JosephH

My plan exactly...

I'll be out at Beacon on the 4th. Bill, what's this business with your hand? Everyone has been wondering where you are...

My old partner Jim Tangen-Foster and I will be out at Beacon Wed./Thu...

This one goes out to Saturday's Pre-Opening Work Crew... Anyone recognize these...?

Speaking of feeling nervous. The anchor and pin on Pipeline were replaced and this is the old bent pin that was there about 9"-12" above the small ledge you stand on at the top of Pipeline. It was only in about a 1/2" and fell out with the first, light tap of the hammer when I went to test it. And, yes, it is severely bent; that isn't an optical illusion. All in all as something folks clip when topping out it left a lot to be desired. There is now a bomb #3 Lost Arrow within an inch or two of this old pin's placement.

Hell, Bill, you were making me nervous at first but that stuff you had in was all solid - not an easy place to set three anchors (top of YW p4) for rapping off the west side of the ledge.

Perfect #7 Metolius the next day, but wasn't expecting to be able to do the survey so I didn't have any pro with me...

Nah, it was bomb and used as opposition - those blocks on the right were locked down keyed in place. If you don't like that you'd hate what I anchored the fixed line with to rap down to that spot the day before during the initial survey of the rockfall site. David Andersen of the WFDW was kind enough to let us do this second survey after one of the Peregrine scrape so we could check if there was anything up there big enough to warrant the BRSP contacting the railroad to close the track while we trundled (thank god there wasn't or we probably wouldn't be open yet)...

Beacon Rock Update - 6/25/06

================================================= Beacon Rock Update - 6/25/06 ================================================= Photos from 2006 Pre-Opening Work Session Just a couple of shots to show what some of the fuss was about. Here is a shot of where the rock fall occured on the SE corner ridge. You can see this view from 14 when approaching Beacon from the East: Here's a couple of closer before and after shots of the remnants which were poised over the SE Corner route (along with much other shattered fragments below and a decades worth of loose rock on Grassy Ledges). It was cleaned up the day before the bigger Pre-Opening Work Session in order that it not slow down the larger crew: And a great shot of the BRCA's Chairman Emeritus Jim Opdycke climbing the SE ridge ramp after the deed was done: And one of Lisa Lantz, the WSP Southwest Resource Steward who was kind enough to come down and give a big thumbs up for the cleanup and early open, and Erik Plunkett, the BRSP Head Ranger who (along with John Ernster, Breanne Jordan, and Gabe Bailey) was also totally supportive of the opening. Oh, and Jim Opdycke also wanted me to be sure and once again ask that folks going out please take 5 or 10 minutes to pick a small section of the base trail and clean it up so it doesn't look like such a war zone - it would be much appreciated and would definitely contribute to continued good relations with the BRSP staff. Thanks and look forward to seeing folks out there... Joseph Healy, Jim Opdycke, Bill Coe Beacon Rock Climbers' Association Beacon.Rock@AvaSys.com

Hmmm, I was stung by something as well on the knee but never saw it. I kept pulling on my pants over the rest of the day as I kept feeling a needle-like, almost electric sharp prick but nothing was there. Sunday I felt out of sorts as well but chalked it up to being out of shape for as much work as we did on Saturday - no telling.

As in Saturday AM? Not that early. Jim's been working his ass off at work and I think we'll be looking at a bit later of a start. I'll be out there about 3pm today finishing replacing the anchor on pipeline (my battery died yesterday)...

Sure, I'll bring Jim out if he and Larry aren't going together...

