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Farside or Dropzone


kevbone

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Names, Names, names.

I actually want to talk about the climbing there... :P

I've been climbing out there a bunch lately (It's how I keep my sanity while doing month long hangboard training to work my projects).

First, I found "Sweet Fucker" to just that! Nice work on that line Bill.

Next, The Head Wall is also damn good. Though I personally thought liebacking around the bulge in that good crack was more like a 5.9 crux. Great route. That and Step and Fetch It are probably my faves there currently. (oh, and Closeout, how did I forget about that one! quite the route for this area!).

Lastly, I wanted to ask about adding an anchor to Adam's Crack. I know it says it was rejected, but I just wanted to bring it up again. That 40' of dirt scramble to the tree sling is, well... nasty. I was being careful, and I still got pine pitch on my hands and shoes!! Any thoughts? Doesn't matter to me, as I'll probably never do it again, but figured I'd ask for future climbers!

Edited by mksportn
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Nice to hear Micah!!!!! I still get out there too, but only when Beacon is closed or I'm in a total time crunch. It's a nice little hike and/and bouldering traverseand/or cleaning the loose shit off the lower parts combo-platter with the pup too when the day is too wet for Beacon.

 

The name thing and sticking to it being called Farside is pretty much from Jim Opdycke as he was the one who found it. There's plenty of discourse about the name online from a lot of folks if anyone want's or needs to catch up on all of that (Jim is not on the computer so they'd have to call him for his view). I go with Farside out of respect towards Jim. I'd like to see others either do the same, or convince him to change his mind and get him to revert to "Dropzone".

 

I like Dropzone as a name. And I like Ivans "Bonezone" wordsmithing effort even more that that. The man has the soul of a poet.

 

It turns out that not only was it the Skamania country dump for many years, but until this day, the Washington Dept of Transportation (WDOT) is still using the old nearside trail to toss roadkill deer and other ruminants off the road. Of course, this attracts a regular cleanup crew of working cougars. Haha! Good times, especially in the fall when hunters will gut shot one: or there is a herd trying to run from a hunter and one or 2 gets pegged by a car. The deer tossing comes almost daily at that point.

 

Sometimes the Wdot crew get an old stinky bloated one. It starts to fall apart when they grab it, so they slide it onto a tarp, then they toss the tarp it's on, along with their fucking rubber gloves, down the hill to let us deal with. :noway: There, I just outed them. It pisses me off to pick up others trash. Of course, the cougars do all the heavy lifting and it's just like Thanksgiving to them. :lmao: Hard to complain about that. But that all explains Ivans choice of Bonezone and others choice of Dropzone as names.

 

As far as an anchor goes, put it in if you have multiple folks who think it should be there. I climbed with Adam in Yosemite earlier this year, and noted that someone had bolted up his route we called "Adam's Crack". It was poorly bolted job too. Bolts put in so you had to clip them after you made the move etc. Anyway, Adam was sad about it, but what can a mother do? Do what you and others think is right, ask around first of course:-) Adam tried to put it up as pure as possible. No shoes, no chalk, no bolts, no clothes. Yeah. Not even a harness for one of those damned routes. Bowline on a coil -rope wrapped around his waist. ...Of course he took his nuts.... :noway: Wait. No he did. Climbed it close to buck ass naked he did. There was snow on the ground and I had my best Feathered Friends down coat on to belay. Thus the name of the Buttress: the "Bare BUTTress".

 

And of the 2 other climbs that are on either side of Adam's Crack. The Left Cheek, and the Right Cheek, pretty much the same deal. Naked! Suppose to let your freak flag fly when you climb those. Unless you are old. Wife said to me (and we use to do the nude beach thing back when): "don't you peel it off, no one wants to see an old flabby pasty white dude." That lone sounded bad enough that I stayed clothed. LOL!!!

 

Anyway, if you know who changed my text from Farside to Dropzone on Mountainproject, maybe touch base with them. It would be nice if they changed it back. Kind of like Bacher would feel (if he was still alive) and if someone were to go retro-bolt up the Bacher-Yerian. Not the end of the world but it would be nice if Jims voice was heard on it first.

 

Take care all!

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Nice to hear Micah!!!!! I still get out there too, but only when Beacon is closed or I'm in a total time crunch. It's a nice little hike and/and bouldering traverseand/or cleaning the loose shit off the lower parts combo-platter with the pup too when the day is too wet for Beacon.

