Beacon Rock Opening announcement

[billcoe]

Joseph Healy and myself, along with Jim Opdyke spent the day at Beacon Rock as a pre-opening tune up so to speak. First order of business was evaluating last years Peregrine nesting site and conducting saftey inspections/correction.

 

Those guys were able to go out again today (Friday) while I'm cubical-bound today dreaming of the open sky.

 

Our prime objective was to throw the obvious loose rocks off of popular routes areas (like SE Corner) and webbing replacement where needed. Anybody who has climbed here knows this couldn’t be accomplished in a couple of days, probably not in a full season. However, the attempt was made and the happy results will be obvious to anybody who gets out here.

 

With the trail closed, the group of loose rocks which has been raining hell on the East Side say the Boardwalk/Raindance area which is caused by rocks on the last pitch of the SE corner was cut loose. Rapping further down to the top of the 5th pitch just below the chimney provided another massive group of rock and dirt which was pushed off and the area brushed with wisk brooms. It is the first time ever to my knowledge that area has seen bare rock, it’s always been a loose scree situation until now.

 

Note that the entire Corner route was not scrubbed, only the most notable group of obvious killer rocks were thrown off. The Grassy ledges received similar treatment as well as the Jill’s thrill rap stations, and the Stephanwolf\big ledge area. There are still loose rocks up there all over the place, but a hell of a lot less of em than before.

 

Sorry for the long pre-amble, but it gets longer. This year Joseph Healy and myself, along with Jim Opdyke have formally organized the Beacon Rock Climber's Association (BRCA) and committed to re-establishing positive working relationship with the Washington State Parks, Beacon Rock State Park Staff, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and other organizations concerned with climbing, conservations, and stewardship at Beacon Rock.

 

At the top of that list of concerns are the Peregrine Falcons. There have been rumblings of discord amongst some climbers about the whole process. We would like to see that rumbling minimized or eliminated via working with the managers. Throughout this year we have been attempting to help David Anderson – the Wash. Regional Fish and Wildlife person responsible for the Beacon Rock area, to compile info on the Peregrine Falcons. Despite many many hours of observation, WE FAILED TO LOCATE THE NEST (scrape) of the birds this year. Yet we all see them flying around the area. The good news is that they successfully hatched and fledged some young’ens this year. They are DEFINITELY NOT at last years scrape. We had binoculars trained on that area throughout the year, yesterday Joseph rapped down, took pictures or that spot and confirmed that there was no evidence of nesting at that location. They are somewhere out there. Somewhere, we suspect the east face, but they could be nesting up on Mt Hamilton and coming down to Beacon to perch and hunt.

 

We can use help in locating potential nesting spots. David is responsible for a huge area, and other wildlife in addition to the birds, he’s got a lot on his plate. So cutting to the chase, John, the ranger at Beacon, has confirmed that Beacon will open early this year to climbers because David Anderson was able to confirm the age and conditions of the chicks. (Despite not finding the scrape location). Sunday, July 10th will be opening day for climbers.

 

Anyone out there, please keep your eyes open and let us know if you even think you know where a nest might be. Otherwise we might duplicate this frustrating process next year.

 

If these birds are out of climbers way nesting elsewhere, we may not have a closure next year.

 

Anybody interested in hanging out watching the birds next year, we will be doing the same thing, assuming they are in the area (which is a good bet), step forward and volunteer!

[b-rock]

Thanks Bill & Joseph, you guys !!!

[Winter]

Thanks guys!!

[Ireneo_Funes]

 

That's great news!

[billcoe]

Thanks Bill & Joseph, you guys !!!

 

Thanks for the compliments, but Joseph has done most of the work. As I look outside my cubical window right now, stretching some sore muscles and looking at my sunburn from yesterdays rock toss fest, it's raining, and those guys are still at it. (unless they hunkered down in Skamania lodge with a pint or 2).

 

Joseph has done a remarkable job co-ordinating with all of the official types as well throughout the year, hell yesterday he even had an official outline with a picture to point to locations of the project so when we met with the Washington parks and various wildlife officials Lisa, Kelly, John and David we could discuss the days schedule and plan: he had everything but a powerpoint presentation, so big kudos to JH.

 

The highlight of the day would have been locating the Peregrine scrape, but it was still good anyway.

