JosephH

Dude, it wouldn't be my first rodeo with a sociopath bedeviled by violent tendencies and anger management issues so don't flatter yourself. But, hey, do keep threatening me on the internet as it does neatly tidy things up overall. And who knew the BRCA had thugs? It just makes for yet another inadvertent and self-revealing press release. Oh, and pissing all over yourself is what would happen if you ever tried to lead one of my routes.

Clueless as ever I see, but what the hell, let's break your conjecture down anyway: Really? Are you serious? Because unless I missed something in the course of replacing seventy or so anchors out there I'd say the 'long held tradition' at Beacon Rock is to slap a frigging anchor in pretty much anywhere and everywhere. I'd say that 'tradition' is why there's a ton of unnecessary bolted anchors on Beacon's South Face. And, since you appear as dense as pink on the concept, I'll repeat - it wasn't my anchor, I simply moved the existing anchor off the tree. And if you had even the slightest clue about the anchor in question then you'd know that I didn't "put an anchor next to a tree", rather I anchored the slings in the small alcove behind the tree so the net effect is a complete wash as the only change is the slings are on the hangers instead of the tree. Capisce? Feel free to chop it, but if I pulled the slings then we both know you'd be bitching and whining about that. Well, given I don't really care all that much for the NW face and seldom get on it, if slings (or ropes) are missing there, it wasn't me. In fact, the anchors you're using on the top of p1 across the NW face are anchors [w/ slings] that I replaced and paid for (two at pink's request) and (unfortunately) a bunch of the pins and bolts on 'Stone Soup' came from me, the NW face vandal. But then you've been spewing this kind of ridiculous tripe and slander right along so why should this one be any surprise. This is the basic problem with you guys - a paucity of fact, a complete failure to understand even the basics of how Beacon Rock is managed as a resource, and an abject failure to establish trusted working relationships with the various land managers and agencies. If [any of] you had [EVER] bothered to inform yourself, learn the facts, understand the policy, or establish even nominal working relationships with people like her, then you'd know that: no, Lisa didn't and doesn't advocate bolting at Beacon Rock. What she does advocate - and explicitly requested - is anchors off the trees and replacing chain anchors with camo'ed slings. But then we both know you aren't even vaguely interested in such reality-based WSP matters or you'd already have known that little tidbit for like the past eight years. So you guys are now suddenly against bolting Beacon. Wow, that's interesting. Because after the 50 bolt/pin 'Stone Soup', the bolt on FFA right, and of course the head-pointed, retro-bolted, pre-placed pro Wild Turkeys 'FFA' where you guys actually had the boneheaded audacity to claim authority to grant Matt permission for the bolting, you'll have to forgive me if I missed where "bolting Beacon Rock [is] against the wishes of the climbing community". In fact - quite to the contrary - of late you guys seem way, way 'all in' on bolting Beacon Rock (not to mention clear-cutting, chiseling and terraforming). And we won't even get into three leading BRCA members just getting busted for deliberately breaking the closure on the West Face. Surely it must have been a 'scientific research climb' to better manage the resource in the same way the Japanese do 'scientific research whaling' to better manage whales, right? Pretty fucking savvy move given it was the first thing the new head ranger learned about how serious the "climbing community" is about cooperatively managing the resource. But then, hey, I'm the idiot here.

Well, yet again, I didn't put the anchor there. And like the other "40 foot" anchor mentioned up thread, it's not hard to guess that this one was created for the same reason. You're certainly welcome to continue to argue that anchors on trees aren't really anchors but, sadly, it's a distinction without distinction. Or, you could just chop it (way ok by me anyway), and then we could see how long it takes for new [non-anchor] slings to show up on the tree. Then again, what would the place be without those huge crocodile tears over the things that really, really matter. Carry on... As for chopping a bolt at Ozone, what on earth would be the point? It would be about as meaningful as chopping a bolt in Boulder Canyon.

Except the anchor had been there for years to the tune of four slings. As I said, at best an exercise in hurling desperately meaningless semantics. Had I removed the anchor you'd no doubt be bitching and moaning about that.

