[TR] Beacon RaWkS! - The Crack 2 Nowhere AKA Eggz 5.8 C1 10/25/2008

[ivan]

Trip: Beacon RaWkS! - The Crack 2 Nowhere AKA Eggz 5.8 C1

 

Date: 10/25/2008

 

Trip Report:

no pictures so you gotta settle for the song that's been in my head for days - even my kids have learned it!

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYFK1R-wUwg

 

so this climb exists as a # and a blank line in the olson guide (#92 in the 2001 revised edition) - jim opdycke said "some kid" put it up "a good long while ago" and that "there'll probably be bolt anchors" - having been in the area a bunch lately, i was intrigued - no doubt "the kid" by now has lost all his goddamn hair (was it YOU, bill?) but the route remains and is absofaqh'nlutely stellar - i'm naming it to the most descriptive thing possible "the crack to nowhere" - i want to put in the paperwork to The Man so i can place a shortish aid ladder above and call it "utopia" since that means "nowhere" and that's where the crack below leads anyhow - if anybody can free the ladder (its a2 to get to where i'd place 5-6 bolts), it'd be an arete climb and somewhere in the .11s i'd imagine and wicked cool - they could call the free version "bacon" and, assuming they freed the lower crack too, that can be "eggs" - geoff was saying it's about goddamn time some route at beacon was called bacon, and that seemed pretty wise to me

 

so, climb the first pitch of takes fist (joe's got a fixed line hanging on it now, and geoff n' me jugged that ghetto style (we had 1 jumar between us) after warming up on young warriors, where g-dog nailed his first leads of p2 and p4) - i felt content to jug the line instead of free the first pitch as these fall days are getting short and that first pitch takes some serious thought (plus i've lead it twice in the past month, so let's just take this as read, shall we?) - from the top of the fixed line, i climbed up to the base of the first roof (for takes fist) and had a blast aiding sideways for the 20 feet of so required to bust through the mother of all fucking awesome fist cracks that one roof to the right) - the horizontal crack under the roof is exciting and fresh and leads to an exhilarating crack up to the 3/8 inch anchor bolts another 50 feet up - the vertical crack is overhanging in spots, consistently 2-3 inches wide and in a mind-bendingly cool setting, just a wee bit below the far end of grassy ledges (if the aid pitch goes in above, it'll dump you right out at riverside, and you could take that up to the trail for a brilliant alpine-style grade III+ ascent.)

 

so - awesome goddamn day - better yet i get home and the kids are all out partying so i have time to set down this delicious diatribe, this ponderous phillipic - nate, i'm calling you out - you'll dig it the most baby! my gear requisites below.

 

Gear Notes:

(just for the crack 2 nowhere)

aiders

a couple small nuts

2 .5, #1, #3 camelots and yellow aliens

3-4 #2 camelots

1 green alien and .75 camelot

(for the eventual "nowhere AKA bacon")

brass nuts

hooks (birdbeaks?)

couple kniveblades

bolt kit - someone wanna lend me a handdrill so i can keep jim's park pure?

 

Approach Notes:

watch out for snarling dogs, andean walking-tourists, and as always The Big Hairy Eyeball

[ivan]

meant to add, from the top anchor (which is very solid) you can conceivably climb strait over into the upper half of the last pitch of takes fist, but that would be silly since it'd be much more direct to just do the standard version of that climb - this climb gives you a beautiful vantage to right for "smooth dancer," a much neglected 5.9 A2 that's in the book but hasn't been done it woudl appear in several decades and is now on my mofo'n radar - will require pretty serious gardening tools up high though) - however, from the anchor, you can not get into smooth dancer, that will have to be approached from a different start which no doubt will be a big adventure in itself in current conditions)

[ivan]

and on the anniversary of agincourt no goddamn less!!! oh my fucking god niggas, turn up the fucking volume on this and rock the fuck out!!!!!

[video:youtube]

 

[ivan]

"god's will my leige! would you and i alone w/o more help could fight this royal battle!"

[ivan]

the crack to nowhere goes up the right side of the giant roof, center-frame and right of my red-etriers and stops at anchors about half-way between me and the roof - this is an independent line from both smooth dancer (right) and takes fist (left) and deserves it's own individual finish, which'll have to be aid until one of you mega-hardmen can free it (but you'll still need at least 3 bolts!)

