JosephH

Are you, or is anyone else, particularly interested? I'd be happy to. I quit doing a Beacon Update thread by popular demand. Saw the Peregrines two of the three days I was out last week, but wasn't monitoring then. I'd normally start monitoring around the third week of February but this winter has been pretty warm so will probably start this weekend.

You want to monitor this year, great, you and Kenny are there all the time, all you have to do is put in the time to learn. But, "Stepping up" at Beacon means a lot of things - first and foremost among them is stepping outside our own little world and needs and taking a stab at understanding the broader context in which we climb. That means learning the history, the regs, the roles and claims the various stakeholders have over the rock, and actually establishing relationships with the folks who represent those agencies. The idea that Beacon locals can completely ignore all that and simply come out with our sudden righteous indignation and single-minded point of view every year lacks credibility in every way. The WDFW and BRSP agreed to a trial of the concept, which was rejected. That trial offer was based on trust. Subsequent closure breaches in every succeed year since has made the point pretty moot. Could it be ressurected? Unlikely, but who knows. But certainly not in an evironment where climbers consistently maintain an advesarial us vs. them attitude and approach to all things Beacon and have no relationship of any kind with the human beings who manage Beacon on behalf of their agencies. This is exactly the attitude and approach I'm talking about - zero understanding or interest in bothering to figure out how the other folks involved live or what they deal with. Have you bothered to find out anything about the staffing, budget, workload, or resources those guys deal with? Do you have any idea what running and maintaining the park entails? Those guys are basically fucked up the ass every year by us "taxpayers" to the tune of half the budget and resources they need to do their jobs - they all personally step up and make up the difference as best they can where they can. Step anywhere you like, but you'll change nothing - especially the closure - if the only voice you "hear" is your own and the echo at the base of the SE Corner.

There are all sorts of closures and limits on the river.

Quite the reverse - "We don’t want the birds to nest at Beacon" - it's you who's just let your true colors shine. Climbers or Peregrines? Way to make that decision easy, dude. And hey, we don't need no stinking Salmon in the river, neither - plenty of damn rivers around.

Missed this one. Yes, this in every way is a point of difference between us - I can't imagine climbing at Beacon without the Peregrines out there as well. Beacon is the Pergrines and vice versa and they nested there for an eternity before they were nearly driven to extinction. The very statement "we don't want the birds to nest at Beacon" says it all for me - it's the essence of why you, Jim and others were and are as much of an obstacle to sanely dealing with this issue as you are. Under no circumstance would I ever not want the birds to nest at Beacon. I might wish they nested elsewhere on Beacon, but that's up to them, not us. Count me with Peregrines over you every single time in this respect.

No, they don't - I'm just business to them, but I am the only member of the flea circus that actually communicates with them on any regular basis and they work with that as it's the only steady interaction they have with any climbers. josph, you have a way with words but not with people.... No shit - that's why it would be great if some of the folks who are would quit whining and step up...

No, they don't - I'm just business to them, but I am the only member of the flea circus that actually communicates with them on any regular basis and they work with that as it's the only steady interaction they have with any climbers.

... and yet you continue to bring it up here. hmmmm... yeh i do believe jh brought up th whole '"MAN" thing... Yeah, that's because I have to listen to the ceasely whining by Beacon locals that reaches a screeching crescendo about this time each year like clockwork. An endless ocean of whining by a bunch of folks can't be trouble to do anything else about it. Yeah the man really dishes it out alright...

And you expected WDFW to keep doing them after consistent closure breaches - guess what? They didn't. And they also didn't because windpower boom in the Gorge took off and monitoring Beacon ended up way down on the priority list of places to dedicate resources. Last year WDFW started to spin up a new guy in the Vancouver office to learn to do some of the monitoring, but in the several years before that I've been filling the void.

No posing going on at all - I'm entirely self-interested in wanting to climb every day I can out at Beacon. Any day any of you guys want to step up for more climbing at Beacon instead of bitching and whining are free to do so. But the whole 'Man' thing is so much complete and utter bullshit - not that you guys would have an emotional life without 'the man' to pin all of life's woes on. And taking it to the ultimate - working for 'the man' while railing against him - gotta admire that. So much easier and more productive than actually being smart and working from within your own agency to help climbers out in all this.

the only closure breach that i am aware of is when you went down to big ledge last year with a bag of pea gravel to make a nice comfy bed for the falcons - how natural for the birds... i bet they loved that There was no breach - that work was authorized by both the BRSP and your department and is part of the deal - we get early opens and they get the eyrie checked and cleaned up at the end and start of every closure. I don't decide what gets done, I do it as part of a cooperative relationship with YOUR agency. How about you fucking manning up, stop whining, and actually be a biologist for a few hours so I don't have to do this shit in order to have the possibility of early opens.

