[TR] Beacon Rawk - - Fresh Squeeze to Squeeze Box - 5.8A4 9/14/2008

[ivan]

Trip: Beacon Rawk - - Fresh Squeeze to Squeeze Box - 5.8A4

 

Date: 9/14/2008

 

Trip Report:

the summers of good times continue - 2 strait summer seasons at the good stone, and haven't had to repeat a thing - today, following the theme of last week on stepphenwulf, looked for a place i'd been before and felt awe-struck at the prospect of defiling the mtn-god - my list of shit left to do is getting fun and thin, w/ no descriptions at all in the olson guide, and usually not even the godamn # illustrated!

 

this time it was fresh squeeze, the intimidating, smooth face immediately above the windsurfer anchor (pipedream is just around the corner - i was eager to keep the pithc to less than the 5 goddamn hours i spent on that one, and made it, though it was closer than i woulda liked) - this pitch is fucking kewl, but like most of the beacon adventure climbs i've been doing of late, showing clear signs of the infrequency w/ which it's being climbed

 

might should have my head examined - today conditions were far from optimal for an overgrown, aid-intensive line - so fucking windy that half the time i had to grab my etriers from ABOVE me, trying to hold the lower steps down long enough so i could get my foot in to get gravity working back the way it's supposed to go - sometimes a gust woudl come up strong enough that my trailing pair of etriers would get shot up from 5 feet beloew me, to 5 feet above, only to come crashing down on my helmet w/ a palpable THWACK! - heavy lichen and plenty of dirt and plants to clean from cracks, such that i spent several hours in a swirling maelstrom of occular pain-fuck, my skin sweating dust and pulverized paleolithic plant-fuck forms

 

sooo - this is a serious aid line, though i'm still pretty inexperienced and entirely self-taught - A4 seems right, given olson's descriptions - i wish i'd had some birdpeaks, as those would likely have spared me from having to drive the 2 knive-blades i used (both which had to be tied off) - loweballs woulda been good too, and might could have taken the place of the dozen or so leeper placements that were not optional (a whole fucking colony, doctor!) - the route is a wierd one, passing through an old, solid pin, a similiarly archaic yet beefy bolt, and a fixed head only slightly less skethcy then the one on the 1st pithc of the dutchman - at least one mandatory hook placment that oozed slowly down, leaving shavings of basalt like brittle butter! - about 1/2 way up, above the head and at an odd but solid #3 cam placement, you are compelled to bail right onto a shitload of leepers into a solid crack system (the left is very, very bushy, and rightfully so as there's nothign fucking there for pro!) - this crack takes a lot of great ultra-thin to medium sized nuts, eventually leading to leap-frogging yellow aliens - a bit further and some big cams (used my #4, but coulda lived w/o it) and was at the anchor for squeeze box, which could use a joehealy replacment as it's an american death-sling situation which needs to be cut out if the old, giant pin is to be made usable - the extant bolt is exposed down to the threads - i backed it up w/ a 3 piece anchor (mike jugged on a convenient, solid bolt at the top of the line), but by the time mike had gotten up to me and my dry-heaves from the heat, dust and dehydration had failed to pass, i was sufficiently chagrined by the large brush above to bail over to big ledge for forbidden pleasures - johnny cash on the ipod shuffle w/ the giant speakers!

 

returning to squeeze box is on the agenda for sure - (markd's?) arete route (devil's backbone?) is pretty clean, but the crack above the anchors for squeeze box is very attractive - i'll have to go back w/ heavy duty clippers though, as the crack, which'll take .5 inch cams easy, is currently cluster-fucked w/ beefy roots and branches that just can't be chopped w/ a nut tool\

 

on the postive side, the 2nd kneecap i was sprouting after whacking meself in the leg w/ a staub while showingh the kids how to fuck up a pinata-proper didn't slow me down

 

Gear Notes:

2 medium kniveblades (tied off) (or a few birdbeaks)

a leeper colony

some species of skyhook

2-3 blue to red aliens

brassies and 1 1/2 sets of nuts, small to large

2 .75 - 2 camalots

1 # 3

1 #4

20 draws

 

Approach Notes:

ninja creep

[JosephH]

Dude, you are the wily devil, but if you're going to be heading up these old lines then give me a shout - no sense doing them twice in order to get them cleaned out and old fixed pro checked and replaced if necessary. I can either go up with you or give you the gear to get the job done right while you're up there.

 

P.S. I have a shitload of Loweballs, beaks, and Crack 'n Ups that could be used in the process as well.

[ivan]

naw, doing'em twice is fine - and if i climb w/ you, you'll like, wanna lead n'stuff i seem to have collected an assortment of kind fools who prefer to let me do all the fun shit!

 

you wanna do flight time sometime soon? there are several in the book too that look more mysterious - "edge of fear"'s got the best name and the vaunted grade iv rating

[kevbone]

That pitch needs bolts.