 

The name thing and sticking to it being called Farside is pretty much from Jim Opdycke as he was the one who found it. There's plenty of discourse about the name online from a lot of folks if anyone want's or needs to catch up on all of that (Jim is not on the computer so they'd have to call him for his view). I go with Farside out of respect towards Jim. I'd like to see others either do the same, or convince him to change his mind and get him to revert to "Dropzone".

 

I like Dropzone as a name. And I like Ivans "Bonezone" wordsmithing effort even more that that. The man has the soul of a poet.

 

It turns out that not only was it the Skamania country dump for many years, but until this day, the Washington Dept of Transportation (WDOT) is still using the old nearside trail to toss roadkill deer and other ruminants off the road. Of course, this attracts a regular cleanup crew of working cougars. Haha! Good times, especially in the fall when hunters will gut shot one: or there is a herd trying to run from a hunter and one or 2 gets pegged by a car. The deer tossing comes almost daily at that point.

 

Sometimes the Wdot crew get an old stinky bloated one. It starts to fall apart when they grab it, so they slide it onto a tarp, then they toss the tarp it's on, along with their fucking rubber gloves, down the hill to let us deal with. :noway: There, I just outed them. It pisses me off to pick up others trash. Of course, the cougars do all the heavy lifting and it's just like Thanksgiving to them. :lmao: Hard to complain about that. But that all explains Ivans choice of Bonezone and others choice of Dropzone as names.

 

As far as an anchor goes, put it in if you have multiple folks who think it should be there. I climbed with Adam in Yosemite earlier this year, and noted that someone had bolted up his route we called "Adam's Crack". It was poorly bolted job too. Bolts put in so you had to clip them after you made the move etc. Anyway, Adam was sad about it, but what can a mother do? Do what you and others think is right, ask around first of course:-) Adam tried to put it up as pure as possible. No shoes, no chalk, no bolts, no clothes. Yeah. Not even a harness for one of those damned routes. Bowline on a coil -rope wrapped around his waist. ...Of course he took his nuts.... :noway: Wait. No he did. Climbed it close to buck ass naked he did. There was snow on the ground and I had my best Feathered Friends down coat on to belay. Thus the name of the Buttress: the "Bare BUTTress".

 

And of the 2 other climbs that are on either side of Adam's Crack. The Left Cheek, and the Right Cheek, pretty much the same deal. Naked! Suppose to let your freak flag fly when you climb those. Unless you are old. Wife said to me (and we use to do the nude beach thing back when): "don't you peel it off, no one wants to see an old flabby pasty white dude." That lone sounded bad enough that I stayed clothed. LOL!!!

 

Anyway, if you know who changed my text from Farside to Dropzone on Mountainproject, maybe touch base with them. It would be nice if they changed it back. Kind of like Bacher would feel (if he was still alive) and if someone were to go retro-bolt up the Bacher-Yerian. Not the end of the world but it would be nice if Jims voice was heard on it first.

 

Take care all!

 

Thanks Bill :crazy:

Edited by pink
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Adam's Crack? that's sick..

Sick? Art or porn? Meh, "climbing pron"? heh heh. From back when there was nobody there.

 

Adam on the Right Cheek FA

resized_Adam_FA_right_Cheek_3.jpg

 

Which led to the first ascent of the Left Cheek being even more minimalist.

 

No shoes no shirt no service...no chalkbag. At least, it might not be a chalkbag.

Adam_on_The_Left_Cheek.jpg

 

Letting one's freak flag fly so to speak.

 

 

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The name thing and sticking to it being called Farside is pretty much from Jim Opdycke as he was the one who found it.

 

Found it maybe....but he admits he did not name it. Then 15 years go by and others found it with NO HELP FROM JIM. That is very important to the history. John, Marc and Kevin R found it all on there own. They climbed their for 2 years calling it the Drop Zone. They tried to get Jim to leave Ozone and come over but he was too into the Zone. Then he finally got tired of the ozone and came over to the Drop Zone. About that time Kevin got sick and Marc moved out of the state. The name had stuck and NOBODY called it anything but the Drop Zone. Then Jim one day decided to rename the crag that already had a name. And from that day forward the new crew (which includes you Bill) only knew it as the Farside. I love Jim and he is one of my best friends but IMO he does not get to rename this place simply because he is JIM Opdyke. I think he and all who call it The farside are stepping on the toes who came before you and gave it a name. Which includes the late Kevin R.