I didn't raise the issue of time and money, Richard did (and of course now edits that post out to remove it). He raised it in saying how much time and expense Windham and Martin put into ignorant bliss as if that somehow simply excused their bad judgment in the matter and why I shouldn't critize it. I simply pointed out I have no less investment in such an endeavor and have every right to critize their judgment on that basis even if it were a legitimate argument which it isn't. Ditto on whether they are the "nicest guys" - even nice guys make bad calls now and then. As for it not being a sport route and that sport climbers would be in over their heads on it; well, not sure which of the two that speaks more of. But the bottom line is it is a sport route. As far as the Delicate Arch comparison is concerned - it is entirely appropriate - both climbs unnecessarily called down government and public sector attention on climbers and climbing in the NW and made us look both irresponsible and unwilling to police ourselves. Don't mistake my or others' restraint in not chopping it for any form of tacit approval of the route - it isn't - it is simply the desire not to start a bolt war. I'd take out a good number of bolts at Beacon but don't for exactly the same reason. But mistaking / taking that restraint for approval is just what many of you do - take the fact no one has chopped it to mean there is somehow a "consensus" in the NW community that the route is either ok or should remain. I don't believe that. I think that no one has chopped it means both that folks don't want to start a bolt war between individuals and that the community, instead of heading off a controversy by chopping it was paralyzed by its own divisions. Is someone here trying to claim this route isn't controversial inspite of all the private/govt/media attention it generated? If so I say get real - it was and remains a bad judgment call on the part of Windham, Martin, and the community that it happened and that it still exists.

I'll be out at Beacon this afternoon and Saturday...

Ruoutjunkie, If you reading comprehension were a little more acute you would have picked up that I have around 2k into just the gear and materials around the Anchor replacement project out at Beacon - not in climbing gear. At my billable rate my time on just the weekdays I put in out there would come in at about ten times that. The point being that I do actually know what putting up the time, money, and effort into a climbing related activity is all about. And the issue isn't about whether Windham and Martin are "nice" guys or not - it was about their judgment in this matter. As for all of you that want to quibble over the exact placement of the wilderness boundary - that there was one anywhere in the vicinity tells you how inappropriate it was. Up there you might be able to use that justification for having added a couple of bolts to some otherwise stellar line, but to put up long meandering bolt ladder? Get real, it is an embarassment and a monument to bad judgment no different than Delicate Arch and the "community"s immediate response was similarly equivocating, painfull to watch, and in the end just an embarrassment better forgotten. Where we disagree is on the method of "forgetting" - some would prefer we forget it by really not talking much about it, I happen to thing the better way to forget it would be for the community or the FA's to remove it. It will breed more of the same so long as it exists. Mtn Freak, From R&I: Leland Windham and Steve Martin completed the route on August 10 after two years of hellish top-down labor. Situated on the western edge of Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascades, the stunning face route offers views of surrounding snow-capped peaks as well as Mount Rainier, 40 miles south.

Ah - then you would have enjoyed seeing my fat ass go flying off Dodd's today climbing with Ivan and then me grunting like a pig just trying to pull pro to get to the anchor. Went out early after dropping the girls off at PDX and built two rock dams at the base of the main rock chute on the high traverse. Then Ivan showed up and given I wanted to work on the Windsurfer / Pipeline anchors we went up Free for All > Dodd's. After the Dodd's fiasco we rapped down and got to work...

That is a drag. I ran tree and roofing crews for a few years on Chicago's North Shore for a couple of outfits and ladder accidents were the bane of both businesses. Really sorry to hear the news...

I'll be out there working and would be up for climbing as well...