Stout.

I didn't put the anchor there, I simply moved it three inches off the tree. If it were up to me personally, about 60% of the anchors out there would disappear overnight and Beacon is a bit unusual with respect to all the fixed anchors compared to most multipitch crags.

Not me, I only replace them. - definitely not my cup of tea. not true, you added a bolt anchor to the middle of a pitch on "Summer Daze". Not true, moved the existing anchor off the tree to the alcove immediately behind the trunk at the request of the Lisa Lantz, the WSP SW Resource Steward. There was an existing anchor there and it is still there, albeit on two bolts three inches behind the tree trunk. It's a net wash unless you're absolutely desperate for something to whine about.

Not me, I only replace them. Hell, have only been to Ozone a half dozen times, the last in 2008/9 or so and don't have the slightest friggin' clue as to what's what over there let alone who did what - definitely not my cup of tea.

Good TR. It's an interesting place. Some nominal climbing; long, steep scree slopes that went on forever and were interesting to run as you could get the whole affair moving and you just had to sort of run in place and ride it down. The oddest thing was the women - it's like there are six beautiful archetypal women and you keep seeing them over and over everywhere you go. That, and they are all in burlier shape than the men on average. My friend kept asking why all the girls were doing the outside work while the men were all inside at desks. Food on the other hand was pretty abysmal: fish pickled in more ways then you would have thought possible. All in all it's an interesting stopover if you're headed for Europe.

Will second that...que pasa?

It doesn't seem like posting is down.

Not going to happen...

The p3 dihedral pins were checked in 2005, 2008, and last in 2011 and they are still bomb. The first pin on p1 and the angle up on p4 on the other hand were reset in 2005 and checked in 2008 and 2011 and neither placement was ever what you'd call fabulous no matter what.

Good to know. Found a few links on 2013 base closures, sounds fast and furious. Sounds like there's a strong push to possibly go to zero troops instead of a large number of 'advisers' which would be great.

Anyone have email or phone to friends or anyone who could verify he's ok...? Got to be pretty damn busy shutting down bases given the timetable.

Yeah, another case of GF aid and they were a pain in the ass to clean off as were the ones someone scratched into the rock another time.

The move straight over the bolt on p4 for sure as, given the rope stretch, it would be an ugly fall if you blew it standing up. I have the p2 mantle burned into body memory so I don't even really think about it anymore, but the pinned p3 dihedral stops me up short and makes me think it all through again every time I do it. Not me, but it doesn't surprise me. Also more rock out of the left side of the Wrong Gull pillar - can't be long for the world and that pillar is really going to clear a path to the tracks when it goes. Miss it already, one of my favs, but I don't think it's safe to do anymore.

That right there is a damn straight classic dem-vs-us, someone-gone-done-us-wrong, conspiracy rant. It's got it all. Absolutely love it. Well, let's take it from the top... Despite whatever Jim would like to believe, there has been "nest activity" in the past several weeks with adults coming and going from the nest and in fact there was finally fledge activity today. We did have about a ten day gap where we couldn't seem to catch the fledges out so couldn't make a definitive call on their flight capabilities. And, lordy, unfortunately without definitive observations, the rock can't be opened early. Wish it was a spit into the wind, guessing sort of deal, but it's not. But it sure is heartening to hear Jim is spending so much time down at the boat launch with binoculars, given that's the only place you can make "nest activity" observations. No activity here... As for "made no effort" - wow, that's it! You got me! I've been driving up to Beacon and staring through binoculars for hours at a time for the past two weeks instead of climbing just to fuck with you. Genius. In the end though, it is good to see some honest talk about what you really think. As it is, we can all be glad there were no fledges in nest given the phrase "emergency re-closure" had been bandied about on Friday.

Well, it would be way more productive if you all just watched the governing state and federal laws / policies and the people who would have to say yes to you, instead of me. Or take a road trip to Eldo and talk to those guys about how they manage their relationship with the Colorado State Parks - good climbing and I'm sure they'd be happy to show you around.

