pdx aid climbs

[ivan]

i'd like to start compensating for my generally shit free climbing skillz by doing more aid stuff (at least give me some confidence i can unfuck myself in the alpine when necessary)...what routes at beacon/broughton/rocky butte are acceptable for practice? am i going to get shot for nailing on these?

[MtnHigh]

If you start driving pins and leaving scars in the local basalt routes you'll beg to be shot to quickly end your misery. Practice clean aid on the standard routes, but go find a pile of choss for the pins.

[ivan]

despite the fact that the portland rock climbs mentions nailing as okay on some of beacon's routes w/ very thin cracks?

[billcoe]

Here's one example of why the guide book may not be always correct on things: - the 2nd pitch of "flying Dutchman" at Beacon would have been good. Long thin crack, perfect for blades and arrows. 1 caveat: it used to be thought imossible by all the hard men of the day (I'm talking guys who could crank 5.12-13. Now Mark Deffenback tells me his partner just went and FFA'ed it at only 5.11. Mark led it and confirmed the rating. So, probably OK to nail it as it was impossible cause the crack was so small 10 years ago, but it has somehow gotten larger as current climbers can get up it and now find it relatively easy.

 

So, none of the old fat climbers would care as we generally can't get our lard asses up a 5.11 crack anymore, but guys like Mark might care if you downgrade it to 10A by widening the crack for our fat stubby fingers.

 

I'll try and e-mail my friend Andrew Trzynka for the location of the bridge over the Tualatin river he had shown me 20 years ago. Real sweet crack takes arrows, Leepers and sliders (ballnutz) size. Imagine a 200 foot overhanging crack, it's perfect and no one can see or hear you. The pin scars are Wiz Macobsons, not mine BTW, I'd never overdrive..... cough *bullshit*, cough * bullshit.

 

It would be sweet practice for you, but don't zipper over the creek or you could drown real easy. Wis ripped once and cratered into the mud-bank once is the story, (I missed that one) it's probably slightly expando if you think about it, be nice to have some Ball Nuts going over the river.

 

Regards:

 

Bill

[rbw1966]

You can do clean aid on any trad route. I've done gandalfs this way just for the practice. There are some sweet 5.11's over there too that go clean.

 

Avoid doing 5.10s and lower that are more than 3 stars as you're surely going to piss off people. I stick with 11s and above and go clean.

 

Theres some stuff in the clackamas gorge that goes clean too. I am sure you can nail a few lines out there too since no one climbs there.

[ivan]

ya, mike and i did peach cling on aid on that face 2 weekends ago and it was cool

 

seems like beacon oughta have some long fun aid lines, given it's steepness

[rbw1966]

There are Beacon aid routes listed in PRC

[ivan]

yeah, i noticed that and the descriptions seemed to indicate that nailing was acceptable on them...but yet it seems that nailing is so strongly discouraged i wanted to see what the great silent majority thought before the klan showed up at my door...i'm not feeling much of a consensus at the moment, at least for beacon. reckon i'll do what i want and just carry a .44 magnum

Edited March 31, 2004 by ivan

[Hal_Burton]

reckon i'll do what i want and just carry a .44 magnum

 

What, to keep the Peregrines off you? (hint, hint)

[billcoe]

reckon i'll do what i want and just carry a .44 magnum

 

Put a couple of round through the "no climbing" signs will ya?

 

Also, I'm hardly a local, but if ya really want to drive steel, call Jim Opdyke up and ask him, most of the current locals consider themselves "students" or something like that of his and no one would give you crap.

 

So,

 

1st) just ask Jim. He's a great guy too.

 

2) Blast the signs.

 

3) Don't get caught.

 

4) Have fun.

 

1 more thing: please don't think this is a critisism, but you might seriously think of dropping down a caliber or 2. even a .45 with standard loads for instance. That way your bullet won't go through the sign, ricochet off the rocks, skim across the Columbia river and peg some unsuspecting soul getting out of their car at Broughtons Bluff millions of miles down river. (BTW my 9mil will ricochet off the water and carry across most of the way across the Columbia, you can actually see the bullets!)

