[TR] beacon rawk - flyn'dutchman//flight-time/f'n-swallow/dod'melange 9/22/2007

[ivan]

Trip: beacon rawk - flyn'dutchman//flight-time/f'n-swallow/dod'melange

 

Date: 9/22/2007

 

Trip Report:

tooled around w/ oleg the obstreperous today

 

we'd aspirations of taking flying dutchman all the way to grassy ledges, but reaching the first anchor squashed those ambitions - looks like .11+ free climbing from there w/ just pins or loweballs for pro for at least the first 50 feet - wish i was that cool - i tried to salvage it by tensioning over and climbing the upper bit of bears'n'heat but after frenching just 10 feet realized how stupid that idea was too...a little tomfoolery later back at the belay and lowered back down to the ground

 

marched over for another sharp kick in the nads to base of dodds/reasonablerichard/localaccess - we'd climbed the later 2 recently so i checked out the blackmaria/dod's bypass approach to the anchors below fly'n'circus - a titillating experience, much more alpinish, traversing sideways across dirty, sketchy, moderate terrain - i got to lead the next pitch of flight-time too - doesn't appear to have been seeing much travel - heavily lichenated and overgrown w/ grass and brush, but all the fixed pins and bolt are good and capable of supporting my phat ass, as i freed very little of the line up to the next anchor where flying swallow joins - the upper pitch is fucking sublime! staying left into flight time was obviously stupid and woulda needed the full aid meal-deal for me - big brush in the crack and very hard climbing - we did the next bit of flying swallow whihc was fantastic - 10b in a thin crack but w/ great stemming out on the very edge of the left-arete eventually collascing into a 4" offwidth w/ fantastic airy knobs to step on - ends at a ledge just 30 feet below grassy ledges, and oleg enjoyed that, but not until falling repeatedly at the top - big mistake here was checking the clock (400 - not late enough yet for the safety meeting, and only 3 hrs till i gotz ta be back in the krib) and deciding to take the only honest chimney i think i've climbed at beacon up into the amphitheatre beside the norseman's head - should just hiked over ta The Ledge and lived like mortals do - but the ampthitheatere instead, what a fucktacular place! - brushy, rotten, vulture-shit-complete-w/mouse-fur-n-bonepaste bespackled slimerock - smithrockesque ad nauseum - the highlight of this stage was oleg falling on the steep exit crack and kicking off a 400 lb meteorite which could very well have killed every hardman pdxer out courting freefirsum - i was only half-horrified at the time - they shall live to chalk up again

 

my one great dread is that the poison oak did the celluar-chemical-fuckee-fuckee to me again as i woefully wallowed back towards the hiking trail - the hate-fuck-bush was all over the place on either side as i recited my mantra - some day there will be a reckoning...

 

and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard - it's a hard rain's...

[billcoe]

Holy crap, you back in the Oak? Duuuude, Pwn'ed yerself again!

 

You take any more steroids and you'll be playing major league baseball soon.

 

 

Sounds like a tiring and throughly enjoyable adventure.

 

[kevbone]

the highlight of this stage was oleg falling on the steep exit crack and kicking off a 400 lb meteorite which could very well have killed every hardman pdxer out courting freefirsum -

 

That 400 pound meteorite landed about 35 feet to our right and half of us acutally was looking up then saw it before we heard your yells.....it broke a small tree in half.....that my us yelling at you from the ground.....you all most killed us dude. The big one was non the only rock to fall either. We all ducked several times.

 

The big one....landed about 5 feet from your packs.

 

that was scary shit.....

[ivan]

wasn't me that almost killed you - it was a large rock cast off by a savage slav - good enough reason to stay out of the amphitheatre, i reckon - there's tons of loose shit in there - sorry to get you boys all excited - do i need to buy anyone new underwear?

 

good reminder that hanging out at the base of beacon ain't exactly safe...

[kevbone]

wasn't me that almost killed you - it was a large rock cast off by a savage slav -

 

Who is the savage slav?

[PickleJuice]

Holy smokes! I heard it fall from the other side of the rock.

I'm glad everyone is okay...with all the yelling I was worried.

[ivan]

wasn't me that almost killed you - it was a large rock cast off by a savage slav -

 

Who is the savage slav?

oleg the obstreperous - he fell on that exit crack out of the amphitheatre, the one w/ a big z-pin in it - didn't see how it happened, but in the process that giant block went bouncing down - luckily i was well out of the way but i was reaaaal nervous for anyone on the ground (ya'll musta come by after we'd gotten above grassy ledge, the coast was clear till then)

 

the amphitheatre is a wild place - there's a really cool looking offwidth on the far left side which i started to do, then noticed the thousands of pounds of crumbling ledges that lie just below and to the side of it...

 

again - highly recommend that upper pitch of flying swallow, the position, crack and exposure are phenomonal -it's my new favorite - you can easily rap down to it from the far side of grassy ledges and skip the aid pitch of flight time - maybe take a wire brush and scrub FT while you're down there?

[JosephH]

Good job getting out and getting on all sorts of good old lines, Ivan! Flying Swallow is next on my list of cleanups. I only got about half the job done last time I worked on it and haven't managed to get back to it. Folks should consider adopting one of the column routes and cleaning it out. I have all the cleaning gear if you want to borrow it.

[billcoe]

maybe take a wire brush and scrub FT while you're down there?

 

NEVER NEVER NEVER never use a wire brush unless you are intentionally trying to make the rock slicker and increase the grade. Thats what I learned the hard way.

 

Natural or polypropelene brooms and brisles only.

 

Wire brushes rubs off the little rugosites and roughness and makes rock slicker and greaser.

