[TR] Beacon Rawk - Jackanapes on Jensens Ridge 11/15/2008

[ivan]

Trip: Beacon Rawk - Jackanapes on Jensens Ridge (5.11a or 5.10 A1 III 5 pitches)

 

Date: 11/15/2008

 

Trip Report:

today was the 33rd anniversary of the raging tempest that sunk the emdmund fitzgerald - it was a fitting day to be at beacon, where despite the gay promises of weekend sun, the reality of brisk, windy weather was that i wore 3 layers all day, my face ended storm-kist, corneas shredded by wind-born lichen on this skanky-dirty route

 

the sound track for this tr - for your personal listening pleasure

[video:youtube]v=99rOzMVtcx4

 

the route - jensens ridge is the dominant and sickeningly soaring sw ridge of beacon rock - i'm sad to realize this TR has little hope of achieving the erstwhile fame of my late silver crow/axe of karma debacle b/c it lacks a certainly contreversialness - you can see the scandoulous panel of silver crow on the upper right corner of this route phote though - this is the arena of terror - this is the fucking edge!

me on the thin, dirty, scarey first pitch - geoff took the pix while waiting for jim n' company

i fell right around here on grassy, slick, cold rock

 

mike following near the top of pitch 2 - this is a fun one - it's very short, but i had to tension into the super-steep, exposed finger crack - the route is plagued by thick, hoary, abudant lichen, which makes its presence know w/ authority on this pithc

i'm hoping miker throws in his photos for the cum-shot pitch, the core reason for taking on this rarely touched classic - it's got what you want - extremely difficult, overhanging thin crack w/ horrific exposure followed by a godawful "mindbending offwidth" that weighs in at 11a, but for me was more like 5.10 A1 - it easily takes 3 #3s and #4s camalots, plus 2 #5s - this was my 2nd lead of this pitch, and i can't help but think i'd do it faster w/ proper aiders - as it was i had to use several slings as stirrups as the incredible lichen-factor and steepness make free climbing essentially impossible for non-wheatie free-basers

 

the incredible 4th pitch - we climbed the right side crack system - very steep, very pumpy and a lot of small gear to start w the the real threat of ledging out on a fall - it gets very cool when you suddenly can start stemming intot he left crack - a 30 year old pin marks the inverted Y interstection

recently cleaned by jeff thomas, yet still totally obscure, west face climbs on beacon rock

an unusual beacon rock climbing view - the impressive talus field below the west face

the anchor at the top of pitch 3 - 2 80's era smc 1/4 inch rusted ass bolts - 3 small cams in the crack above top roped the second though

looking down on joe healy from the top of pitch 3 - joe's at the top free for all maybe? - of interest are the bolts, center-frame, for silver crow/axe of karma, which would come up from the bottom of the frame - a blackberry shrub appears to threaten the pipeline headwall exit onto the anchors

looking back at mike at the belay for pithc 4 - i walked down the ledge top to look at silver crow's topout - notice the old bolt, center frame, in a sea of thick ass lichen - i ripped off an ancient scrap of webbing and excavated several inches of moss/pine needles/dirt to unearth the bolt - not certain of its purpose - perhaps to protect a climber comign up from silver crow for jensen's last pitch?

looking up from the lonely bolt - very interesting aid lines to the right of the jensens exit - the left side crack is a 6-8" chimney - the right crack is thinner, but has a series of giant stacked blocks atop it that might suck

the awesome exit roof crack on the two lanes to the right of the pitch 4 of jensens

looking down on pitch 3 of jensens - the "mindbending off-width" is in the center - the top of the first pitch is in the sunlight below

mike arriving at the sketacular belay at the top of pitch 4 - my ass cheeks splayed either side of the divide, ready to go whichever way necessary to stop The Great Descent - 1 pitch above this (our 5th on the route) brought us through poison-oak less terrain (i fucking hope!) of moss, mank and brush to the railings of the trail and a whole herd of twittering tourists, none of whom were hawt dammit

the pale setting sun over the western columbia river gorge - fierce winds on the this day, the anniversary of the november storm that sunkt he edmound fitzgerald

 

looking down on the river from 500 feet up - notice the sharp contrast between the extremly turbid, churned up and silt-laden water created by the recent intense rains - the shorelines are calmer

 

as the sun set, mike and i finished out the day by escorting old larry up to his bivy at the paryt ledge - i reveled in my relative light-weightedness and led all the pitches of the se corner in the blustery dark - a most titillating rap down the dutchman on a single strand rounded out the day

 

 

Gear Notes:

total, for the whole route, assuming your mortal like me

2-3 blue, green, yellow, red aliens

2 .75, 1, 2, 5 camlots

3 3, 4

single set of nuts

15+ draws

 

Approach Notes:

never seen so many shrooms!

