PDX crags

[eric8]

Kevbone and the rest of you, is Beacon and Broughtons Bluffs worth a weekend trip for someone from Seattle? Remember Squamish is the same distance and index is a 1/3 of that.

 

Is there camping? Recommend routes? What is the Beacon season?

[Peter_Puget]

Yes- You can have many days of great climbing in the greater Vancouver area!

[hemp22]

i'd definitely say it's worth it for a weekend or more. just come after mid-july when beacon is open. I think you can camp at beacon rock state park.

 

the recommended route list could be extensive - what are you looking for? (single vs multipitch? gear vs bolts? grades?)

 

 

[kevbone]

Kevbone and the rest of you, is Beacon and Broughtons Bluffs worth a weekend trip for someone from Seattle? Remember Squamish is the same distance and index is a 1/3 of that.

 

Is there camping? Recommend routes? What is the Beacon season?

 

 

Beacon is worth a weekend trip. Comparing it to Squamish is difficult. It’s totally different. It is stout climbing with a view. The approach to Beacon is 5 minutes. Mostly dihedrals and face cracks. Maybe 10 sport routes all are hard except Young Warriors. Which is #1 on the must tick list. It is 5 pitches (last pitch is short) with one 10.a move that protects with a bolt. Beacon is a special place with ledges all over the place to hang out on. The Columbia river is about 200 feet away and you are in the Gorge.

 

I would not travel to Broughtons for a weekend to climb. I would recommend climbing there if you lived in the area.

 

I do however recommend the O Zone. The approach is less than 5 minutes and it has about 75 routes, mixed to sport climbs. Also with a view of the gorge. You can camp at Beacon Rock State Park for $17 a night. Or drive past it and camp in the gorge off one of the many roads.

 

Give a shout when you come down and I will try to make it out and give you a tour.

 

 

Best Beacon season is Sept. Ozone....year round.

 

[ivan]

you could easily spend a week at beacon, assuming you like 5.10ish multi-pitch trad cracks - great camping in the state park across the street (or sleep on grassy ledges or bring a porta-ledge!)

 

beacon is well worth the pilgrimage, more so if you tune in w/ a local who can point a few things out

 

if you get tired of the tradness and heat, you can alwasy drive a half dozen miles east and clip-out at ozone too...

 

 

[eric8]

cool sounds like I will have to make a beacon trip later this year

[kevbone]

Oh yeah.....and thanks to Joseph Healey, every anchor you come to at Beacon has been replaced with brand new stainless steal bolts and new hangers……

[ivan]

Oh yeah.....and thanks to Joseph Healey, every anchor you come to at Beacon has been replaced with brand new stainless steal bolts and new hangers

unless you're mucking around in the great amphitheatre of death by the norseman

[motomagik]

Beacon is worth the trip for sure, it is a unique place. Everything else, not so much.

[Farrgo]

I love Beacon but it doesn't quite match up to Index or Squamish. Mostly thats because those areas have 10-1000x the amount of climbs. Pitch for pitch Beacon is as good of value as any area around. If you can climb 11a, you'll be busy for many weekends.

[pink]

beacon is ok, watch out for the poison oak.

[kevbone]

Oh yeah.....and thanks to Joseph Healey, every anchor you come to at Beacon has been replaced with brand new stainless steal bolts and new hangers

unless you're mucking around in the great amphitheatre of death by the norseman

 

 

JH......did you miss some? I replaced the first anchor on Jensens ridge.

[Farrgo]

I think all the upper anchors on Jensens ridge are old. Of course mabey its just hard to find them in the poison oak.

[JosephH]

Kevin, no - there are three anchors over there I hadn't gotten to before I and Metolius ran out of rap hangers. Six months later that ship has finally just come in so those will get done, along with the high Flight Time anchor, checking the two angles on Stone Rodeo, and replacing the webbing on the main rap line. Don't have any other plans for the year beyond that other than cleaning out a couple of other classic South Face column routes.

 

As for thanks - Bill Coe supplied all those expensive SS bolts.

[ivan]

I think all the upper anchors on Jensens ridge are old. Of course mabey its just hard to find them in the poison oak.

what the current anchor bolts on jensens lack in quality they make up for in quantity! i think at the top of pithc 2 you can interconnect somethign like 5 bolts. a great climb too, i hope more folks do it this year - i think i personally ripped out all of the oak left on route last fall at great personal cost to my johnson the last pitch might be the wildest, but it does end in a damn forest of oak, so it'd be real nice to have an anchor there just so you could rap and not have to face the insanity of making it to the trail unscathed...