Karl was working hard on climbers' behalf to get it open Friday. David is inclined to open the 15th, but wants to know if the fledges are in the nest - i.e. everyone wants it open tomorrow, you, me, Karl, David - but if the fledges are still in the nest that would be complicating. They might still open, but then again they might not - I don't know because I have no role or say in that. Let's just hope the nest is empty. The are several good size owls out there, two closely associated with the South Face - neither are Great Horned Owls. There was a Great Horned Owl out there nearby to the west for a number of years, but a couple of years ago it was found with a broken wing highly suggestive of Peregrine strike. No Great Horned Owls were seen close to the rock since then until quite recently which has just added to the speculation. P.S. I spent nine hours "supposedly monitoring" in the past eight days that I'd rather have spent been climbing. And I didn't do it "for the biologist", I did it in the hope of climbing as early as possible.

I'm no one and speak for no one but myself. I'm just trying to give you a heads-up things are highly unusual this year, that there is uncertainty with regard to the true status of the fledges, and there is a outside possibility the open could be stalled if the fledges are still in the nest. The WSP could decide to open Monday even if the fledges are in the nest - it's their call to make - but that decision would entail significant complications of its own.

That announcement may have been a tad premature as this is a highly unusual year relative to the fledging. Here is why... There were three chicks observed to be on the verge of fledging on the 28th and one was observed flying briefly shortly after that. What's been problematic and atypical is there has been no sign of the fledges since during the many monitoring sessions over the past ten days. At this point, the fledges should basically be an all-day sky-riot back and for across the South and East faces; instead we're seeing nothing. Given they're too young to have already 'flown the coop', the possibilities are they died on their first attempt flying, or a recently spotted Great Horned Owl got them - both highly unlikely to have gotten all three fledges. Other possibilities would be falconers (unlikely) or some disease / genetic condition. And last it's possible that they're still just down on the nest for some reason or another (also I should think not necessarily a great sign). Three fledges are up and about at Cape Horn and so, due to the lack of observation data at Beacon, WDFW has asked that the nest and ground below it be inspected on the 14th. If it were found that the chicks are still just down on the nest it is possible an emergency brake will be pulled on the open, though that would be a WSP/BRSP call. Again, it's a complete puzzle at this time and a highly atypical year so there is no knowing what will be found. It should also be noted that Karl (BRSP head ranger) was pushing hard for it to be open yesterday, but that the observational / confirmation data just didn't support David making that call. [ P.S. Be sure and say hi to Patrick, the new BRSP seasonal ranger. Patrick has been a zoo guide at the San Diego Zoo, a guide at Glacier, and is a climber who has climbed at Joshua Tree and the Valley (though sport, not trad). He's has come to work at Beacon because of the climbing and is looking forward to getting out on it as much as we are and also to learning trad. ]

Well then if you and Steve would simply stop posting crap like Steve's initial post about 'anchor vandalism' above we wouldn't be doing this sort of bullshit at all. Ivan, the bolts on SS all looked reasonable when I checked them other than a bunch needing to be cut short. My offer of the battery Sawzall is still good and you guys should consider it because a fall with the rope across one of those long bolts is gonna likely cut a rope or if you fall past one and catch it it's going to gouge the shit out of you and probably tumble you real bad to boot.

If the bolts are stainless. The fixed pins at Beacon placed in the 60's and 70's were, on a percentage basis, in way better shape than bolts placed in the 80's and 90's. From my replacement experience checking essentially ever pin and bolt on Beacon's South face, I'd say short pins of any variety, angles, and knifeblades just don't hold up over time. Medium-to-long Arrows, Bugaboos, and most soft Europins all were still basically bomb decades later where a high percentage of the non-stainless bolts (almost all of them being non-stainless) had gone to shit in a decade. Oddly, the most truck bolts out there are the old split-shank buttonheads - the homemade and early commercial hangers have all but evaporated, but damn those split-shanks are stout. So that's been my experience on sea-level basalt in the Gorge but your mileage may way seriously vary if you're talking alpine granite where I suspect pins are subject to a lot more expansion/contraction cycles. Bottom line though, is that all fixed protection - pins or bolts - need maintenance sooner or later.