JosephH

Shut cakehole, move extremities.

I'm sure Ivan would be happy to lower you down Jensen's to practice your technique...

Heading out there tomorrow (Wed) if anyone wants to tag along.

Costs about $4300 to get to YKS from PDX, but all the online bookings send you the wrong way around the world to get there.

That's not forecast, let's not jinx it.

Ended up unable to go, oh well... Wed / Thu look good so I'll probably try again then.

Oh, I suspect there's no shortage of guys on the scene to have a lively discussion with given there's already been one beatdown delivered in camp over the topic the last time it was discussed in earnest.

NC is one of my favorite places to climb and there was an odd SoIll <> NC connection / exchange in the late 70's and early 80's with folks going in both directions. NC climbers were some of the most creative and burly folks I've ever climbed with. All were fairly sly with continuously burning wits and fat ones - hopeful the situation hasn't changed much down there.

I believe a fluffer endeavors to turn software into hardware stopping short of a relapse to the former. They give bootstrapping a bad name.

Both sound exhausting at moment. Maybe if I were more of a homo I'd be hanging on the (ILo)vBe-acon hotter-Than-U-Line, but as it is I'm not and my visa can't handle the per minute charges anyway.

Too much like work...

That's a bit early for me, and I have no idea if I can make it up the Corner let alone YW or anything else. Have to see how it goes. I remember heading out there one time after a few months like this and figuring FFA should be a walk as I'd rope-soloed it like a million times that year. Ended up having set three piece halfway to the first pod and frenching back down. Had to go get a log to lean against it to get my gear back drove home a completely sodden and beaten man. Sigh, it just goes to show - you never know...

Going to be heading out there in the morning to do the corner. I plan on moving as fast as an out-of-shape, fat man can in order to stay warm. Have a second rig of super warm clothing, if you need any of it. If any one is interested in joining me send a pm (probably be out there 10:30-11ish). Should be interesting and peculiar after this long sitting on my ass.

The right attitude will get you up a lot of rectums - the question you have to ask yourself is how happy you're going to be once you're up there in the thick of it straining to push through and make something happen...

On s. face column routes at least, cleaning them in the rain would truly suck and be a bit counterproductive what with all the mud you'd be smearing into the rock grain. But I hear you, I just dig in and study over the winter until two dry days happen in a row. Between being sick and the weather I haven't been out at all this winter versus most of them I get in 15-25 goes between nov. 1st and feb. 1st depending on the how the winter goes. This year has definitely been a bust.

I believe it's a combination of the thread selection, bobbin tension, tacks/inch and - in the case modern vertically sewn ones - how many side-by-side columns of tacks.

In the mid-80's we blew a few dozen of the old school Wild Things Air Voyagers working on a couple of different rock routes with marginal pro back East, most notably putting up 'The Wizard' at Crow Hill, MA. and using hooks for free protection up on Cannon. We adjusted their startup curve by alternately pre-slicing the threads down on a steep diagonal on one hand, and on the other added wraps of sport tape to ones that were blowing too quick. We also sport taped ones that we only partially blew and we'd get another couple of goes out of them. Would have been hard pressed to do the route without them and I still have some of those same Voyagers I use in my rope-soloing anchors. Oh, and Yate's posts their specs here: http://www.yatesgear.com/climbing/screamer/use.htm

I plan on being out sunday for a piece of that myself to see if I can still drag my weak ass up the Corner as I think I'm probably too out of it to make it up YW.