[billcoe]

Follow up, after watching the rain all afternoon from my window, I dialed Joseph's cell phone @ just before 4pm to see which bar they had escaped the incessant rain to and see how long they had lasted.

 

They were still up there on the cliff, replacing the webbing on one of those routes - trying to work around the rain. I might have been tempted to called bull*hit , but a train interupted our call, confirming they were really there. Hardcore.

[fheimerd]

Is the actual opening date still July 15 or is it earlier.

[JosephH]

=======================================================

 

BEACON ROCK OPENS EARLY - OPENING ON SUNDAY JULY 10TH

 

=======================================================

 

David Anderson of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has certified that this year's Peregrine Falcon fledging has taken place and, after consultation with the Washington State Parks (WSP) and the Beacon Rock State Park (BRSP) Staff, that rock climbing can re-open on Sunday, July 10th. We should all recognize that this is a result of some committed effort by both David and the Park Staff relative to the work required to open climbing each year. The opening requires the dedication of a lot of hours of Falcon monitoring, trailwork, and changes to the parks signage, website, and phone system - all at the busiest time of the year for the park. And this year the Park Staff has been executing on some major construction projects on the West side of the park that include a major parking expansion, launch area and rip-rap maintenance, and new access off Route 14 (to begin soon) so it really has been an extra effort on their part to get all the work done for the early opening.

 

As Bill Coe has mentioned above, he, Jim Opdyke, and myself (Joseph Healy) have re-formed (and reformed) the Beacon Rock Climber's Association and we have been working for most of this year to re-establish positive and productive relationships between the Portland area climbing community and:

 

WDFW Biologists (David Anderson)

BSRP Staff (Rangers Erik Plunkett and John Ernster)

Washington State Parks Resource Stewards (WSPRS - Lisa Lantz)

 

We have also been coordinating and working with the following organizations:

 

Access Fund (Kelly Rice, Leslie Brown, Andy Fitz, Matt Perkins, Matt Perkins)

American Alpine Club/Oregon Section (Bob McGown, Tom Thrall, Tom Bennett, Jeff Alzner)

Mazamas (Barbara Wilson, Co-Chair, Conservation Committee).

 

We will be setting up a website, forum, and Paypal account for the BRCA and begin a recruiting drive over the course of the summer and work with the American Alpine Club on a Beacon Rock fundraising party/presentation (with a mystery speaker) as soon as we can.

 

Also as Bill has mentioned, we managed to organize a gathering of the clans (WDFW, WSPRS, BRSP, BRCA) on July 7th and launched the first annual Pre-Opening Safety Check. This is a particularly significant achievement on everyone's part and is the first time a formal joint effort has been assembled to conduct a thorough pre-opening review of Peregrine nesting activity and a climbing safety working session. Many of these essential tasks have been performed on an informal basis over the years by Jim Opdyke and company, but after a decade of ad hoc caretaking a great deal of work was deemed necessary after a full review the overall conditions on the South face.

 

But don't let Bill kid you, both he and Jim have been humping heavy loads up the tourist trail, rapping all day with them off their harnesses, and basically working like dogs out there to clean up the loose rock situation that has developed over the years. We are also into day three of what will end up being a fairly substantial top-to-bottom, East-to-West remediation effort to check and upgrade fixed belay and rap anchors across the South face. This effort has entailed a technical, safety, environmental, and aesthetic check of each station/anchor area and all necessary remediation work (when deemed necessary). The technical details of anchor replacements when they have occured is: Camoed, heavy duty Metolius Rap Hangers, Two equalizing, X-crossed 1" grey slings, and two Fixe 50kn stainless rap rings. These Metolius Rap Hangers can be rappeled off of directly with no additional hardware if need be in the case slings were ever damaged or missing. We have also epoxy patched dozens of drill holes; removed all extraneous hardware not deemed to have some meaningful utilitarian, educational, or first ascent significance; camoflauge painted many protection bolt hangers, and did substantial maintenance on the Peregrine Falcon's traditional nest site (even though it wasn't used this year).

 

Only one new anchor as been added, and only after much discussion and in consultation with the Park Staff coming to a decision to avoid the use of trees for anchors/rappels. We added a belay/rap station at the small triangular pillar-top below the tree on Dodd's jam and reconfigured the use of the tree on that route. All old webbing and the rap rings have been removed from the tree and replaced with a double loop of webbing around the tree with a single fixe 50kn ring for climbing protecion and backed up immediately above the tree by a Lost Arrow piton. Please note that we special ordered grey webbing for sling replacements to help alleviate some of the visual clutter on the rock and it is supposed to be the color it is; it isn't weathered so additional slings are not necessary on any of the remmediated anchors.