I hurt my left shoulder while working on an overhanging .12a with a big dyno for six months in '76 and made the ridiculous mistake of continually not letting of the hand I was launching off of when I missed the dyno - sort of like not letting go of the rope after falling while water skiing - dumb. It eventually tore up my shoulder to the point I had to stop climbing for six months to let it heal. Roll forward 25 intervening years with no problem and I invadvertantly managed to recreate the same dyno in the gym with the same results - hurt it again the same way. So I rested it a couple of weeks and went about my business. Then two years ago I ramped things up to where I was doing about six miles of running, 90 lengths of swimming, yoga, and a shit load of pitches about three or four days a week - way too much and the result was to more or less permanently inflame my shoulder. I finally went to Dr. Brad Butler in Beaverton who is a great ortho guy and he got some crystal clear x-rays and a fair MRI. I had hoped he would find I had a torn rotator cuff or something he could fix, but in the end he said it was more a matter of mileage and just plain worn out. In fact, he said he's done shoulder replacements on a some folks with shoulders that looked the same as mine and other folks who eat advil and they get by just fine. He did say he could "clean it up and smooth it out" for me, but it would probably be better to just not go in unless it was absolutely necessary. Then again, I later ran into a Home Depot employee who had him clean her's out and she said it was by all means worth doing. For treatment he just had me take four advils, three times a day for about six weeks to kill the inflamation and rest it. So I'm just coming off of six months of doing nothing - no running, no swimming, no nothing which sucked. As of last week I'm slowly easing back on to it all out at Beacon and if it goes good I'll hit the Valley in the fall; if it doesn't I'll be having Butler clean it out this coming winter. Have to wait and see in general. But like he said - in the end it's mostly a matter of mileage - I only have so much left and I should use it wisely. The price I pay for doing almost nothing but overhangs and roofs early in my climbing career I guess. But it does put me in a quandry relative to swimming which is my first love. Anyway, that's my little shoulder epic... [ Edit: A study was just released in the past week saying that exactly the dose of advil I was taking (4 - 3x / day) causes the same cardiac issues as Viox and similar new NSAIDs. They said the only one that didn't was Aleve and that's what I've switched to now. ]

Richard, I have about a couple of grand sunk into Beacon not counting hundreds of hours of time that easily could be valued at my consulting rate. The bottom line is I have both time and money into climbing and know exactly what that's about. That someone would sink it into rap bolting an alpine sport route is, in my opinion (and however ambitious), completely misdirected, unwelcome, and created unnecessary problems for "the community". As for plugs by the river and "one crag" - well, you have no idea but I'll bank on one less person crowding the place. Thanks for your continued support...

Yes, to reiterate Bill's comment above, what the work crew removed were the most obvious and dangerous rockfall threats - Beacon Rock is still a "dangerous" place in terms of objective hazards compared to your average sport venue. Just by nature of the rock and the twin effects of melting ice loads and the constant vibration from rail traffic, Beacon is an "active" place relative to loose rock. Right now we have only one remaining area of concern that will likely be dealt on a day the BRSP closes the tourist trail for maintenance. We'll close the South face on the same day (probably a Monday or Tuesday) and wrap up the last of it. But, as Bill says, people can still get nailed if folks aren't careful about where and how they step or don't take care in managing the path of their rope wherever it touches the ground (or fail to drape on / clip to bushes and trees to keep it off the ground).

Just to be clear, no one has heard so much as a peep out of me for 17 of the 19 years I've been climbing out at Beacon and I would have been fine with it staying that way other than I started wanting to be able to climb there as often and early as possible, to do it on decent anchors, and without rocks falling on me. And Jim Opdyke strongly expressed an adamant opinion Beacon-locals should control the future of climbing there - not Seattle climbers or a national group of folks who basically don't climb at Beacon. So a BRCA resurrected with a public face of postings on CC.com has served as the vehicle making whatever has been accomplished a reality. The postings here publicly evidence the BRCA's involvement with, and contribution to, the on-going managment of climbing at Beacon by the BRSP. They basically serve as a sort of "audit trail" of documentation employees of various agencies can reference in paperwork to support their decision to recognize and work cooperatively with the BRCA. Trust me, I get tired of this way faster than you do, but they have been and remain a necessary requirement for Beacon locals to have a strong hand and direct voice in the future of climbing at their favorite crag. Basically, I don't write them for myself or even for you so much, but so we have some sort of Beacon-local voice the dreaded "they" can discern and reference when dealing with us and their parent agencies in Olympia...

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself. The work crew did do a great job and Governor Gregoire was kind enough to pitch in this year by axing the parking fees.

Beacon Rock Update - 6/19/06 - BEACON IS OPEN!!!!