JosephH

Ken, he is using just a one cord equalette - not two cords. The anchors are basically in line with what Long is advising relative to the use of an equalette, though they could all use a bit more care in the setup and tuning.

hemp22 and halifax are giving you good advice on tuning your use of an equalette - particularly about not being all slid up against one side or the other. I'd agree also I'd rather see you employing the two middle strands individually rather than in a sliding-X, but that's pretty hard to do if you're going to belay off the anchor. I personally never belay of the anchor and particularly never off trad anchors, but hey, I'm a really old guy.

Enlist, military charter to Baghdad International, truck up north to Mosul, and then take a left three or four clicks past Tall 'Afar and you're there. Wear your armor and careful where you step - 'clips' mean something different there. Oh wait, you said I-Rock, sorry...

If he can't find Fred we can turn him on to Opdycke who is a veritable insider on all sorts of history.

This, after years of relentlessly pursuing business in Iran even after 9/11 and the start of the Iraq War. Cheney has stalled Justice Department investigations and will continue to until he is out of office. I expect an extensive list of blanket pardons on Bush's last day in office covering a broad spectrum of administration and corporate officials. Which is a bigger problem - a visit to Iraq to see if we should be starting a war, or executing every possible legal loophole in a desperate bid to do hundreds of millions worth of business with Iran? Funny what people can be distracted by, but political distraction has been the main agenda at the Justice Department for some time now.

Tighten up those seatbelts boys - especially fathers of girls. It goes frighteningly fast, ours heads off to UW Seattle in the fall.

Self-Rescue by David Fasulo Climbing Self Rescue: Improvising Solutions for Serious Situations by Andy Tyson and Molly Loomis

Just got off the phone with Justin King and he was quite cordial. From what he said, it sounds as though the Ozone dodges the bullet for the most part. The project has two SR-14 straightening sections of interest - one that ends at the driveway to the west of the first (west) pullout, and a second that starts about 500ft. east of the road just after the second (east) pullout - so it appears to skip over Ozone completely. The only likely issue will be parking during construction as they very well may use those pullouts for staging equipment or just not want folks parking there in general. Given the pullouts are technically only for emergency parking we would be well to look for alternative parking during the constrcution (not for two years) - I believe Jimmy O said he might be able to arrange some nearby. Justin also said they'll be doing couple of public comment periods before they start so to keep an eye out for those announcements.

...

If the CRGNSA 'owns' / manages the land, which they appear to, then things could get a bit complicated if WSDOT plans do anything which significantly affects the parking situation. If, say, moving the road north eliminates access to the current parking, then I suspect to accomodate our wishes for parking related changes WSDOT would have to formally work with CRGNSA as the 'owner' to implement them. It's all speculation until we understand exactly what WSDOT has in mind. Haven't heard back from Justin yet, but will give him a shout back if I don't hear from him this week.

SR 14 - Marble Road Vicinity to Belle Center Road, Cape Horn Bridge Vicinity to Cape Horn Road Project Status - February 2008 Currently, the project team is in the early stages of design. Environmental documentation, geotechnical exploration and preliminary engineering have begun. Construction is currently scheduled to start in 2010. ------------------------------------------------------ I just called over there and project manager is Justin King - he wasn't in today. Because he wasn't, I was somehow mistakenly routed to a project manager for a different project, but whom was gracious enough to take a moment to talk with me. She said it shouldn't be a problem talking to Justin. If you guy's want to figure out what you want to say and who you want to do the talking - I'd be happy to set up a meet or call with him when he calls back. I can also just forward him on to the name and number of your choice. I'd still recommend Bryan and I'd say you ought to get real explicit about requesting parking as well as egress to and from SR-14 depending on the new configuration of the road through there.

** at Belle Center Road (milepost 23.02-23.34); * between Belle Center Road and the Half Bridge near Cape Horn (milepost 23.34-23.6); These will definitely impact Ozone if in no other way than the construction. Looks like a clever way for the state to eliminate the anti-Gorge Act billboard which I believe may be on one of the turns. It would be good to talk try to the WSDOT project manager at the very least as I'd guess they plan on getting to it in the next few months about when folks really want to be gettong on stuff. If no accomodations are made I suspect the sherrif will start tagging cars in advance of and during construction.

Seems like this would be a good candidate thread for a move out of 'newbies' and into 'rock climbing' as it might be better if beginners weren't contemplating simul-anything.

Then in all likelyhood it just means federal land, either BLM or NFS which, since the Gorge Act, means the onion goes like: County WA State (roads and transportation right of ways) CRGNSA NFS/BLM Railroad (right of way, probably doesn't make it over to the rock) Tribes So in reality, an onion a lot like Beacon's except with less active management interest on the part of many of the agencies of record with jurisdiction over Ozone. Out of that list I'd say these are the ones which might possibly take an active interest at some point: County WA State CRGNSA The latter probably being the one which would require the most work though I believe there are good climber - CRGNSA contacts, that they are aware of the place and so for now the focus should be on WSDOT to insure at the very least you don't lose parking and preferrably gain some.

And what do USA stand for? Is USA simply a designation for federal lands? CRGNSA is clearly the 'Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area'. If Ozone is indeed proxy administered by the CRGNSA - which seems quite believable - then that is a wicket of a somewhat stickier nature. Dealing with CRGNSA means you are into the same regulatory sort of onion layers as Beacon, albeit with fewer layers. Interacting with them will mean really having documented facts in hand and the details of what is intended and desired well-organized and thought out.