___________________________________________________

 

Glad no one got nailed by the meteorite.

[ivan]

good to know

 

i have this sick fantasy i've never been able to get out of my head of brushing my teeth w/ a wire-brush

 

yuuummmm, exposed shrieking tooth-pulp, yummmm

[billcoe]

i have this sick fantasy i've never been able to get out of my head of brushing my teeth w/ a wire-brush

......

 

Probably get the green off.....

[ivan]

while rapping the flying dutchman last night discovered 2 pins buried under grass and ferns, and just a little bit up from the 1st anchor, where i'd wimped out on saturday - damn! makes the whole lower part of that pitch, which is the thinest, much more reasonable - i was too terrifed of whipping onto a micronut to keep going

 

2nd times the charm!

 

and did bluebird last night - a very fun crack w/ a cool detached pillar for the first bit - i was kinda sad when it went away...

[kevbone]

Was out there today.....did Little wing into Fear of flying (one pitch), then Jill's up to Crazy Horse.....

 

then went over to watch Bob almost onsight Freeforsome. Super fun to watch.....

 

Climbed a little in the early morning with Bill and Joseph.

[billcoe]

That was YOU out there today? OMG

 

I thought all you did was spray on the computer, although there was a rumor that you just pulled FreeforSOME. Seriously, nice surprise seeing you.

 

Kev: you should have seen Joseph further up in outer space today...

he was crushing rock.

 

 

 

 

[ivan]

what/where's crazy horse?

[markd]

what/where's crazy horse?

 

crazy horse is the climb above jill's thrill that gets you to grassy ledges.

 

so did you get on the second pitch to the dutchman again? eric freed that pitch in 2003 and called it 11c.

[ivan]

cool - did the original jill's thrill pitch 2 go up that easier wide crack to the right of the anchor, while crazy horse does the thinner, steeper crack to the left?

 

didn't get back for a second crack on the upper dutchman yet, just noticed while rapping it and cleaning out the plants that there were 2 pins in there making the whole thing look less crazy down low- hoping to get out there this sunday and do it, though i'm positive it won't all be free

[billcoe]

Was one of the pins an orangy-red color?

[markd]

cool - did the original jill's thrill pitch 2 go up that easier wide crack to the right of the anchor, while crazy horse does the thinner, steeper crack to the left?

 

i'm honestly not sure what the crack is on the right, but the thin crack on the left is crazy horse. it has a crux right off the ledge then backs way off.

 

bill,

are you wondering if the pins are rusty or did you and jim o place orangish pins?

 

i do know that eric didn't add any pins, he just used what was already there.

[JosephH]

The upper pins on Flying Dutchman are all solid. I checked them, but they didn't need replacing, so I suspect they are the original aid pins. Jim did restore a pin on the lower pitch just up from the oak tree.

[billcoe]

 

i'm honestly not sure what the crack is on the right, but the thin crack on the left is crazy horse. it has a crux right off the ledge then backs way off.

 

Nice route.

 

bill,

are you wondering if the pins are rusty or did you and jim o place orangish pins?

 

i do know that eric didn't add any pins, he just used what was already there.

 

Just curiosity.

 

I bought some cheap assed soft iron Eurotrash from my buddy Mike Jackson like 30 years ago, slammed them in and left them in the rock there for everyone else to use. Some were orangy/red some were silver, just wondering if the things had survived all these many years since the advent of Sliders and Lowe Balls.

 

Apparently not many venture up the 2nd pitch as Ivan seemed to say they were covered with moss and he unearthed them. Which might have just accumulated recently cause we have dumped stuff down that area during the early season Joseph Healy Memorial cleanup a couple of times in the last few recent years.

 

As part of the "it's a small small world" theme, Mike was just up here a couple of weeks ago from California to say hi and get some climbs in, and coinkidinkaly, the hammer he sold me as part of that discount package years ago had the handle break bolting the very pitch JH and I climbed on yesterday. Which explains why the bolts are beat, cause when you hit them with a (relatively flat) rock instead of a hammer.....

 

Now if I could just work the Sugar Bunny into the story....

 

Do you know if that pitch has seen a 2nd free ascent since you guys did it Mark?

[JosephH]

Ivan, were the pins you 'found' completely covered in moss or were they just hidden by recent dirt and grass/fern growth. I cleaned the route pretty thoroughly two years ago and didn't think I missed an inch of it or any pins - possible, but don't remember it that way. The grass/ferns do grow back pretty quick and might hide them again, but being grown over with moss is another deal which I would take to mean I need to be a bit more thorough with my cleaning.

[ivan]

not covered in moss, just in long grass and ferns and had been invisible from the belay on saturday - they're obvious once again as i did some cleaning on the way down - the upper part of the pitch looks very nice and clean and oughta be *ahem* superfun!

 

yup, bill, the first pin is a weird looking orangish thing, but looked very solid - i'll be sure to let you know if it betrays my fat-ass this weekend

[kevbone]

i'm honestly not sure what the crack is on the right,

 

The crack/ramp on the left is “Sundance”, then “Crazy Horse”, and then the wider one you guys are discussing is the last pitch of “Jill’s Thrill”.

[markd]

The crack/ramp on the left is “Sundance”, then “Crazy Horse”, and then the wider one you guys are discussing is the last pitch of “Jill’s Thrill”.

 

kevbone would know as he took me up that route my first time.

 

bill,

i would say it's highly unlikely that anyone has freed that second pitch again. why i'm not sure as there is many hard men in portland... just a lack of interest i would guess.

 

then second pitch of psychic wound would go free as well if someone was so inclined.