal as far as I'm concerned. Lord knows I don't give a damn if someone wants to smoke, but leaving butts all over is just disrespecting the rock.

As far as setting up the hard route, that's sounds like a reasonable approach as any. But please use a grigri, an Eddy, or one of the other soloing devices - the Cinch isn't appropriate to the task due to the sissoring action on the rope. Trango and Malcolm have specifically asked folks not to solo on it as well. Here is what I do on the roped soloing front. I'm 'Healyje' over there on rc and my post is most of the way down the page (with the pictures). Be aware this is only what I do and what works for me; every roped soloist needs to figure out what works for themselves and what works for me may or may not work for you or anyone else.

Yes it does, but when it happens on the SE Corner's Tree Ledge or any other ledge at Beacon you need to clean up after yourself. It doesn't matter how - wrap it up in your shirt if nothing else - but pack it out with you. And if you have the slightest doubt about whether you can make it up a route with without this particular problem occuring then you need to either do something short, bail, or take a bag to pack it out with you if the unavoidable happens. And in the case of the SE Corner Tree Ledge especially, don't dump right where everyone clearly sits and steps - take it on the other side of the tree towards the outside of the ledge for god's sake. Changing anchors I don't mind, but folks need to gather a enough self-respect to clean up after themselves when an event like this takes place. And while the bitchfest is in full swing and we're talking stinking butts - whoever is tossing their cigarette butts all over the place needs to stop once and for all. I don't really don't give a shit who you are, and you're clearly out there a lot, stuff the damn butts in your pocket and pack them back out. - The janitorial staff

Thanks Ivan, she's on a plane by 11am. She knows she should have posted up a week or two earlier to be sure on have something lined up next year.

Hey, are any of you folks available this weekend (Sat all day or Sun morning as she flies out in the afternoon) to take a friend from TN up something at Beacon? Raquel comes to town every year for a computer conference and has been up the SE Corner and YW. She'd like to do one of those again or something comparable. She's solid at 5.9. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get out or not, but wanted to make sure she does while she's here. Give me a shout or pm if you'd be willing to head out there with her...

After twenty years of doing it because of chronic sinus infections I agree salt water irrigation is the answer - but you do have to get to where you do it on a regular basis and especially as and once an infection gets going. Does it take some getting used to and knowing how much salt and what temp? It does, but once you get the temp/salinity down and get used to the feeling then it should become a habit. I do it regularly and at the mere hint of any sinus/respitory infection. Antibiotics by and large don't work on sinus infections because your sinuses are an exterior body cavities / environments which antibiotics internal to your body can only deal with them in the most limited fashion. I'd say you need to get the irrigation thing down for the first few goes when you aren't in the middle of a flareup... As far as antibiotic resistance goes it's a broad combination of factors: overpresrcibing, not completing them, and their use in animals/foodstocks. Beyond those problems there is also a very complex web of gene swaps between human pathogens and common soil and water-borne bacteria which is severely exacerbated by the way we deal with industrial pig and chicken waste (think of common soil bacteria as a fast random number generator which can crack the codes of antibiotic protection).