Bryan, I should think that if you agreed to be the group contact, then the only thing which would be really be required of you would be to field calls that came in from any agency official wanting to follow-up on what was presented and / or submitted. I wouldn't think it would be more than one or two calls at most, but you never know I suppose.

Matt, all you have to do is head out to the rocks or jump on RC.com to see it in full-bloom, or locally here in PDX head out to Ozone or any number of current 'secret' project spots. Are you trying to claim providing new bolted lines isn't an insatiable thirst and a driving 'community service'? Sorry, not buying that for a minute.

That would be easier to do if on arriving at the new rock, everyone's first instinct wasn't to drop ropes to preview, clean, and bolt lines that quite likely could be done trad before even giving them an onsight, ground-up, no-dogging go first. In fact, I'm currently being asked about just such a line so it isn't just random speculation.

Bill, the reason for my response is your recent spate of pro-bolt postings like the original post in this thread. I mean, come on - re-read it, how do you think someone is going to take that post? Just what message did you intend for someone to take away from it's clear questions and 'poke-in-the-eye' double 'lil dawg' drill photos? Words and images stand on there own here on-line - most folks don't know you or me - and can only interpret our posts based on what they read, not on knowing us. And most folks tend to take what they read at face value attempting to establish intent and meaning based on what is said. You can say 'most people would have just asked first', and I'd again say the intent and meaning behind your first post is just what you intended - and is 'poke-in-the-eye' obvious to the average reader. I don't know how you can expect other than folks will interpret your clear words and images as anything other than as staunchly pro-bolt? And you and other like to use this 'environment' argument and have for decades - and that particular argument, which I do and have strongly disagreed with is what I was responding to and isn't personal, it isn't about you and me, but rather about the discussion on bolting that's been going on since the early 80's. My response is similarly not personal, but rather speaks from my perspective to the values which are explicit in this long-running 'environmental' argument. I personally just see a fundamental divide being crossed, by anyone, when they advocate and defend unrestricted bolting and use that particular argument - and that divide is one that flips rock from something of value as it is, to just another canvas for humans to exploit. By and large, people here don't know either of us and I was simply responding to the substance and arguments of your post, as it stands on it's own here, and no differently than I expect folks will take mine - as meaning what I say in what I post up. It's no different than when I say I think, one hundred years later, that it took almost exactly the same amount of time, dollars, and courage to bolt every rock in America as it did to kill all the buffalo - it's broad commentary, not personal.

Blizzard, thanks for your comments and perspective. I would say you clearly are quite new to climbing which does have a long history. Over the past twenty five years of it, sport climbing and gyms have completely changed the nature of the 'sport'. What started out so innocently, was gyms attempting to provide an acceptable indoor emulation of outdoor climbing, but which ended up morphing into something entirely different as generations of climbers learned to climb in them rather than outdoors. What resulted instead was when these newly minted 'climbers' left the gyms to go outdoors, they then simply wanted an outdoor emulation of what they had learned indoors - a 'safe', risk-free entertainment option. And the relentless bolting of rocks to emulate gyms has been the rule, as opposed to the exception, for easily the past fifteen years. My views and opinions are far less rooted in any 'environmental' concerns and lie almost totally in personal responsibility with regard to managing the "amount of risk to ones own life" posed by climbing, a respect for what the rock offers as it is, and the unavoidably consumptive nature of sport climbing as it ends up expressed on rock after rock cummulatively over time. I explicitly do not agree with bolting rock in an endlessly consumptive cycle simply to provide a constant stream of [new] risk-free recreational opportunities for bored suburbanites. 'Risk free' being the key word there. The end result of this behavior has been an explosion in the numbers of 'climbers'; an easy 85% of whose climbing is wholly and entirely bolt-dependent. Again, you are new and don't know the legacy and are quite typical of new climbers in that respect. People on both sides of the bolting divide positioning this as an environmental issue widely miss the mark as far as I'm concerned. It is a specious argument in defense of bolting and a largely irrelevant one in opposition to it. The principal environmental impact, such that it is, comes almost entirely from the inevitable traffic, degradation, and abuse generated by large numbers of climbers attracted by the bolts - not to mention the access issues. It truly is a case of "bolt it, and they will come" (particularly when you spray excessively about it). And if you don't think bolting routes is 'consumptive' act then you only need to watch it in action at places like Ozone where - almost in real time - you can see the 'development' cycle in action and the real, palpable angst over who does what when; particularly as the lines dry up in a mere year or two. If it weren't consumptive, there wouldn't be all this tremendous level of angst around it all as 'secrecy' collapses, the crowds move in from behind, and new lines die out. But, hey, you can rest assured by the time that's all in full swing the inevitable hunt for the next 'secret' rock to bolt is already well underway, if not already under the gun. Radical and 'extreme' views in a changing world? No doubt I suppose, but as I said, I have no problem that - they haven't changed in thirty four years and aren't likely to anytime soon.

There you go...

No, they'd put it up the SE Corner claiming equal access and that it does no damage...

From you, it's a compliment. I'm saying that it will be used as a long-standing precedent for building via ferratas for access on public lands across the country. New York Times, Men's Health, and others have been running 'adventure' articles on them of late and a US clone of the EU via ferrata access groups won't be far behind them.

Dunno...what about dru - is he around in PDX? But sure, who knows, maybe he climbs as hard as he sprays - doubtful - but you never know...

PM me if you can play hooky - will be back around 10:30 pm - or we can talk in the a.m.