[billcoe]

Good on ya as usual Ivan, but I need to ask: "Whats a Leeper Colony"?

 

Is this classic Ivan-English speak? Do you mean the whole range of like doubles or triples of the Leeper Z pins? Or is this some real, actual piece?

_____________________________________________________________

 

That pitch crack needs bolts.

Fixed it so we can have the usual 50 page flamefest going.

[JosephH]

naw, doing'em twice is fine - and if i climb w/ you, you'll like, wanna lead n'stuff i seem to have collected an assortment of kind fools who prefer to let me do all the fun shit!

 

you wanna do flight time sometime soon? there are several in the book too that look more mysterious - "edge of fear"'s got the best name and the vaunted grade iv rating

 

Ivan, I'm more than happy letting you lead, I'm more concerned with route restoration on any such mission and I can do that seconding...

[ivan]

i meant those beefy leeper cam hooks, bill (my knowledge of aid widgetery is still quite infantile) - they worked really well, especially up high - i haven't quite gotten used to top-stepping w/ them (but the skyhook guys are waaay sketchier once you're above them!)

 

kev, there's a bolt on the route already (a cheater stick there woulda let me skip the first nail i used too) - there's really no need for more, at least as an aid climb - at 11d, i'm not so worried about trying to free it anyhow a variation to the line could be created w/ 1-2 bolts above the #3 placement, where it's all overgrown now and would probably be pretty fun - the topo does show the original route going right where i did though...

[ivan]

 

Ivan, I'm more than happy letting you lead, I'm more concerned with route restoration on any such mission and I can do that seconding...

da'lright - when ya wanna go? i was looking to get out tomorrow after school....

[kevbone]

Good on ya as usual Ivan, but I need to ask: "Whats a Leeper Colony"?

 

Is this classic Ivan-English speak? Do you mean the whole range of like doubles or triples of the Leeper Z pins? Or is this some real, actual piece?

_____________________________________________________________

 

That pitch crack needs bolts.

Fixed it so we can have the usual 50 page flamefest going.

 

 

Its not much of a crack.

[ivan]

Its not much of a crack.

true that, at least the first half, but the upper part is a beautiful set of finger cracks and probably only mid 10ish

 

still, if the FA'ists only saw the need for 1 bolt and i could get my fat ass up it in its current state, why change it? if folks want to free it, it's not hard to set up a TR once you're on big ledge. get it wired and you could probably lead it free - the major problem is that it's thiniest at the start w/ a very real danger of crashing onto the belay ledge - it wouldn't be nearly as cool and intimdating a line w/ a bunch of new hardware.

[ivan]

what, you can't see a crack here?

[ivan]

"how steep is this mother-fucker again?"

[Rad]

So, the best trad rock climbing in Oregon is in Washington?

 

I was in a conference in the hopping town of Vancouver, WA last week but couldn't steal away for a visit Beacon. Someday....

 

Except for a few bumps, it sure is flat down that way.

 

Carry on...

 

[ivan]

here's the one bolt, kevin - it was way more inspiring than those fucking relics on stephenwolf

[JosephH]

da'lright - when ya wanna go? i was looking to get out tomorrow after school....

 

Probably not this week as we're trying to get the girl off to UW for college. The weekend on I'm good though...

[ivan]

arrived after a pleasant evening yday to discover a thoroughly soaked bacon wand - ole'larry cranked out at 10 after being chased off the ledge by storms at 4 a.m. - ballz.

 

had a date w/ the daugher for some serious high-school drama in the early evening, so had to content meself w/ something simplish - had never done the first pitch of fresh squeeze despite doing the hair-brained part a few years back - appears that most everybody just tr's the lower pitch, based on the lack of fixed gear where you'd really need it - wanted to be shy about hammering on it, but as my red alien is held together w/ twisties (no longer! ) and my 2nd green alien is currently KIA too had a stronger than usual haste to start pounding - easy to see why it doesn't get led much - a series of overhanging panels threaten to add insult to injury, casting you down along w/ big blocks to cut your rope

 

to aid p1 of fresh squeeze, i used nearly 3 sets of offset nuts, including brassies, 2 .75, yellow aliens, 1 #2, .5 & green & blue alien, 2 birdbeaks, 2 knifeblades, 2 lost-arrows & 1 big hook - cleaned all the iron i put in, though there are 2 old pins fixed currently

 

fixed a rope and hope to go back soon and either repeat p2 of fresh squeeze, planning to chop out squeeze box to revive it, or do pipeline headwall, recovering my long-left draw & reset the pin its trapped on, then hackout either a new direct finish to the trail, or revive an route lost to history

[JosephH]

Has FS p1-part 2 or p2 ever seen a second free ascent?

[ivan]

no clue - so bold i can't comprehend it - the pro is really scary for a big free fall, and the actual climb is retard steep and haaaard! sure would like to see it happen though... reckon the aspiring hard freeman would want to preset 3-4 more pins, or be prepared to hammer while hanging from his fingernails!