 

We will have approximately 90% of the work completed by opening but some of the more obsure anchors and hangers will be reviewed and remediated over the next several weeks. By the time the work is complete we will have acummulated close to 50lbs. of scrap off the South face (photos of the cleanup effort will be posted here and on the BRCA website sometime in the next week or so). We and the BRSP Staff would also like to extend many, many thanks to both Metolius and the US Outdoor Store for their contribution in extending equipment discounts on hardware for this effort. When all is said and done, and after all the discounts, the cost of this year's cleanup will be roughly $500.00 from the BRCA and hence why a fundraiser will be announced sometime in the next few months. Again many big kudos to this year's supporting sponsors Metolius (Brooke Sandahl) and the US Outdoor Store (Gavin Ferguson).

 

On the Peregrine front, the Beacon Rock pair did manage to fledge at least one chick and put on a couple of stunning training flights with the parents teaching the young fledge how to hunt. But, again as Bill mentioned, we were never able to locate this year's nesting site, though we have some real suspicions that was very high up on the northern half of the East face. We had hoped to find the nest location as it would make next year's monitoring effort much easier. But as a 3-D monolith, Beacon presents some real monitoring challenges compared to your typical 2-D escarpment cliff. Though, now that we have some well-trained monitors the hope is we will find it during next year's monitoring season.

 

Last but not least we are in the process of working with the BRSP Staff and Ranger John Ernster, who is rewriting the Climbing Management Plan, to come up with a more flexible formal process for new route development and anchor replacement. More details will be published once a process has been defined, but the first test of any new policies will probably be on development of routes on the Northwest face. In general, Beacon Rock has a long history as a trad climbing area and while several one pitch pure bolted lines do exist most routes have been establish with a mixed approach to fixed protection that can be summed up as: gear, pins, and bolts as a last resort. New routes on the Nortwest Face will likely necessarily be just such mixed routes. Again, we will keep you all abreast of developments on this front as they emerge, but be aware - no one is authorized to install fixed protection of any type without review and approval by the BRSP Staff in accordance with Washington State law and as implemented in the BRSP Climbing Management Plan. That said, Erik and his staff are completely jazzed about climbing at the park and over the years have been some of the biggest supporters of climbing a Beacon Rock in the face of pressure from multiple other groups and agencies to shut it down.

 

O.k. - after all that - hey, we're about to be able to climb again at Beacon!!! Have fun, be safe, and if you have any questions at all about any aspect of the information presented by Bill Coe or myself here or about anything you see or hear out at Beacon don't hesitate to contact us. Bill Coe and myself can be PM'd here at Cascade Climbers or at RC.com and my phone is posted below. And of course Jim Opdyke is best contacted out at Beacon. Also, once we launch please join the BRCA and support climbing at Beacon.

 

Joseph Healy

Beacon Rock Climber's Association

503.704.9300

Joseph.Healy@gmail.com

[castlecrag]

Sweet. Nice work fellas Anyone want to climb out there manana? I'm looking for a partner. PM me if interested.

[JosephH]

It's open in the morning, Jim and I spent another day out there today and in the end we really only have it about 70% overhauled and will be trying to get to the rest over the next week. Do us a favor - take a lighter with you and melt the ends of any of the slings that need them on the remediated rap anchors - we ended up with a dead lighter today about half way through that we'll get to during the week. Some anchors were moved today mainly because of the conditions of the bolts, but two because they were simply badly installed or badly arranged; so you will see some dust from drilling at several stations that will be gone after the next big rain.

 

Jim will be out tomorrow so say hi to him - I have other obligations so enjoy and hope to see you all out there soon...

 

Joseph

[ivan]

joe, bill - you guys rock - i'll have to find jim to thank personally though as i know he don't trust these newfangled computers, but hell, he's the funnest to hang out w/ after climbing anyway!

 

see you out there

[JosephH]

Did another work session today hitting the anchors in the Windsurfer area. Still had no lighter so if anyone is heading to Beacon take one and melt any cut ends you run into...