Discussions did take place and a decision has been made that isn't going to change. I posted the principal reasons why on the 'Beacon' thread. Kenny, dude - once again, you are the MAN - you work for WDFW - you know, the guys who close the rock to climbing every year. And you're a WA state government employee. You may be a climber, but if a guy who works for WDFW can't figure out the rules, regs, 'game', and the 'system' well enough to understand what's going on then it doesn't bode well for climbers. Your ranting isn't terribly effective, fact-laden, or ring particularly true when it comes to "honest climbers" and "good stewards" when closure breaches continue and locals are intent on steadfastly maintaining a hostile, antagonistic, and strictly uncooperative stance with any and all managing authorities at Beacon.

Left of the climbing line sign at the west end of the parking lot is closed because: a) The area above the water fountain so people and cars aren't killed on the ground. b) the area left above the fence for cultural and environmental reasons; cultural for the same reason the trail under the East Face roofs is closed; environmental for two endangered plant species up above the roofs (or on that tall face at the north end) - the Gorge Daisy and a variety of Saxifragaceae. Again, if there were any way to open that tall, unbroken face on the north end of the East Face to climbing without fucking us with the Gorge Commission, DAHP and tribes I'd have already gone after it. In the original public comment period when Washington established state climbing regulations the comments from Gorge Commission and Warm Springs / Yakima tribes were not on our side claiming proposed climbing regs as applied in the Gorge violated the Scenic Act and tribal treaty rights - climbing was protected from them by the WSP staff in Olympia arguing on our behalf. But fuck their budget with legal fees and you'd be stupid to expect them to defend climbers again if we deliberately throw it open to involvement by the GC, DAHP, and tribes, and fuck the WSP and WDFG in the process.

Shane is in the South Bay area for a job. He still has the house in PDX, but I wouldn't count on him doing more than visiting for quite awhile. He put in fixed pro applications for anchors and new routes that were approved for the Northside and then he, Tymun, and Dorian put them up.

You can start by quit sucking up to the man. And you could quit sucking yourself off, dude - wake the fuck up! Peter Pan overdosed in the '90s, Wendy's been working 82nd for the past two decades, and the lost children graduated Green Hill School for Walla Walla state pen. You're married to a lawyer, maybe get a better grip on the facts than your dick before trying to piss into the legal shitstorm you keep wanting to start. But that's right, you running your mouth is way more important than early opens, especially since you don't really climb anymore anyway.

There is nothing about the closure that isn't far-fetched to you. Look, I climb out there a hell of a lot more than you do these days and believe me, if there were any conceivable way for me to climb out there past today I'd have already made a strong go at it. As it is I'm not willing to risk early opens for ideas that I know aren't going to pan out and will just antagonize folks in the process. To some extent these posts are like watching PDX drivers when the rain starts every year. I know it's a bummer for everyone - me included (if not me especially, because I'm just that damn 'special').

The Peregrines use the Tree Ledge and SE Corner Ramp extensively for both hunting and fledging. And given the East Face is where they'd most likely move the eyrie if they were going to move it, I wouldn't want activity over there prior to laying eggs (first week of April). Over the last three years they have been showing a strong affinity for the East Face. The issue for them over there is the Ravens. In the years they nest at Beacon it's on the East Face which they dominate. They chased the Redtails out of their nest and over to the trees in front of Hamilton three years ago never to return.

Yes. Tell them I referred you.

Did you try giving Wayne and Owen a call?

Talked with Jim about it at length before I did it. Had he not hurt himself I would have done it with him. The bad mixed metal ones got replaced on p1 and p2. Climb it, nothing whatsoever has changed. The 'offender' sent the pin back with initials and I'd like to talk with them about it - simple as that. It is not back in the notch as yet.

Still looking for E.M. who sent the pulled pin back, the owner of the yellow/black Windsurfer cordalette, and a dropped orange HB alloy on the Corner p3. Thanks....

Still looking for E.M. who sent the pulled pin back, the owner of the yellow/black Windsurfer cordalette, and a dropped orange HB alloy on the Corner p3. Thanks....

Except IB isn't one of those.

Just got back from doing the Corner and rapping Dastardly to replace the Windsurfer slings. If anyone knows who's yellow/black cordalette that was I have it if they want it back. Oh, and somewhere in the dark I lost an orange HB nut with or without a draw - have no idea how, but probably p3 somewhere.

They are actually fairly beefy, they come in a real long version, and that clipping eye is elongated and will take a couple of biners. Didn't realize they still sold them until I dug around some.