 

the roof/crack right of the hanging ledge

on p1 of takes fist heading to the largest shaded roof

[JosephH]

Good job Ivan! I can't believe I'm out of town on such a nice weekend...damn it!

[denalidave]

Saturday was the day as it's nuking out there again today. Fun times though...

[ivan]

watcha do dave? i actually showed up w/ the fam round 4 and took the kids down to explore the tunnels ran into jim, looking damn near dead after working too much overtime lately.

[denalidave]

We were going to warm up with the first 2 pitches of YW and then do Suf. Breathless and had high hopes of getting on Bluebird again. However, I got a call at the top of pitch 1 on YW from a friend saying he needed help getting his parnter down from Jill's, who had just broke an ankle. We bailed on YW and helped them up to the parking lot and then went back and cleaned all the gear they left on Jill's. Then we did a quick lap on Suf. Breathless and I did it in the finest Ivanesque style... you'd been proud of my hang dog, no holds barred, shamefest. Bluebird was probably not in the cards anyway, given my flail-fest on Suf. Breathless. After that, it was off to the youngins end-o-soccer-season bash for plenty of cupcakes and icecream.

 

I saw Jim's car on the way to the soccer party and was going to stop by and chat on the way home but by the time I came back, around 5:30, all the climber cars were gone. At least the ones I know. Windy as hell out there today but seemed like a lot of folks were getting after it.

 

Just got a call from the party on Jill's and I guess it is not broken afterall, just really bad sprain/dislocation. Sure looked broke. Hope it heals up quickly.

[billcoe]

jim opdycke said "some kid" put it up "a good long while ago" and that "there'll probably be bolt anchors" - having been in the area a bunch lately, i was intrigued - no doubt "the kid" by now has lost all his goddamn hair (was it YOU, bill?)

 

Not my route this time although the hair is pretty much gone it seems - but great TR as usual Ivan! I have a hand drill you can borrow anytime and this is a great spot for it to be utilized (*cough* cough* 2 of them *cough*), HOWEVER, you should check the current process on getting bolt approval and this line finished.

[ivan]

how did homeslice fuck up his ankle dave?

 

i asked joe about how to go about getting the bolts approved bill - any clue how long it'll take? the nice thing about this line currently though is it'll be easy to access even inthe cold and damp of the next few months.

 

can't figure why we don't see more folks aiding around beacon - there are certainly plenty of good lines for it

[denalidave]

how did homeslice fuck up his ankle dave?

A, he fell! At the crux on Jill's. It was pretty windy, so maybe that was a factor? I was not there when it happened so I don't have much on the details. Maybe he will post up about it? I took a fall from around that same spot last summer and tweaked my ankle too. I remember a mini-pointy ledgy-thingy that could easily be hit in a fall from the crux there, so my first guess would be he hit that. Bummer though.

[JosephH]

Which part of Jill's - below or above the rap...?

[ivan]

as a side note, anyone notice how many folks were parked at ozone y-day? holy fuck batman!!! most have been at least 40 cars there, loading up BOTH lots to the brim.

[denalidave]

Which part of Jill's - below or above the rap...?

Just below the rap at the very end of the first pitch (assuming you do the pitch from snag ledge in 1 rope length and by-pass the anchor at the top of the 1st pedastal). The last piece was right below the slabby move at the last crux before the nice ledge that has the finger crack straight up or the wide crack on the right. I think Jim told me that Jill's ends at that ledge but other folks say it keeps going up on the right/easier crack. I prefer the finger crack that goes straight up from there but we opted out of that one yesterday since it was so windy.

[letsroll]

We some people were wondering if the guide book would spur more people to head out to Ozone. Well I guess we have our answer. Time to start heading back to Broughtons. THat place has to be empty.

 

As for aiding at beacon, I am waiting till I don't want to free climb in the cold. Besides my rack is not large enough for aiding. Need more small gear.

[ivan]

reckon i should hazarded a guess at the free-grade of this route - given that takes fist is 10d by the book, i'd imagine this a hair-harder and so 11ish

[Cobra_Commander]

Was walking out to beacon as that guy was being piggybacked out the park. Not sure how you can take a long enough fall on Jill's to hurt your ankle that bad. The gear at the crux is incredibly good. You can almost top-rope the last moves.

