celebrate the solistice at beacon!

[ivan]

Friday looks to be an okay day - who wants to bring in the winter right? i'm off da whole day...

[pink]

tell beacon i said

[denalidave]

I'm seeing a forecast of 50/50 precip and temps around freezing. I would love to get out if is reasonable weather. Otherwise, might be a better day for some skiing. Wife and kids are leaving for a few days so I have an extended hall pass.

[builder206]

I know solstice celebrations from when I lived in Austin and Santa Fe. Is this some sort of snowbound psilocybin bacchanal you're planning?

[denalidave]

"Is this some sort of snowbound psilocybin bacchanal you're planning?"

 

Whatever floats your boat, Ivan you got the fungus? None for me though as I'm on a diet.

Edited December 18, 2007 by denalidave

[ivan]

I know solstice celebrations from when I lived in Austin and Santa Fe. Is this some sort of snowbound psilocybin bacchanal you're planning?

i can be talked into just about anything...

[Bug]

Last time I ate some, I ended up on a runway and almost got taken out by a small aircraft landing.

I was thinking in 3D after that.

 

[ivan]

alright, plenty of spray, but where's the winter hardmen at now?

[ivan]

current noaa forecast:

 

Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 41.

 

A ringing endorsement!

[eldiente]

Wow! Your chance of finding dry rock at Beacon is zero on that day.

[builder206]

Ivan, I apologize for derailing your thread. I am a bad person.

[kevbone]

alright, plenty of spray, but where's the winter hardmen at now?

 

 

Hardmen all had kids.....

[ivan]

Wow! Your chance of finding dry rock at Beacon is zero on that day.

heathen, what dost thou know?!?

 

the rock was actually pretty dry this past sunday...and what does it have to be dry for anyhow? if you're gonna be wearing a lot of clothes for the cold, might as well be frenching n' aiding n' smoking cigs, no?

[JosephH]

Ivan, still a bit tuckered out from my trip, but I may be up for joining you. Will keep you posted...

[JosephH]

Just saw the weather report, actually looks fairly promising...

[ivan]

weather's looking perfect! come on, so far i got just 2 "definetly maybe's" - some other heathens gotta be out there!

[ivan]

hats off to billbob, a lurker about, who was the only foolish mortal to take me up on my generous solstice shin-dig - dude's never even climbed rock outdoors and gets suckered into taking on beacon in it damn near narliest possible conditions - epic wetness on the corner route - even i, the veneralble master of our tussed-up-twosome, choose to pull on gear on several spots, and was damn near freak'n trying to get past the old bashed shut pin just at the top of the slab pitch - choose to lose my rock shoes sometime last sunday (maybe i left them at the top of uprising? christ, if i did, they're good'n'fuck'n'soaked now!) - discovered this in the parking lot - ahwell, a true alpine check-off today, doing the whole thing in my trangos - even the ramp pitch above tree ledge was hard-core - poor bill, yet another newbie i'm afeared i've horrible mangled the introduction of to a cruel, yet winsome, mistress. he must be saluted for his elan and willingness to get scared on this shortest of days - as the cold moon rose and the night loomed, he managed to scourge the lurking epic-beast and prusiked what he had to on the besodden steps of the 3rd pitch - jesus, i'd rather shoot meself in the head then ever solo this, my old reliable, on a horror-show day like today! the downside was he had to leave a number of my slings and a nut on route, but the upside was he appears to have totally given up on rock-climbing and bequethed me his rope and daisy-chain! shit, i hope to recover me shit meself sometime after xmas and give'em his cord back - as it is, and in violation of the 13th amendment, i'm now his indentured guide for the next year...

 

anyhow, only saw crackman out there today - where was the rest of the posse!?!

[billcoe]

hats off to billbob, a lurker about, who was the only foolish mortal to take me up on my generous solstice shin-dig - dude's never even climbed rock outdoors and gets suckered into taking on beacon in it damn near narliest possible conditions - epic wetness on the corner route - even i, the veneralble master of our tussed-up-twosome, choose to pull on gear on several spots, and was damn near freak'n trying to get past the old bashed shut pin just at the top of the slab pitch - choose to lose my rock shoes sometime last sunday (maybe i left them at the top of uprising? christ, if i did, they're good'n'fuck'n'soaked now!) - discovered this in the parking lot - ahwell, a true alpine check-off today, doing the whole thing in my trangos - even the ramp pitch above tree ledge was hard-core - poor bill, yet another newbie i'm afeared i've horrible mangled the introduction of to a cruel, yet winsome, mistress. he must be saluted for his elan and willingness to get scared on this shortest of days - as the cold moon rose and the night loomed, he managed to scourge the lurking epic-beast and prusiked what he had to on the besodden steps of the 3rd pitch - jesus, i'd rather shoot meself in the head then ever solo this, my old reliable, on a horror-show day like today! the downside was he had to leave a number of my slings and a nut on route, but the upside was he appears to have totally given up on rock-climbing and bequethed me his rope and daisy-chain! shit, i hope to recover me shit meself sometime after xmas and give'em his cord back - as it is, and in violation of the 13th amendment, i'm now his indentured guide for the next year...

 

anyhow, only saw crackman out there today - where was the rest of the posse!?!

 

Work for me. But what happened to "Weather lookin perfect"?

 

Hats off to you Ivan (and Tim too if he was on it). Maybe Billbob can check in with some thoughts as well once he warms up, changes his underwear on quits shaking in fear:-) as the bad memory of hangin with you wears off!

[ivan]

Work for me. But what happened to "Weather lookin perfect"?

athe weather wasn't so bad - pretty warm till the sun got low - probably in the low 40s and unnaturally calm - the whole gorge is frosted w/ snow above 1000 feet or so - the ice-lines forming on hamilton mtn cliff last sunday have all fallen off - it was just incredibly wet, full on waterfall comign down jill's thrill - the only patch of dry rock all day was the short patch above the crux on the slab pitch just below the roof - the rest of hte slab was nuts! basically aided off a red alien to get started into it - the normal lie-back block section required a complete mental retooling to complete - all the while reflecting htat the dude belaying me, who had the typical newbie tight-leash syndrome going on, might just as well let me take the total ride if i fell! again though, bill kept his shit good n' wired tight and i couldn't have been happier w/ how it all worked out - someone please remind him that days like this are almost, but not quite, completly not what rock climbing's all about!

[rmncwrtr]

Way to celebrate the solstice, Ivan and Billbob! And Tim too.

 

Does anyone have a link to JoesphH's post on winter dressing/keeping warm while climbing at Beacon?

[billcoe]

No: but I found this:

 

Dress warm - like two layers of something warm for your legs, three layers on top, fingerless gloves (I have a spare pair) and a good hat of some sort. I have plenty of heat packs for all...

[billcoe]

Found it Melissa: JH had linked all that stuff he suggests on his post.

 

Link to Josephs post

 

Said:

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...

 

I think he changed the shoe thing, but kept the socks.

 

Hey, his links still work! Cool!

[rmncwrtr]

Thanks Bill :kisss: That was exactly what I was looking for.

[billcoe]

[JosephH]

Ivan, sorry I had to bail today - some work stuff came up and scrambled my plans.

 

Bill thanks for finding that link - that's still the clothing system I use except as you said my 5.10 Ascents need a resole so I've been using the Sportiva Ventors in the meantime. I don't like the rubber on the Ventors however, which is odd given I mainly climb Sportivas. Going to have them re-done in whatever 5.10 is currently using. Oh, and I switched to some longer SmartWool socks. The system will allow you to climb with as much relatively comfort as is available under some pretty rough circumstances.