[TR] Beacon Rock - SE Corner Jill's Thrill Variation 10/5/2013

[MrGecko]

Trip: Beacon Rock - SE Corner Jill's Thrill Variation

 

Date: 10/5/2013

 

Trip Report:

What great weather for an early October weekend after Portland experienced a sudden summer to winter transition just the week prior which turned Hood, Helens and Adams from brown to white.

 

75F, sunny and a perfect day to get my first run on the south side of Beacon, which was long overdue. Luck would have it that I bump into Jim O dashing up the SE Corner with a young'en in tow. Wonderful to see the generations passing on the art and who better than Jim to show this kid Beacon.

 

My friend Jessica had climbed the route before and was keen to get some more time on the sharp end so we decided to swap leads. Jess took the initial pitch and shortly after brought me up to the comfy Snag Ledge. Up ahead at the belay of pitch 3 of the standard route was a party of four and it looked like they were going to be taking a more leisurely pace. Unfortunately I didn't bring the guidebook so the best I could do was look about and see if there might be an alternate route to do. I spotted a nice looking crack behind the belay with a pin about 1/3 the way up so I suggested we give it a go.

 

The next pitch was sweet with good gear after the first pin and lots of hand holds showing up just when needed. There is another decent pin near the exit and pulling over the top of the crack a set of 2 rap hangers with slings is found. The 3rd pitch of our adventure started off with an easy ramp to a ledge where a tricky crack splitting a slab is found. The crack takes good small to medium nuts but the sequence wants fingers in the gear placements so I found this to be the crux (10a-ish) and took a fall on a solid nut. After working out the moves I lowered back to the ledge and climbed it clean to another good ledge and set of anchors. The 4th pitch consisted of a tight squeeze slot with fingers/hands and good gear. A bit more sustained than the prior pitch it eventually eases up higher and exits straight up to another set of bolt anchors.

 

From here we headed left along the Grassy Ledges to wind our way up to a chimney that exited onto a large bivy ledge. We crossed the ledge and down climbed the right side to meet up with the standard route along the ramp and in its third last pitch. This is where I ran into Jim and he informed me that the route we climbed was called Jill's Thrill and was a classic line. I have to agree it was definitely a superb line.

 

SE Corner with Jill's Thrill Variation (1st pitch of the SE Corner route not shown)

 

Jessica following up the first pitch of Jill's Thrill

 

Almost to the crux on Jill's Thrill second pitch

 

View up river

 

Pitch 6 Pano with Columbia River and the Oregon side of the Gorge

 

 

Gear Notes:

small and medium nuts

0.5-2" set of cams

Edited October 8, 2013 by MrGecko