JosephH

WTF! I thought you moved to SLC to have more time to climb and collect wives? F#ck, you might as well move back to the NW if you're sitting around celibate indoors doing this half your time. A fair number of your audience is more likely to need a training manual on getting laid by Mormon chicks - they already know how to climb. But, all in all, it's quite a collection of useful info. I'm more of a 'just go do it' sort of climber, but for folks looking for a directed path and a condensed program from someone who knows their stuff then I'd say you did a good job - for a guy who probably should have been selfishly climbing and getting laid rather than monkishly (or is that monkeyishly) scribing 18mgs of training for others.

Mark, I'm climbing tomorrow and would be happy to pick you up and head out.

Nah, for the traffic most routes on Beacon see, and especially that one, those burly Metolius rap hangers (and 50kn Fixe SS rap rings where installed) will last nearly forever.

Shane has has been working to free that line up through the middle of the roof. Ivan, the bolts are fine as is if you rap down over the roof at an angle of about 45 degrees out to your right as you face the anchor.

Kevin, yes, I believe so. The roof is on the right side of a large ninety degree corner as you come down to it on the trail. And the face Ivan is talking about is directly in front of you. It has a bolt and two pins on it. Do any of you guys know the name of any of those lines in there if they have names?

He's just careful with the rope. You could throw a nut or cam in there to prevent the rope from getting back in there. I've yet to lead it and need to get out to do just that so we should hit it some time together and give it another whirl.

Ivan, Shane - working through the BRSP - established that anchor after the FFA. He has done a second pitch above it, though I didn't get the idea it was opening up great new vistas for climbing relative to the terrain above. Oh, and when I said 'the route to the right', I meant in the line in the middle of the adjacent wall as opposed to the corner. Kevin, routes can go up those NW faces, but the "gardening" (and managing habitat) by clearing whole faces of moss with snow shovels is definitely 'out' at Beacon these days.

Ivan, it definitely doesn't need a bolt there, you just have to be careful with the rope. Shane recently did the FFA of that line and I've seconded it with him once. The lone bolt and pins are old, though we checked and reset both pins so they're solid; the bolt is anyone's guess. I believe Shane calls the line "Head Skirt" and the one he's done to the right of it "Head Case" as Jim didn't seem to know any names for them from the olde days past - Pink, Bill? All in all, it's a real classic pitch with one of the more interesting finishes at Beacon. I'd highly recommend it to anyone and big kudos to Shane for freeing it.

Epoxying expansion bolts is just a bad idea. Pretty much what glue-ins are made for if you are intent on bolting it.

Kevin, no - there are three anchors over there I hadn't gotten to before I and Metolius ran out of rap hangers. Six months later that ship has finally just come in so those will get done, along with the high Flight Time anchor, checking the two angles on Stone Rodeo, and replacing the webbing on the main rap line. Don't have any other plans for the year beyond that other than cleaning out a couple of other classic South Face column routes. As for thanks - Bill Coe supplied all those expensive SS bolts.

You go Karsten!

Now that has to be a beating on the shoulders and elbows. Hard to even imagine it...

They look like they'd be fine - but better if they came in stainless.

You need to attend a Route Restoration Clinic. See about halfway down this page for details: http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1189141;

Eldo - Bastille Crack and Yellow Spur, did both this weekend - dosen't get any better than that.

You mean beyond the normal powerful desire to chalk up at the mere thought of a move...?

adboy - I believe it's the blind master who's with you. I'll be roped up all weekend with the chalkfiend of Eldo - hopefully I'll survive with my lungs intact. If one substance doesn't get you the other one will.

Well adboy, when you or some other gimp dumps a half a bag of the shit on the first half of the first pitch of a 5.7 trade route within days of the rock opening and I have to wade through it I'll probably feel like ranting all over again about it. Get your head out of your bag sometime and set your hands free for a pitch or two on a cool day - who knows, maybe you'll be surprised how many of the times you're dipping have nothing to do with need.

Might have him post it up on RC.com where the whole alien debacle is being tracked...

They took the sign down because they decided it was inciting people to throw rocks down...

One point of clarification - the Max Cam is a truly asymmetric cam relative to possessing a varying cam angle. The Super Cam has the outward appearance of asymmetry, but in reality it is a symmetric cam from the the perspective of having a constant cam angle and it operates no differently than an old original, solid stem friend in that respect.

See the other thread...

Andrew - whatever gets you back in shape and keeps you there! What's your schedule look like for this coming weekend and the one after that - I'm thinking of jamming out of here for one or the other given our forecast looks bleak and Vegas is already too hot.

Mark, just curious - how old are you and what type of shape are you in relative to 1983? I started in '74 and am 56 this year and still at it. But, I had to pay some pretty vicious dues for about a year back when I was 50 to get back in decent shape. In the end I found it was well worth the effort and I've also seen a few other 50+ climbers around PDX go through the same spin cycle as well who are back climbing at a reasonably high level. I do like your concept of working on yourself before working on the route - pretty much what I have to do every year before I can get back on my own routes with any confidence. I use them as a yardstick for how I'm doing as the year progresses given I can't usually just jump on them right away. In general, I don't mind not getting up other peoples routes, but it's a drag when I can't get up my own.

Regardless of which device, when using a backpack you can still use backup knots. In my case I rarely do, though. I may throw one in for an particularly awkward move, but that's about it. For my reasons why see the posts in the link I posted earlier. Also, be sure to tie a couple of overhand knots in the end of the rope before stacking it in the backpack if you use one - you don't want the end somehow coming out of the bag near the end and zipping on through your device.