[kevbone]

I think Jim told me that Jill's ends at that ledge but other folks say it keeps going up on the right/easier crack.

 

Jills is two pitches, or three shorter ones. The last pitch goes right off Yosemite ledge.

 

 

I prefer the finger crack that goes straight up from there but we opted out of that one yesterday since it was so windy.

 

That is the second pitch of Crazy Horse.

[denalidave]

I'm guessing you could also roll an ankle on the bulge there, right above the spot you can sew it up before making the moves.

[beaconben]

Nice ivan. That is awesome that you climed so many routes this year that have probably seen few ascents ( and in any case seem to have had almost zero ascents in the last 10 years.) about this route, I surmized that this route was Takes Fist (while rap cleaning it), since the roof that you left those red etriers looked like 5.12 instead of 5.10d. I figured the easiest free route goes up this fist crack then cuts left at the replaced anchor/horizontal fist crack to join the sweet dihedral. It would be good to ask the first ascensionists. I think one of them is Mark Cartier

[denalidave]

I think Jim told me that Jill's ends at that ledge but other folks say it keeps going up on the right/easier crack.

 

Jills is two pitches, or three shorter ones. The last pitch goes right off Yosemite ledge.

 

 

I prefer the finger crack that goes straight up from there but we opted out of that one yesterday since it was so windy.

 

That is the second pitch of Crazy Horse.

Ah, Crazy Horse, that's what I was looking for. So where does the first pitch of CH start then? At the belay station half way up the first pitch of Jill's? What's it rated anyway 10a/b?

[ivan]

So where does the first pitch of CH start then? At the belay station half way up the first pitch of Jill's? What's it rated anyway 10a/b?

i'd imagine it starts just left of the pedastal belay on jills, right at the top of fear of flying - there are old bolts there w/ the hangers removed and a pin up a short, steep, dirty crack that heads off towards the yosemite ledge - might be nice if clean, but as it is a no-brainer to go w/ jill's instead

 

dunno on your point ben - it would seem very odd to do a long and very difficult traverse (free) as opposed to just pulling hte roof right above the anchor - nate (fargo) did what we've been thinking is takes fist all free and i don't think he was thinking it was .12. our takes fist also gets easier once you pull the roof, unlike the crack 2 nowhere, which is wicked steep and has no cozy stemming or micro feet.

[beaconben]

Maybe the roof is not as hard as I thought, just a little sandbagged like much of Beacon. 5.10d is a pretty tough grade.

[kevbone]

So where does the first pitch of CH start then? What's it rated anyway 10a/b?

 

Jim rates it 10a to lead and 5.9 to top rope. I think its 5.9 no matter how you climb it.

 

 

 

i'd imagine it starts just left of the pedastal belay on jills, right at the top of fear of flying - there are old bolts there w/ the hangers removed and a pin up a short, steep, dirty crack that heads off towards the yosemite ledge

 

Nope. That is the second pitch of fear of flying, goes at 10.b.

 

 

The first pitch of crazy horse starts after you climb right gull to the chains…..except don’t go over to the chains on the left. Instead as you top out on the first pillar (where you step left to the chains), go straight up to a ledge ( going straight up is call the Vulcan Variation 5.8). Make a gear anchor. Here you can step WAY left and continue up right gull 5.8. Instead climb the wide crack in and left in the corner. This goes somewhere between 5.7-5.9 depending on your crack skill. After you top out on a ledge 25 feet up continue “STRAIGHT UP A FACE WITH A CRACK ON THE LEFT TO PROTECT. CLIMB OVER A BULGE (CRUX) AND STEP RIGHT AND UP TO YOSEMITE LEDGE”. ……THIS IS THE FIRST PITCH OF CRAZY HORSE!

 

A solid link up is Little Wing to right gull to Vulcan variation (one pitch). First pitch of Crazy Horse (which I just described) to Yosemite ledge and keep going up Sundance 5.8/9 (left of second pitch of Crazy Horse) in one pitch. Which will take you to Grassy Ledges in two pitches from the ground. All with easy climbing.

 

Hope that helps.