Last winter I rapped LLL with Jeff and we replaced all the anchors to the ground. I went with him to check out the PO on LLL because I think it's one of the better free climbs out there and from the boat launch the PO looked like it was single large vine up the climb. Turns out it is hundreds of individual plants rooted way the f#ck back in the crack and grown into a more or less solid mass. I'm guessing to kill them you'd have to: 1) Drop in with 2-4 backpack sprayers of a mix of crossbow and diesel fuel just about this time of year and saturate the shit out of it. 2) Come back six months later after it opens, saturate it with straight diesel, then torch the whole thing and burn it out. 3) Come back a month later and clean it out (w/ full suits/breathing gear). 4) Follow up with another round of crossbow / diesel at the one year mark. 5) Follow up with another round of straight crossbow after the next open and then start climbing it. In other words, you'd have to get as agro on it as the PO itself. FAs above Jensens? I have a hard time believing McGown didn't crawl all over that area on one hand; but on the other, if he had, I would think you'd have seen at least some trace of fixed gear unless it was really C1. Last I checked there was ample access from the ground [for climbers] and cleaning can be accomplished by climbing as well. Look, need an anchor? Do an anchor, but I'm still trying to connect-the-dots as far as the "access" rationale (and what if you couldn't rap?). Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I'm hearing new-anchor-for-rap-in-climbing which seems an odd deal at best, but hey, that's just me. I cleaned the whole thing out thoroughly when I re-anchored it and given it at least a light going over every year on open since to clear out the majority of the stuff water pulls down the crack every winter. Not sure why p2 would need more than that unless you were going to try and free it and then it's a pretty easy and straightforward job on that rap. The 'majority of the climbs in the guidebook' on the south face have new anchors (71 at last count) and basically all of the fixed gear across the face has been checked / reset / replaced fairly recently and is solid. The columns above the arena are the only area I haven't gotten to and if you guys would take a drill, even a hand drill, on your aid expeditions up on those they'd have fresh anchors in no time. And we don't have cleaner climbs at Beacon in general because by and large no one can be bothered to clean them. If everyone would simply adopt and clean just a single south face column route at the start of each season they'd stay relatively clean, certainly clean enough for aid climbing. I'll be honest and say I really don't get the whole aid renaissance thing in the face of the fact all you guys are capable of doing high-level free climbing when you want. Ditto on the rapping-in-the-rain deal, but to each his own I suppose. I was more thinking of a free revival when I did the anchors, but then I'm pretty glad to see routes get traffic either way (and kudos to Ivan for always getting after something). I get the idea of using existing anchors for routine cleaning, but I guess I don't know how I feel in the end about new anchoring for rap-in 'access' to climbs. Hmmmm, this could theoretically be remnants of last year's big rockfall, but I can't picture what other than the big rock to the right on the last pitch of YW and I have a hard time believing that wouldn't be further out on the tracks. I'd guess more likely it's further deterioration of whatever mystery patch is over the edge below the high, final Corner ramp that's been raining stuff down on the Corner start for the past two years. If it's nice this weekend I'll be out and survey things; everyone else doing the Corner should take a look around for the source as well.

Yes, I freed the stretch from the Pipeline anchor up to the base of Silver Crow and have spent a bit of time in the realm at the top of Jensen's. I thought the aid renaissance did constitute 'access' and I'm not sure quite how rapping routes relates to opening climbing on them in this case. Now I'm not clearly not opposed to anchors, but in this case I'm just trying to connect the dots between rapping from the railing and standing in the arena looking up.

Exactly where are you talking about? Seems like some poison ivy work would be a more productive use of the time - especially now while it's down. I'm a bit confused here. I thought we were climbers?

I remember climbing one day in Giant City, a lovely park in SoIll with lawns up right up to the cliff face, when along comes a troop of drunken partiers, prancing hand in hand in a chain along the base going to town on Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick In The Wall'. They got to "We don't need no education..." just as they passed us. Mark, the more sardonic and wry among us, looks up from whatever he was doing at the moment and comments, "yeah, give us disease instead...!". It kind of put education into perspective for me in a nutshell. That, and it's not for everyone. All in all I'd say it's a matter of appreciation and, at the risk of plagiarizing the witless - 'worthless is as worthless does'.

Good story on the FA. Yeah, given the couple I've set I can imagine heads are a pretty iffy proposition out there in real small basalt flares. McGown's old, Chouinard bashies I tested seemed bomb enough, but you're definitely gambling with small heads on an FA or other not-well-traveled, dirty route out there. Were you using copper or aluminum for the small? I should think you'd want aluminum to paste and smear around as well as possible, but then you're gambling on it holding at all. And yeah, the soft eurotrash pins do worm their way around (limited) bends which is why they're so good out out there - you just wouldn't want to fall on the baby paddle blades and getting the big ones out if really sunk around bends is not really going to happen without busting up some rock (i.e. are better left fixed if used).

Hmmm, I guess I personally wouldn't consider that list as being "all the clean tools necessary". Add doubles #1-#3 ball nuts and variety of peckers / toucans / beaks /camhooks and then I might consider it that. I'll have to take a look at it this coming year some time and check it out. I can't remember anything in the way of specifics about it from when I did the anchoring and pin checks. You'd have to get your speed up a bit, but you'll be ready for Baffin, Greenland, or winter ascents in the Valley if you guys keep this up. P.S. you might want to consider bottom-anchoring your ledge if you're in a really exposed location.

I can't say for sure in every case, but aiding through (as opposed to protecting) most baby angle placements seems to me a matter of being equipped right and being able to hold onto a Cn frame of reference instead of just reaching for the pin, even if that means committing to a C3ish move. I've made moves like this on loweballs, hooks, hand-placed beaks/toucans, and one side of small cams. But sometimes you just have to reach for the iron and an arrow, bug, or blade for sure, but angles - even baby angles - seem like you're starting to drift into expediency if it's the rule instead of an exception to it.