mksportn

Damn, good work! One of these days I'll get out there! I've got a buddy that is super interested in checking the place and route out!! If you want more company next time let me know and I'll see if he is free!

Beacon Opening Friday!!

really....so masterpiece theater is rediculous? Just get ahold of the FA and ask. If he says yes then everyone's opinion is mute. What cam? I've never placed a cam there, nor have I ever seen anyone place a cam there. But I skip single cam placements pretty much every chance I get. MT isn't a required cam, meaning you can skip it and survive a fall. Angle of the Dangle isn't, as in if you skip it, or it fails, you're decking. As far as the cam, I brought a full rack up there and found a offset .5/.4 was the only cam placement that I trusted that didn't interfere with the hand jams.

Should be able to soon. One-hung it pretty quickly. Haven't been back yet for the Redpoint. Haha yes, mostly tongue in cheek. Yea I'm looking forward to climbing out there! Are you familiar with who put up any of the FA's out there?

Holy shit. I'm out. Talk about thread hijackers throwing temper tantrums...! Quite astounding really. No wonder we can't make any progress around here. Dave, thanks for your opinion. You're the only one of the replies that has actually climbed it (I'm pretty sure of that) (and probably one of only 5-6 that have ever climbed it). No sweat off my back either way, as hopefully I'll send it this week, downgrade it and then probably never do it again, so my question was more for others who've been asking me about it and want to do it, but don't like the cam. My personal opinion is that a single required cam on a otherwise bolted route is absolutely ridiculous, but like I said, that's my just my opinion. I get that's a disputed view though. Anyway. Happy climbing. Or bashing on the Internet. Whatever y'all prefer. I'm going to go explore Chimney Rocks.

I took at 15' fall the other day off the Day of Atonement crux onto a #3 nut (where a ball nut would have fit nicely if I'd brought it, but, it was on the ground ). Falling onto gear isn't the issue. The issue for me in this case is the for sure ground fall if the cam blew for some reason. And yea, the cam probably isn't going to blow, since I've taken the whip now about 5-6 times now while working the crux that is above that cam. But when the entire rest of the route is bolted, it doesn't make sense to me to have a required trad piece, that if it failed, would cause certain injury.

I've got his number. DPS: if this was Dropzone I wouldn't be even be considering the thought of another bolt. But it's not, it's Ozone, which is well known for being well protected.

Thanks for the work. It's much better, even if Jim was complaining about it. Haha

I'm going to bring this topic back up. I think it needs a bolt on roof, to replace the single cam. I'm currently working it, and it's a cool route. But that one piece of gear is all that's stopping you from a 35' grounder off th crux. So the 5kn thin cams aren't really inspiring. Bigger cams are all been in the way of crucial hand jams. I managed to find a offset .5/.4 that seems fairly solid, but it's still pretty nerve racking. It's a great route, and should see more traffic, but never will with that required cam and being sketchy at that. And I'm not one to be scared of a whip, even on trad gear. That route has probably only seen a handle of ascents in the past 10 years, which is too bad, but it won't change unless it sees a bolt. Thoughts? Anyone know where to get ahold of the FA?

Hey! We've just released a new guidebook for Ozone, Dropzone and Stratosphere! It's been released via Rakkup, and is avalible to download at http://rakkup.com/guidebooks/ozone-dropzone-farside-stratosphere-rock-climbing/. For more info, check out our website! https://columbiagorgeguides.wordpress.com/

So many broken cracks going different ways, feel like it could be climbed 5 different ways. Nothing wrong with that! The two pitons in the middle helped point to the original line though.

So Topher, Sam and I climbed Smoke Signals into Stone Soup today. We attempted to free it the entire way, and were mostly successful. Pretty good climbing and it was a great day. And we were even met at the top by Ivan himself! I'm sure Topher will give a detailed post of what's been done, but I wanted to do a little report on what I thought of each pitch. Pitch 1: I led this one, (flash, because Topher gave me some gear beta, which I promptly forgot and didn't use haha.) Good route, a little tricky to follow the natural because there isn't an obvious line, but once you're climbing it falls into place. Grade wise, I felt like it was somewhere in the 5.9/10a area, and the gear was all easy to place and plentiful. Pitch 2: Sam onsighted this one, carrying a full double rack to 4" Props to him! P2 is amazing. Stellar climbing on flawless rock, with a pumpy section up top! Thought this pitch was around 10d/11a. Pitch 3: I led this one. Initially tried to go up the first squeeze chute you come too, but found that I couldn't fit up it. haha then found the double OW around the corner, which was fun, and pretty easy. 5.8 pitch, simply because of the start up the short hand crack at the beginning. I would like to look at seeing if it's possible to send the first squeeze chute as a lieback, and make it a more direct free line. Pitch 4: I also led this one. Once I took a look at the bolt line, I really wanted to try to free it, rather than take the dirty 5.6 line around the corner. So we french free'd the bolt ladder in order to scrub holds, and I gave it a shot. The first 3 bolts to the little foot ramp about 20' up is too hard. Probably hard 5.11 slab, and just not in character with the rest of the route. However, I found a nice little finger crack to the right about 10' that led to the same foot ramp. Cleaned that out, and scrubbed the holds in the top section, then pulled the rope, and lead it on gear up to the ramp, and then used the bolts on the bolt ladder to finish out. It went free on my first redpoint attempt. The crux is at the top of the slab, and features awesome and tricky slab moves. Giving it a grade of 5.10+, thin gear to 1" for the starting crack. As a free climb, I would recommend continuing up the handline to the upper anchors at the start of pitch 5. Pitch 5: this is the only pitch we didn't free clean. Sent it no problem up to the overhang, and then it took a while to figure out the moves through that. Finally figured out that once you reach the overhang, cut up and left on the leaning weakness, and top out just left of the aid line by about 5'. Needs a single bolt to protect that fall, as the current pin placement causes a rather nasty fall. So, while I freed all the moves, it's not been freed in a single go yet. Pitch 6: Scary as FUCK! haha some really good climbing mixed with terrifying loose blocks. We are going to look at continuing the line straight up the face and bypassing those loose block, because as a free climb, you can't avoid them, and there are a lot of them... P6 felt like a hard 5.9. We then simul-climb to the top! Pretty cool it actually goes to the top!! Good work on Ivan and the crew for finding the line!!

I know this was a few months ago, but anyway, there will be a big trail maintenance day at Broughton on May 14th! https://www.facebook.com/events/1226920660669470/

You might consider buying some Legacy Bolts from ClimbTech. Super easy to remove when needed.

Did you actually apply to be on the committee? The invite was out there and open for anyone. I talked to Randy a couple times last year, and I honestly feel like he really does want to help us out. Of course, that's hard for him to do when he hits government AND climber resistance at every turn...Let Bill and the crew do what they were appointed to do. Sure, bring it back up later in the year, but at least give them a freaking chance to do the work. Bill thinks the climbing plan will be up by summer time. I, for one, am for trusting Bill to work with the crew and do a good job representing all of us.