 

Again, just a suggestion, don't want to piss anybody armed with a 44 mag off or anything.

[sketchfest]

You might want to talk to rbw and terminal gravity before you go off aiding at beacon right now....just a thought.

[billcoe]

OK, here's one thats pretty good. Beacon is closed till July.

 

This ones a great free route, but nobody does it, there's chains at the top too should you deciede to TR it. I thought I did the FFA (named it "free bird"-real origonal eh) but the book lists it as a Mcgowen FA called Wisdon Tooth.

 

Rocky Butte, next route due west of Bird of Paradise, it's about 20' from the top of Birds of Paradise, or further at the base as you go down the cliff towards the Grotto, back up the chains with a rope on a tree well back from the edge as they're rusty.

 

It's a huge swing out if you blow it on TR, and other than me I've never seen but 1 party do it in the last 32 years. It would nail fairly well IMO. If you had some rurps, there is an incipiant seam which, if your lucky, may blow off the key ear shaped feature, a loosish flake 1/2 way up. Don't have anybody standing underneath you as this thing would weigh over 100 lbs and kill a person. Barring having rurps, best pieces would be a #4 friend behind the flake, bongs would be diecy and expanding - although if you are toprop nailing hey, so what. Most of the pins would be leapers or angles.

 

So you know, there are lots of routes further down that direction which we've done before any of those houses got put in, I don't think any of them are in the book either. I wouldn't co-operate with Tim when he called me for info.- pick one and nail it to the top, nobody goes that way, which explains why no one has chopped the bolts on "wisdom Tooth".

 

I am only speaking for myself here, no one else. Won't crank me a bit, it's the closest thing to a choss pile to PDX. Take the advise not to nail a common route though. You might have somebody else get cranked at you anyway.

[ivan]

i never heard of those guys...they in politics?

[texplorer]

I have done many big walls in the desert and in yosemite and have yet to nail on anything except yocum ridge. I think nailing is a thing of the past in main freeclimbing areas and even most of the major walls around. Bring pins to the mountains or your A4 lines.

 

Mark, myself, and several others are trying to free alot of those "aid" lines at beacon. Be very careful where you aid. There are not many ways to ruin routes but hammering is one of them.

[Winter]

You could probably nail Bobby Bensman without ruining a pristine line.

[rbw1966]

Yeah, nothing like pulling plastic huh?

[lancegranite]

manners?

[billcoe]

Ivan, FYI, there is a hardcore group at Beacon who are so anti-bolts that it is unbelivable. So, I'd definatly be very careful at Beacon in case that anti-bolt thing applies to pins as well.

 

Tex: was that you who freed the Dutchman 2nd pitch?

 

Kudos dude, although its a bit embarassing to find out its only 11.

 

Usually the way a Beacon FA works, first person up has loose rock, dirt, moss and extra choss. That would describe the bottom pitch of Dutchman, which we did while it was raining as well, but the upper pitch was as clean as it comes. There were some real hard climbers showed up later and just rapped after doing the first pitch and looking at how hard the 2nd LOOKED. It LOOKED harder than 5.13 and there were at least 2 5.13 climbers look at it and rap without trying that I know about. Thats funny.

 

BTW, history point, I named the route "Flying Dutchman" after Jim Opdyke flew off after he pulled some pins on the first pitch (aiding) and took about a 20'-25'er or so. He was pretty close to the ground at that point, so he lowered off and ducked under the tarp which we'd pitched to stay (relatively) dry and moss free, and I got to finish the pitch while he warmed up.

 

So unless guys like Ivan have been showing up nailing it so fat stubby fingers like mine might fit in there. .....good job Tex.

 

BTW, was that you who did windwalker as well? Nice. Mark sent me some sweet pics.