[Frikadeller]

 

 

In this picture, it looks like you're climbing with a G-String and a harness..... Say it ain't so?

 

[kevbone]

This is not Jensens ridge. Matter of fact you are climbing over 3 different routes shown is this picture. Do you like the anchor I added on that belay?

 

 

[denalidave]

Ivan, I've got your nut tool... For some reason, JH thought I'd see you first so he gave it to me. Let me know when your headed out this way again. If nothing else, you can swing by my place and grab it. Meanwhile, I'll be making sure it stays loved and used, as I seemed to have dropped mine on Dod's. Nate tells me it came off when I was doing to 2nd pitch but I was unaware.

[ivan]

This is not Jensens ridge. Matter of fact you are climbing over 3 different routes shown is this picture. Do you like the anchor I added on that belay?

 

 

yeah, i've never understood how they could have justified squeezing so many lines into 1 narrow area - i could have mentioned that the first true pitch of jensen's is the dirty, shitty, stupid 5.0 thing around the corner, but i'd imagine most folks would want to start right off the ground on some real climbing

 

your anchor at the notch kev is the only decent bolt belay on the whole climb, but it was diminished somewhat by the fact that a hurricane force wind was being funneled through the gap

[ivan]

Ivan, I've got your nut tool... For some reason, JH thought I'd see you first so he gave it to me. Let me know when your headed out this way again. If nothing else, you can swing by my place and grab it. Meanwhile, I'll be making sure it stays loved and used, as I seemed to have dropped mine on Dod's. Nate tells me it came off when I was doing to 2nd pitch but I was unaware.

awesome - been wondering were in the hell it had gone - how did joe get it?

 

you looked might cold waiting down there to start up free for all dave! you gotta talk nate into dragging your ass up this climb man - very cool setting and novel views - you just need an army of coolies to scrub the hamburger sized lichens out

[kevbone]

yeah, i've never understood how they could have justified squeezing so many lines into 1 narrow area - i could have mentioned that the first true pitch of jensen's is the dirty, shitty, stupid 5.0 thing around the corner, but i'd imagine most folks would want to start right off the ground on some real climbing

 

your anchor at the notch kev is the only decent bolt belay on the whole climb, but it was diminished somewhat by the fact that a hurricane force wind was being funneled through the gap

 

 

Squeezed? There are all natural gear. God squeezed them together. I cleaned out the middle crack in 2005 and neve had the balls to lead it as it was. Jim told me it used to have two pins it it. I thought it went at about 10.c or so if you stayed in the crack/seem. I got ahold of Bob McGowen and he told me I could replace the pins with pins or bolts. I never did....due to the wrath that might ensue from those who think they own the rock. Even though I would be within my unwritten right to to so, since I got the FA's permission to do so. An't gonna happen now. I have children.

[denalidave]

Ivan, I've got your nut tool... For some reason, JH thought I'd see you first so he gave it to me. Let me know when your headed out this way again. If nothing else, you can swing by my place and grab it. Meanwhile, I'll be making sure it stays loved and used, as I seemed to have dropped mine on Dod's. Nate tells me it came off when I was doing to 2nd pitch but I was unaware.

awesome - been wondering were in the hell it had gone - how did joe get it?

 

you looked might cold waiting down there to start up free for all dave! you gotta talk nate into dragging your ass up this climb man - very cool setting and novel views - you just need an army of coolies to scrub the hamburger sized lichens out

Not sure how Joe got your tool but till I will be sure to take good care of it till we meet up again.

 

I'm guessing I was not nearly as cold as your gluten for punishment, bring on the suffer-fest, ass up there on the windiest spot possible. Glad I wore the shell though. How's yer poison oak shaping up?

