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Beacon will be good Thursday - Monday...Who's in?


JosephH

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Nope, rock was fairly warm from the sun being on it all day. I stopped and chatted so I didn't get on the rock until 2:30. By then the east winds had picked up to a pretty solid 35-40 once you turned the corner at the tree. Temp was probably in the 39-42 ballpark and more like 50 in the sun. But I just wore the light jacket and didn't use gloves or heating packs today. Things are still a tad wet, but they'll be dry by morning I suspect. Hopefully it will be as good tomorrow and Saturday. Sunday is looking suspect.

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Today, tomorrow and Monday the name of the game is - go early or go burly. The crew that got out early today had sunshine. I couldn't get out there until about 1:45. I ended up chatting with John and Vivian (the new ranger) in the parking lot for a bit and by the time I hit the rock the sun was gone and the cloud deck was moving in hard and fast. By the time I was seconding p2 it was officially burly and was blowing 50 by time I hit the corner ridge. If you go out tomorrow or monday you should definitely be on it by 11:30 or noon at the latest - earlier would be better.

 

I don't do alpine and hate being cold but don't freeze because I tape one of those small air-activated 'Little Hotties' heating packs [loosely] on the underside of each wrist with sport tape. I then put one of the shoe heating packs with the adhesive strip stuck on the inside of each fingerless glove on the palm. If the temps are in the 20s-low 30s I'll throw a bigger packet in each jacket pocket. I augment all the heat packs with a 100mg's of Niacin which I take about 5 minutes before getting to Beacon. This forces blood out of your core and into your extremities (i.e. forces blood past your wrists to your hands).

 

To keep my core temp up for the Niacin, for clothes I'm wearing:

 

- Roffe smooth/fleece tights worn fleece side in (from US Outdoor Store)

 

- burly Sport Hill 'XC Cross' running pants (from REI)

 

- UnderArmor 'COLDGEAR® MOCK' Tee (almost like a wetsuit on the outside and 'fuzzer' on the inside - it's the real key piece, from US Outdoor Store or REI)

 

- Northface Momentum Shirt (from US Outdoor store)

 

- Marmot Photon Softshell Jacket which has a hood big enough to go over a helmet (from US Outdoor store, but I don't see it on their website now so maybe they don't make it anymore)

 

- Thin Turtle Fur 'Dryline® Mesh Frost Earbeanie' under helmet (from REI)

 

For shoes I wear fairly loose 5.10 Ascents that I can put one thin and one thick pair of socks comfortably in. I run the trail down in them equally comfortable as well.

 

This was day three and both today and yesterday on YW with Karsten were pretty burly, but this system works for me, and as I said, I'm a complete lightweight when it comes to being cold. Over the past month I've been out on days as low as 29 degrees with 50kt winds. I outfitted Karsten yesterday almost identically in terms of both heat packs and clothes and he said he was a believer by the end of the day. Works for me anyway...

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I augment all the heat packs with a 100mg's of Niacin which I take about 5 minutes before getting to Beacon. This forces blood out of your core and into your extremities (i.e. forces blood past your wrists to your hands).

 

hi joseph,

first, you should be coming down here to climb! i've got plenty of sunny spots to go that no one is climbing at... and it's fairly warm.

 

also, where did you learn this niacin trick? and do you really think it works?

 

tell karsten to get down here as well - i haven't seen him in forever... and i've got a few routes for him to try as well.

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Mark,

 

Hi! The Niacin trick is from back in my days doing cedar shake roofs all winter in Chicago on these estates along Lake Michigan. One of the old guys showed it to me. He cut the thumb and two fingers off of the nail hand glove, told me to eat big a big breakfast and lunch, and we took the Niacin at the end of those meals. It worked like a charm all day long in real cold weather and wind. Back then we were using solid stick charchol hand warmers in sort of a glasses-sized case and taping those to the nail hand wrist.

 

I'll be coming down your way once Beacon closes and going to try to visit Karsten in Vegas near the end of Feb. He and Raluca were in and out for the holidays. Hope all is well down there...

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That shot includes all the components of the Beacon Rock experience. All that's missing is the drone of the barge horns and the smell of American Spirits. Nice one!

dunno...you can't see any mangled pieces of bird feather - and it doesn't appear to be sweltering - also jim doesn't appear to be cursing :)

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