 

Kind of makes you want to evict the perigrines and get out there right now.

 

Regards:

 

Bill

[texplorer]

No Bill, it was not me but I plan on getting out there this summer with mark to try to free some other old aid lines as well as put up some new ones.

[billcoe]

Cool Tex. I love that place. I learned something just the other day I didn't know that you might already know but I'd better share with you about drilling new bolts out there.

 

Turns out there is a "board" or something you need to consult or placate before you place a bolt. I was out at the Butte the other day and a friend mentioned he was out at Beacon quite sometime ago,and somebody was ragging hard on the "assholes" who had placed some bolts out there *cough* me, *cough* me. I don't think my friend "gave me up" but the guy telling him the story was evidently quite pissed at the person in question who had placed some bolts (me..., OK it was Bob, I was the first person to lead the pitch after the bolts were put in). Anyway, the guy telling my friend the story was suggesting that who-ever had done the new bolts he was pissed about was in line for severe ass kicking/head beating should this dude catch up with them/him/it/me.

 

I was surprised..... I tend to be very conservative about placing bolts, hell, I only added a bolt to the Boardwalk rappel after finding somebody had left some gear in the crack to back up the 17 year old (now) rusty bolt and angle piton combo. I didn't ask anybody either. I added 1 nice stainless 3/8 to the rappel and took my pin back. In fact, the only bolt on that route had only been added a long time after the fa after 3 solid trad climbers had suggested some beginner might auger in if they pitched from the top. That one was put in on lead with a hand drill.

 

So, years later, I have broken my hand drill and I help rap-bolt 1 pitch with Bob McMahon and Dave English and it's a consitutional crisis or something. So you now know, as do I, hand-drill only, on lead, no roto-hammer.

 

So, my friend says Gary Rall from Portland Rock Gym sits on the board, next time I know to call Gary.

 

The only sad part of this tale is that I really like Gary, and it's been so long since I've seen him I'm not sure I'd still recognise him, he's a real good guy though, I'm just lazy and busy.

 

So, - the moral of the story is stay in touch with your friends and consult the board before drilling at Beacon Rock.

 

Evidently the proabition extends to chains too, Mark knows this as Jim or somebody personally returned the chains Mark had put on 2nd pitch of Young Warriors as I understand it.

 

F**ck man, you need a rule book or something anymore. I don't want to F-with anybody elses trip or get into mindless fistfights over ethics, I just want to climb. Sure I might have loved fighting as a kid but I grew up and want to be done with that kind of crap.

 

 

-so- if it would help.....

I suggest the following rules and regulations to help folks for Beacon:

 

Hand drill -Good (this can also be refered to as a hand-job, also very good of course)

 

Roto-Hammer - Bad

 

Rap-bolting - unfrigging unbeliveably bad.

 

Rap-bolting WITH a roto-hammer - best just have the plot picked out to be buried in advance. At that point I don't think anywone would be alive to try and hang-dog the route into submission!! So don't even think of bringing an air compressor.

 

 

Beacon Rules:

 

Regards:

 

Bill

[iain]

Is Jim the one who has some interesting teeth? I remember witnessing both the chains going in, and the subsequent removal event not one week later.

 

Call me a wuss but I find some bolts at the end of a pitch better than doing a 10 minute search for fixed pitons nestled around corners. Oh well.

[sketchfest]

Hey Bill, how long ago were the chains "returned" on Young Warriors? was that at the top of the first pitch and did they leave the hangers or politely "return" those too?

[billcoe]

 

Hi Sketch!

 

Last year, 2nd pitch I believe. The rap stations are fine to use, hangers and blah blah OK.

[sketchfest]

I thought the 2nd pitch wandered over to the left and up into the giant hueco with all the loose dinner plates and then meets at the tree ledge on SE Corner, is that another climb?

[b-rock]

There are bolt anchors to the right of the tree ledge for the end of the second pitch.