[ivan]

there's no oak on route fo shizzle - pretty certain we stayed out of it on the top out too

[ivan]

Squeezed? There are all natural gear. God squeezed them together.

well, it wouldn't be a beacon TR w/o something to argue about

 

what i mean is, as you notice, it difficult to climb up to the gap on the ridge w/o touching parts of all 3 of the routes listed below - it's more like 1 route w/ a number of variations possible then 3 totally indepedent lines - i have the same problem w/ the winter delight/sufficiently breathless area above the first tunnel - i usually end up mixing and matching

 

as to adding bolts/pins - if the fa said it's cool, then it's fine w/ me - the pro is pretty goddamn sketchy along the way (thus my rambling over the parts of all the routes in a constant search for something positive) and there are several parts of the lines i ignored precisely b/c there's no pro and nasty fall consequences - there is still one fixed pin that marks a very fun traverse and young-warrior-esque strenous sidepull around a corner to get a yellow alien in

[miker]

That was a most excellent line. I wish I had the skills to free the first two pitches, as it is I did most of the excellent 5.9+ final pitch free but with lots of hanging on the rope. Lichen is the evil and a wire brush is needed to scour all of the feet and hands to make for some stellar stemming crack moves.

 

I need some crack technique but there were some amazing fist and hand jams and even a no hands leg lock at one point.

 

More wide gear is definitely needed.

 

The night ascent of the corner was a nice capper to an excellent day.

 

[kevbone]

Lichen is the evil and a wire brush is needed to scour all of the feet

 

 

Thank goodness Jim is not computer savy....he would have your head for even thinking this.

[miker]

What am I "allowed" to use for lichen?

 

A toothbrush?

 

A camel hair brush?

 

My tongue?

 

Just the wear that occurs due to climbing the route?

 

I mean, my eyes feel parbroiled from the lichen that flew into them as I tried to wedge myself into a couple of the offwidth sections.

 

I am not volunteering to do said cleaning, but feel someone should do it.

[kevbone]

Just telling you what Jim thinks about it. I dont care what you use.

[pink]

use a nylon brush, wire polishes the rock. i've had that same experience on jensens ridge.

 

 

 

[ivan]

hmm, not entirely a free move on the .11a crack - there is crazy air under you as you step out to start this, the 3rd pitch

[billcoe]

I have a couple of big-assed Palymayra bristle brushes that work great. They will do the job twice as fast and 3 times as good, and like Pink says, won't make the rock slick like a wire brush. The first time Jim told me that a wire brush makes the rock slick, I listened, but had to digest it on my own before I found it to be true. A wire brush will make the free climbing harder as it really does slicken the rock.

 

I can loan anyone who wants to head up there one. Home depot sells little ones on like 2 foot long handles, they have both the nylon bristle version and the natural (palymyra bristle) versions. Both of those work better than a wire brush and are better as well.

 

Mike and Ivan: kick-assed as usual. You dudes rule the roost.

[ivan]

2 years later and another lap, this time w/ the irascible powderhund - nice to have a ropegun along to go first and use all those grabby things to get the line up there for me

 

reckon no one's done the optional first pitch this year as it was grassy, grassy and scary as ever - need to remember to just always do the original 1st pitch as this fawker is skerry 1st time i've seen poison oak growing on the route proper, just above the the crux traverse at the pin - gave me the necessary excuse to lower off n' let bryan have it

 

eager dood that he is, the 'hund had to have the left variation of the last pitch, shown below - the olson guide mentions "there are two variations here, both 5.9+" but seems absure that the left option would be considered anywhere near .9 bryan made short work of it though, and i found a good way up the ridge to avoid the thickets of oak

now, here's to waiting a few hrs to see if the oak-gods must have their sacrifice - easy to avoid on the last pitch, but at the actual base, if you do the red ice/whatever variation, its hard to setup and belay w/o tangling w/ it - there was a bush on route on that pitch too, which means the whole area deserves a roundup explosion

 

did i mention i like the hardman retro-70s thang that seems to be the rage? - powderhund totally rocking the 'stache w/ the shag sweater n' cop glasses - half the teenie-bopping bitches on the trail down seemed willing to crack a pelvis for him if only it might slow his descent!

[billcoe]

did i mention i like the hardman retro-70s thang that seems to be the rage? - powderhund totally rocking the 'stache w/ the shag sweater n' cop glasses - half the teenie-bopping bitches on the trail down seemed willing to crack a pelvis for him if only it might slow his descent!

 

LOL! He swung by after work one day in a convertible with the business suit and tie thing. As he approached the porch where I was with my wife and daughter, I think he could have had both of them right there from the way they were purrin....

 

BTW, nice job! Put a Totem cam report in the gear section for the bros if you feel like it.