JosephH

I was a witness to that spectacle of perils and unparalled off-route stems and reaches to a survivor's finish. Looked way too burly for me - and to think folks feel they have to leave Beacon for wide challenges.

They will be replaced by bolts if there is no place for a medium Bug or LA - the short angles won't be going back in as the don't hold for more than a couple of years max. My partner Tangen-Foster and I unknowingly did the FFA in between the time Bob started it and the time they list the FFA. We had no idea anyone was working on it and it was my partner's first time at Beacon and my first time back since a lone trip to Beacon in '80. We almost died trying to head up through the East Face roofs opposite the big tree in the first turn in the climbers trail, then did Stone Rodeo, and then Pipeline also freeing the moves from the Pipeline anchor up left to the start of the Silver Crow column base above the middle of the Arena. What can I say, it was a good day.

Wrong Gull is one of my very favorite climbs at Beacon. And as eldiente said, that is the most stepped on pin out there. Doing it without stepping on it makes it significantly more challenging. That pin did get checked and is bomb, but why would you get there and be in a decking situation when there is good pro all the way up to it? I'm guessing the mystery chalker has just overlooked it or it would basically just be a short white streak up the rock. P.S. Pretty much all the pins anyone (but Ivan) is going to run into have been checked and were either good or were reset or replaced - with the exception of the two short angle on Stone Rodeo which I doubt would hold a fall at this point (need to get up there and replace them).

Tyler, a #1 KB on the west side will be lucky to make it 10 years as a viable piece of protection - particularly on a piece of stone that doesn't see all that much travel let alone maintenance. I respect that decision, but you guys should consider carrying funks and a couple of medium and long Bugs and LAs in your kits for random replacements and just funking out old junk.

Don't know what he said, but common sense would say you if you are on a rope and going more than an ape's reach then you are either abandoning, fixing, or doing without anchors and pro - or you're going back and retrieving them - there can't be any other way.

As opposed to the Bush administration that flushed two trillion down a toilet in the mideast and another couple here at home fighting any plausible form of credible financial oversight while wholesale selling the government off to 'contractors' and corporations. Do we have more moronic 'wit' and 'observations' from the right...?

Hard to tell from that photo as it's clearly after-the-fact. But in general, you're either leap frogging two or three daisies with gear, or, if you're using a longer piece of rope off of an anchor and leaving gear, then you're going to have to go back down and retrieve it one way or another.

Farrgo, not slagging anyone for what's been done, just trying get the practice stopped and offering help and pins.

Kevin, wrong - it's just a matter of kids these days simply not knowing the reality of the performance of pins. But if anyone is going to do that then at least clean the damn pin. But friggin' don't kid yourself, you're retro-bolting at that point. But then I keep forgetting, you never saw a bolt you weren't in love with the instant you saw it.

If it's Tyler or anyone else, I'd be happy to supply pins for such endeavors. In general, pins need maintenance just like bolts, but there's no reason to be shooting in bolts next to good pins or pins that just need to be reset or replaced. Almost all the pins out at Beacon have been checked, reset, and/or replaced and it's not that hard to learn to do it; you just need a funk cable to go with your drilling setup given you already have a hammer for the bolts. Most of the older pins at Beacon have far outlasted the bolts for being bomb, even bolts placed in the 90's most of which are shite now. Please don't retro existing pins with bolts unless they are smallish pins (particularly small angles) which don't holdup. Just learn a enough pincraft to check, reset, and replace them. I'd be willing to help out and pins are also available on ebay all the time.

We should also not kid yourselves about one thing, which falls under the 'Darwin never sleeps' category - the principle outcome for our trillion dollars in Afhghanistan and Iraq has been the perfection of sophisticated IEDs and plasma weapons from cell phones, $5 dollar RC toys, and copper pans and, in turn, greatly enhanced asymmetric warfare tactics for third world countries.

It had everything to do with the world's reaction to eight years of Bush and their disappointment with the pace of "change" under Obama. Given that lack of rapid "change", you should be happy with the way things are. Had he stopped being a Chicago politician and actually stood up the right would really have something to be upset about; as it is now, the right's current infatuation with themselves, their hallucinations, and their indignation is about as sad a spectacle as I've ever seen. The difference with the left's hand wringing during the Bush administration was that no one had to invent a bunch of bad fantasies to accuse them of - their reality was better than most conspiracy theories. The lot of them, like most of the Reagan administration, will be remembered almost to a man as the felons and traitors they are.

We could put one in right alongside IB and call it 'the treadmill'.

Studliness. Is there really any reason the North Cascades shouldn't be sporting a dozen or so of them...?

Ha, the Skousens - I bought my old place in Hood River from Cleon's nephew Joel. It was the original Luthern church in town built by Rev. Eliot of Eliot Glacier fame. They're an interesting clan that's for damn sure. I actually spent some time around the family before and after the deal closed and really enjoyed all their kids. As for the religion, philosophy, and survivalist bombshelter aspects of what Joel and Cleon espoused - well, that's a different story. They've made no shortage of money off the fringe right, however. Can't say I really understand what they're getting for their money, but that's another story. Edit: Nephew, not son. All three nephews are influencers of the fringe right...

I'm not misreading his intentions. I simply think in most instances it's a bad idea to switch mindsets and interrupt the flow and rythmn of free soloing by attempting to suddenly deploy gear mid-pitch. When free roped-soloing I do free-solo pitches, but I never attempt to mix unprotected and protected climbing in amy pitch. Doubly so if the climber isn't way solid and highly experienced climber. But again, that's just me.

It should be noted eldiente is a very strong and experienced climber roped or solo.

Leap frog free soloing has little in common with leap frog aid soloing relative to cleaning pro. Attempting to do this if you aren't a strong climber, familiar with free soloing, roped soloing, and aid soloing would be a bad idea in my opinion. One of the essences of soloing in any of the three solo modalities is rythmn. Breaking cleanly from one to the other for segments or pitches is one thing and I do that quite regularly, breaking it up for a move here and a move there I just wouldn't be willing to do and I've be free roped soloing and free soloing for decades. But everyone has to find there own way with what works for them when it comes to soloing of any kind...

My advice would be go either fully solo or fully roped solo and not try to rig a short two move system - but that's just me.

Good call on the Blue - possibly what I consider the best climbing on earth, but then I'm a sandstone guy...

Mt. Bacon - South Rib

They had a good chunk of the Cliff Hanger riggers, safety, and stunt crew involved with VL and a few new ones to boot, but the director and producers weren't even remotely interested in the opinions of or suggestions from the crew.

It is.

OMG! Someone has wiped out Ozone East! I can hear the drills weeping. But as Mike said on that thread, maybe this was taking the pressure off of other areas just as Ozone does for Beacon. Then again, it gets back to the simple reality that at this point, and as Mike White points out on that thread, the drilling is insatiable and unstoppable. Sure, SLC and BCC has plenty of rock, but the same thing is happening across the country and in lots of areas with a far more limited pallet of crags.

Ivan, how about replacing the Flightime pro and anchors while you're at it. I'm currently nursing what turned out to be a broken finger, but I could swing by with the drilling rig and necessary bolts and hangers. You could leave the old aluminum poptop bolts to give folks some historical perspective on the FA.