Beacon Rock will be open the weekend of 17th-18th

[JosephH]

Young Warriors got top down cleaning last night. Tried to be fairly thorough, dumping all the loose rock off the route. Got most of the larger rock chips, moss and dirt on the direct line as well, though it will still be dusty here and there until we get some rain.

[stevetimetravlr]

Good job!

[hanmi]

Hot rock on rock action photos (finally)...

 

Hey Bill! Be careful up there... I think that rock is...

 

LOOSE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A sincere thanks for all the great work guys!!

 

More photos of the trundling fun can be found here:

[denalidave]

Young Warriors got top down cleaning last night. Tried to be fairly thorough, dumping all the loose rock off the route. Got most of the larger rock chips, moss and dirt on the direct line as well, though it will still be dusty here and there until we get some rain.

Thanks Joe.

[denalidave]

Hot rock on rock action photos (finally)...

 

Hey Bill! Be careful up there... I think that rock is...

 

LOOSE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A sincere thanks for all the great work guys!!

 

More photos of the trundling fun can be found here:

Cool.

 

Ditto on the thanks.

[JosephH]

Hanmi - Great shots! Bill about to ride the big boy after it got hung up after only about 8'! What a sight that was. Thanks for posting these up and for all your help.

[billcoe]

Great sequence Hamni, thanks for sharing them. Love how you panned on that boulder all the way down.

[hanmi]

Thanks fellas!

 

It was pretty easy to stay locked on something THAT large!! I do wish I was able to capture the moment the thing let go, but I foolishly answered a call on the radio!! After watching Bill bounce on that thing for a few minutes I was sure it was going to take a while to get the boulder to move. I shall never underestimate your trundling powers again, Bill.

 

In other news, I am looking forward to hopefully getting to climb out there on Sunday...

[JosephH]

The final cleanup session of the season for accumulated loose rocks happened last night and the following were cleaned:

 

* The last bushwacking pitch of Dastardly (if you do it consider bringing some pruning shears and thinning it out a bit)

 

* Remainder of Grassy Ledges to the east

 

* The area above Grassy Ledges on up to the short chimney

 

* The blackberry and rock filled chute that crosses Grassy Ledges just before you go around the black rock to the top SE Corner rap - this chute had never been cleaned out and was precariously holding a really heavy rock load; it got cleaned out for about 35 feet below Grassy Ledges down to the point where it goes vertical

 

* SE Corner Raps - all the rap station ledges down the raps got cleaned and the anchor slings inspected (they're fine)

 

Bottom line is a LOT of rock and dirt got moved last night and some of it is going to be unsettled for a bit with the possibility of small rocks coming down on the start of the SE Corner. If you are going to hang out down there I'd strongly advise wearing a helmet until things calm down - ditto for climbing p1 of the Corner, wear a helmet and move through it at a reasonable pace.

 

Also, Jill's upper pitches may be a bit dirty Fri/Sat, the actual cracks were cleaned out, but dirt may be on various surfaces of the climb. Oh, and the short thin finger crack to the left of the second of the SE Corner rap station definitely will need to be cleaned off before anyone attempts to climb it.

[JosephH]

Heads-up for the weekend...

[JosephH]

Hanmi, would it be possible for you to post up a version of this one cropped in on the top a bit? Would like to see more detail on Bill's jumping jack flash action...

 

[LostCamKenny]

The final cleanup session of the season for accumulated loose rocks happened last night and the following were cleaned:

 

* The last bushwacking pitch of Dastardly (if you do it consider bringing some pruning shears and thinning it out a bit)

 

* Remainder of Grassy Ledges to the east

 

* The area above Grassy Ledges on up to the short chimney

 

* The blackberry and rock filled chute that crosses Grassy Ledges just before you go around the black rock to the top SE Corner rap - this chute had never been cleaned out and was precariously holding a really heavy rock load; it got cleaned out for about 35 feet below Grassy Ledges down to the point where it goes vertical

 

* SE Corner Raps - all the rap station ledges down the raps got cleaned and the anchor slings inspected (they're fine)

 

Bottom line is a LOT of rock and dirt got moved last night and some of it is going to be unsettled for a bit with the possibility of small rocks coming down on the start of the SE Corner. If you are going to hang out down there I'd strongly advise wearing a helmet until things calm down - ditto for climbing p1 of the Corner, wear a helmet and move through it at a reasonable pace.

 

Also, Jill's upper pitches may be a bit dirty Fri/Sat, the actual cracks were cleaned out, but dirt may be on various surfaces of the climb. Oh, and the short thin finger crack to the left of the second of the SE Corner rap station definitely will need to be cleaned off before anyone attempts to climb it.

thank god its safe now we can go climb!

[JosephH]

thank god its safe now we can go climb!

Kenny, I see you seem intent on keeping on a roll here. Hey, the loose rock load just above Grassy Ledges up to the short chimney had built up to a ridiculous level and sending grapefruit size rocks down to the SE Corner's base. Could have been cleaned out or stacked earlier during the pre-open work session, but of course (surprise) it somehow just didn't happen. But what the hell, you just keep at it here, it's so damn productive and helpful.