 

This information above is very important to the actual history of the Drop Zone.

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  • 1 month later...
maybe we should just use it's original injun name? :)

 

Indigenous peoples cliff or whatever "White mans Filthy Trashpit" translates too ("White ungwi- woyipa Trashpit?")? I'm sure they'll appreciate it:-) Maybe we need to retrain the cougars to eat latex gloves and blue tarps that the WDOT people toss off the hill with the animal remains? That overhang on top would be a perfect dry comfortable hunting spot if any Washingtonians are thinking of eating cougar this winter. I think all the tarps got picked up (last I saw but it's been a while since Beacon is open) but maybe they'll toss off a new one for you to use for your kill by the time you get out there.

 

I'll be climbing with Adam (and Ujahn and Amy) in Red Rocks next week for while (Good times ahead). So won't be arguing here once it gets wet outside like everyone starts doing every the winter. Someone needs to take my place and go help Ivan pull some fixed ropes off in the woods a tad and maybe put up a hundred feet of new route. Should be mostly free if it's not wet.

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  • 7 months later...

Nice bump Bone. Anyone have any info about the most recent Ozone - Farside accident? From the overhead picture of the link, it appears to be Farside. But why did they drag the poor fellas ass through all that Poison Oak instead of the hiking trail? Pfft, "Cape Horn Trail" my ass... http://www.kptv.com/story/31952528/climber-falls-150-feet-down-embankment-in-skamania-county

 

As usual, even without knowing anything about the accident, I can tell that the news people clearly boffed the story. AS USUAL.

 

"Climber falls 20-25 feet down embankment in Skamania County

Posted: May 11, 2016 6:21 PM PDT

 

Rescue crews responded to reports of a climber falling 20-25 feet down an embankment in Skamania County near SR 14.

 

Skamania County Sheriff's Office said Jerad West, 29, from Beaverton, was hiking with his brother and a friend west of Cape Horn off the Cape Horn Trail. They researched the climbing route. They arrived in the area but soon realized they were in the wrong location and the climb was more technical than they thought.

 

West fell and injured his leg.

 

EMS crews reached West and stabilized his leg. Rescue crews used a rope raising system to bring West up.

 

West was taken to Peace Health SW for treatment."

 

If this is one of my routes that I promised to put an extra bolt in (there are currently 3 at last count), I'd feel pretty damned bad. Wish the guy a quick and full recovery. Reminds me of Jons solo fall a while back where Bryan happened upon him. Darned good thing. That little yellow cam was up there for a while till JH went and got it back for Jon. Screwed up his ankle pretty good though. I was going to go clean off Tribal Therapy and Dwarf Toss the other day but the road crew was up top, and I've seen them toss off old timbers and I didn't want to be climbing below that kind of action so I changed plans and lapped the Cape Horn Trail (not the "closed due to Peregrines part" of course, up to the overlook). Young couple and friends were doing there wedding rehearsal there. I felt both like a a family friend being allowed to view a special intimate act, and a perv. Had to go and leave the young folks in peace. Good spot to get hitched if you could keep the public out for a bit I suppose.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I headed out today, all loaded for Bear and packing way too much stuff. Figured I'd do a public service and clean and lap Tribal Therapy, Yahsua and Dwarf Toss. I need to get my exercise on to keep up with Ivan. Or maybe do so with less pain. Made it as far as the gas station and got redirected to work. Still wearing my softshell pants and LaSportiva shoes. Tossed my backpack/haul bag of crap in the office corner so as to not fry the shoes in the 90 degree weather.

 

To wit:

"When the still sea conspires an armor

And her sullen and aborted

Currents breed tiny monsters

True climbing is dead ...."

 

File this under "non-climbing things which suck". BTW, Dwarf Toss is still ass deep in blackberry bushes unless someone else stepped up. Next weekend my boy graduates, so file that under things that make yer shoulders be pussed out cause you are being a dad and you need the exercise but won't get it.

 

Hmm, that didn't sound quite right. How about just: FARSIDE BUMP!!!!!

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