[iain]

Joseph, thanks for all the work you have done. I enjoyed the new anchors today. I think I heard you hammering over up there. I find it interesting you decided on webbing and rap rings rather than steel chains. Sadly I think those steel rap rings are going to disappear quickly. At least those beautiful rap bolts you have installed will stay put.

[JosephH]

Everyone just needs to keep watch at areas where new route development is going on and note whether fixe rap rings are appearing. The ones out at Beacon are either stamped or will be Saturday for ID purposes so if they show up anywhere else we'll be able to figure out who took them and if we track down anyone hustling gear the result won't be pleasant.

 

As for the choice of webbing and rings, we've been in a long process of working with Washington State Parks, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Beacon Rock Climber's Association along with discussions with other climbers; the combination of WDP's and WDFW's desire that Beacon, as a habitat, remain as natural as possible and consideration for Beacon's history and traditional anchors, the consensus was webbing and ring anchors best met the objectives and are in keeping with that history. Also, given many of the rappel points are used to rappel multiple routes the equalizing webbing and ring anchors are far better choice so chains and all other bright hardware are being swapped out. We're also still looking for darker gray version of the webbing.

[ajm]

The anchors and new rap rings are great! Thanks for your effort.

[Hanger]

Thanks, you guys for being such great stewards of our local crag(s)...we appreciate it. (Pass that on to J.O. as well …)

 

Hey Bill, let me know when the fund-raiser comes around...and if you need any additional muscle. I’m always down for contributing to the cause. I can have Eric lift me up on his shoulders to clean the upper pitches.

 

Have a great day…see you out there

 

~RB

[billcoe]

Thanks, you guys for being such great stewards of our local crag(s)...we appreciate it. (Pass that on to J.O. as well …)

 

Hey Bill, let me know when the fund-raiser comes around...and if you need any additional muscle. I’m always down for contributing to the cause. I can have Eric lift me up on his shoulders to clean the upper pitches.

 

Have a great day…see you out there

 

~RB

 

Hey Hanger! THANK YEW!

 

Halo muy Bueno Amigo. Are you aware that I'm planning on finding you in the mountains at an unmentionable place and slapping down some routes on Sunday with you? Gent Mendes will be with me if that plan works.

 

If you have not heard of this, consider that sentence a heads up.

 

_________________________________________________

 

Now, my real point is that Joseph has jumped up and led this charge in a very fine fashion with JO and I in tow.

 

Couple of other future points: we will need to transport dirt and sod up to Tree ledge within a couple of months in an attempt to revive the sucker: it's a nice belay point, nice to have that there for a while. Ideally we'd do that right before the wet season after most of us climbers have retired inside to our hot toddys, warm fires and lying stories of old glories. (Theres some co-ordination and discussion with the rangers before any of this will happen BTW so it's down the road some still.)

 

Early spring (@ March) we need volenteers for Peregrine Monitoring. WE DID NOT LOCATE THE F*ING NEST LAST YEAR. How lame is that? It moved and they left no forwarding address. You can tell from the preys feathers that they were all over that rock though.

 

Next year we need to have an orgie of rock tossing off of grassy ledges of stuff we missed this year. The more the merrier. All are invited.

 

 

 

Major more power Kudos to Joseph, the mother Teresa of rock climbers. He's still on this BTW, so offering him some assistance now is recommended. I know he won't be avail Sunday....but a fast PM offering assistance especially if you have weekdays free....not a bad idea.

[Hanger]

Orgie...?

Count me in

 

Maybe afterwards we can toss rocks off the grassy ledges

 

haha

 

You are the informer to my clan...just let me know and we're there

 

~RB

 

PS - PM headed your way 'bout the W/E

[texplorer]

Damn I am missing Oregon.

[JosephH]

Tex,

 

We're missing you guys as well - come for a visit sometime...!

[andrewbanandrew]

Does anyone know where I could find a guidebook or topos of Beacon Rock?

[sketchfest]

You can find all of the Portland area climbs, including Beacon in the Portland area rock climbs guide book. I've seen it available everywhere from REI to OMC, to Mountain Supply; don't remember the cost though.

[Kevin_Matlock]

don't remember the cost though.

 

'bout 15 bucks.

[JosephH]

Beacon Rock Update 8/21

[JosephH]

Beacon Rock Update 8/28/05