JosephH

Yes, it was. Windy, but not cold.

Slab fall - ugh.

I've always wondered how it was that the last crop of republicans got elected - and they were bright guys compared to the ones who are running this cycle. P.S. Dave, I don't think he was 'googling' - I think it was gargling.

This is the sort of confusion a couple of rotations to Afghanistan would fix in a hurry. Hey, I resemble exactly that age and the answer is simple: climb. Of course, he'll have to survive relatively intact for another 40 years to do it.

Where are you coming from?

Was just happy to get out and get a bit in before the rain...

People who don't like posts like this one.

You're such a sensitive guy, that's what I like about you.

made my heart all warm n' fuzzy inside to be looking down on your unarmored head while juggling a hammer and 10 pounds of nails 50 feet above you the other week Yep, forgot it that day, meant to wear it.

Usually just on R/X rated FAs, when aiding, and occasionally on busy weekends - probably 5% of the time. Probably could stand to wear it more often, but in general can't stand wearing them.

Yeah, but then it's not them I'm trying to piss off.

Outcomes like those are enormously unfortunate, but in the end we are responsible for ourselves. Bottom line is folks shouldn't get on routes they aren't up for, or up to, and which are runout or have marginal pro. For trad climbing to otherwise would be it's demise - when you start down the lowest common denominator path who's to say what the 'lowest' level of ability things should be 'made safe' for? And that brings up the paradox of 'safe climbing' one hand and the attempted wholesale conversion of climbing to risk-free entertainment for the masses on the other - both pretty sad trends from my perspective.

Its line comes up from the right of the shield wall, SR goes up the middle of it and joins it under the roof. You are correct in that it was the first route up through the SR roof, but it's got it's own set of pins and bolts up to it. No point at all other than to say another couple of old Beacon guys are still going strong.

Dick Morse and Chet Sutterlin, both still climbing apparently: Everest Expedition 2008 and summited.

Finally just decided to go check it out. Thought it was ghastly awkward, much more difficult, and not particularly pleasant. And I've always thought the gear on the slab was completely obvious; exposure is more what I would assume makes folks want to take to the corner vs. the slab.

easy to understand - it's a beginner's climb, and most beginner-leaders go where the pro looks most obvious (even if it does eat their precious, shiny new cams ) But there's plenty of pro up the center of the slab and the climbing over in the crack is like a grade harder.

I cut the yellow Master Cam out of the start of Little Wing. The old cam on the slab I got out with just my fingers and it was actually pretty easy, but Larry had tried to cut it out sometime before I took a stab at it so that helped out some. I did go over and briefly look at LCK's cam, but I don't climb with a nut tool and that baby definitely wasn't coming out with fingers. Larry is the zen-miester of stuck cams with the patience of a saint, maybe check with him. P.S. Still puzzled about why folks don't climb that pitch via the center of the slab. I did that corner crack like I did the right side of the FFA pillar - once, and never again.

To quote a very hard-working and gifted climber with plenty of Valley cred:

If you're talking sport climbing. In trad climbing the gear you get is the gear you get - that by definition means not everyone will protect a pitch the same and it is what it is.

Clean, obvious, and good climbable rock? Hard to imagine it would have been missed. Garbage-strewn chossfests and wonder-knobs - maybe overlooked or just had a go or two. Hard to say for sure.

Only in a post-modern, risk-free, group-oriented, can't-let-belaying-get-in-the-way-of-talking world - so yeah, most places these days.

If they're really 'unclimbed' (seems unlikely at that distance from PDX) then ground-up and onsight is the way to go - or leave them for someone who can.

The bolts up right of Cruising are not new, but just the bolts on 'Rock Police'. Stone Rodeo goes up the shield-like overhanging face with a roof at the top of it and a small tree growing out in space from the crux split in the roof. It got rehabbed over the weekend. It had four bolts and three pins on it, the fourth bolt under the roof is really probably part of 'Obnoxious Cubbyhole' which comes up from the right and meets SR under the roof. The third, high pin was buried under a growth of fern roots. All the bolts were replaced. The two lower pins were pulled and reset - both were and are basically body weight only affairs and neither would likely hold a fall, especially the first pin which is in behind the top of a flake. The second pin is in a downward angled slot. Both funked out with a half-hearted pull on them. Bolts were retro'd next to each of the two lower pins - but, don't get too used them just yet. There is a cam placement just left of the first pin, but at the level of the pin, not the bottom of the webbing loop on the pin and it's possible the cam placement can't be reached from free moves at that point. The second pin has a red-size oval placement up and right of it, but it may be a main handhold. Need to get on the route to be sure. I'm pretty sure the first pin bolt probably needs to stay and think the second pin bolt may not be required but we'll see. Removing either is no big deal either way, but we shouldn't have to rely on really bad pins while we sort it out either. Anyone who gets on it should look at the cam placement by each pin and see what you think, paying particular attention to the reach to the placement by the first pin, and the use of the second placement as a handhold. For those interested, or anyone who needs to retrieve gear from it, the best way to get to the SR anchor is to rappel with a 70m from the YW p2 anchor angling down and left. Downaiding under the roof on rappel is fairly entertaining as well. And best done rapping a single line along with one aider & adjustable daisy, pulling under, and then re-belaying with an alpine butterfly on each clip as you rap down it. Jug to clean. P.S. Oh, and the 'Rock Police' anchor got replaced as well. P.P.S. Kevin, I don't really care much for the rock out at Broughton's so someone who does will have to get after things over there. I also don't really have much else on the agenda in the way of protection bolt replacements out at Beacon - possibly 'Second Wind', but that's about it. Eric and Carl came along and got on it before I could even rap off after finishing up.

Obama has failed to prosecute a single Bush administration traitor or felon and has kept in place or expanded any number of corruptions of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and the additional executive powers acquired under Bush. Maybe the outcome would have been similar under Hillary, but there would be a devastating trail of republicans with broken bones paying for it. Hard to think of a single goal Obama hasn't been prepared to 'compromise' away. It's been a ZERO vision administration for all the campaign talk. From my perspective Obama gave it away before he said word one and that the campaign rhetoric was just that as I knew it was going to be.

I think Obama himself set the tone of trying to work with the republicans - he was very pragmatic and compromise-oriented in Chicago and thought that would work. Rahm on the otherhand is a rip-your-head-off-shit-down-your-neck sort of guy. I was for Hillary who wouldn't have wasted a word on the republicans before starting to break arms and legs.