[pink]

thank god its safe now we can go climb!

Kenny, I see you seem intent on keeping on a roll here. Hey, the loose rock load just above Grassy Ledges up to the short chimney had built up to a ridiculous level and sending grapefruit size rocks down to the SE Corner's base. Could have been cleaned out or stacked earlier during the pre-open work session, but of course (surprise) it somehow just didn't happen. But what the hell, you just keep at it here, it's so damn productive and helpful.

 

i think we need to all thank joseph for all his hard work, if it wasn't for him u all would DIE!!!!!!! rockfall has never occured at beacon in the past, count urself lucky that joeseph showed up when he did cause you would all be dead...

[pink]

Great sequence Hamni, thanks for sharing them. Love how you panned on that boulder all the way down.

 

 

yes bill, we're all aware that u fancy asian women

[JosephH]

There's always been rockfall, it's just that no one did anything about it, but then why would rockfall be different.

[pink]

There's always been rockfall, it's just that no one did anything about it, but then why would rockfall be different.

 

[JosephH]

Exactly.

[denalidave]

thank god its safe now we can go climb!

Kenny, I see you seem intent on keeping on a roll here. Hey, the loose rock load just above Grassy Ledges up to the short chimney had built up to a ridiculous level and sending grapefruit size rocks down to the SE Corner's base. Could have been cleaned out or stacked earlier during the pre-open work session, but of course (surprise) it somehow just didn't happen. But what the hell, you just keep at it here, it's so damn productive and helpful.

Lucky for us Beatards, we have some outstanding youths in the area that volunteered, without anyone even asking them, to get rid of a bunch of rocks from the top of the Dutchman... Wow, they were even nice enough to throw down some beer cans too, although the beer was mostly gone by the time they sent them down to us climbers. Still, it was a very nice gesture on their part. Good to know we have such fine, outstanding and considered youths looking out for us and making it "safe" for the rest of us...

 

 

[ivan]

you forgot about the paper airplanes dood

 

the main source of rockfall on the jill's thrill/main-rap off grassy ledges, which is really more annoying than dangerous as it just comes in the form of gravel coming down when you pull your rope on the first rap, is still there, and won't be improved until you remove a couple wheel-barrows worht of soil from that chute where they make up the root-bed of that tree/bush

 

i'm not convinced that periodically kicking off debris from the heavily traveled areas makes stuff safer/better, but if it makes you happy and it's at night, why not?

 

certainly if one were to throw all the choss and debris off the mighty monolith, there wouldn't be much left in the end

[LostCamKenny]

thank god its safe now we can go climb!

Hey, the loose rock load just above Grassy Ledges up to the short chimney had built up to a ridiculous level and sending grapefruit size rocks down to the SE Corner's base. Could have been cleaned out or stacked earlier during the pre-open work session

the reason it didn't get cleaned is because that little dam stops the crap from coming down constantly. now that you have done us such a great service and pushed it down we can look forward to having more crap coming down on snag ledge and the traverse across to the slab. thank you so so so much joe. so if the grapefruit-sized rocks were coming down around the se corner base you must have been there to see a bunch of them coming down then, yes? i still got yer radios, btw...

[eldiente]

Climbed up there today for the first time this year. I noticed mounds (enough to fill a dump truck) of plants, grass, moss and dirt at the base of main wall that had come down during the cleaning. Very large pile below "takes fist." What's up with the heavy-handed cleaning going on up there? There isn't any well traveled routes in that area, why scrub a patch of rock 100x100 feet of all vegetation ?

 

Nobody likes to climb dirty routes, but this cleaning is excessive and very much an eye sore. I always thought the point of a park was to observe nature, not demolish it. We complain about that tourist trail to the summit, but the people doing that hike aren't leaving a huge pile of dead plants behind when they do their hike.

 

The trundling is no good either. Trees and bushes at the base of the wall are taking a beating from all the trundling. I don't see why their needs to be any trundling, the rocks will come down when they are good and ready without any need for a crow bar. Lose rock is part of every crag, if lose rock makes you uncomfortable, perhaps the gym is a better place for you?

 

 

In many parks, doing this type of cleaning or trundling would get the whole place closed to climbers. This whole process is the opposite of leave no trace, instead walking around you can clearly tell that people have been at work and it looks awful. Even a handful of tightly bolted sport lines would have less of a visual impact on the area than the mess of dead vegetation that is there now.

 

-Nate

 

 

 

 

 

[Cobra_Commander]

everyone just relaaaaaxxxxx,breathe, relaaaaxxxx.

[denalidave]

Uh oh, here we go...

[ivan]

the patch under takes fist is there b/c smooth dancer and the lines beside it are being cleaned - that area was clean in the past, but returned to mossy obscurity and deserves to be revived - if you like mossy beauty, there's plenty to be had on the north, east and west sides - how long do you think it will take for Ma Nature to reassert herself once we meat popsicles have been shown the door?

 

that said, once the cleanign is done, certainly the accumulated debris at the base will need to be sorted out