Beacon rock - this and than 7/5/2008
Trip: Beacon rock - this and that
Date: 7/5/2008
Trip Report:So my buddy Tyler and I have been amping for Salathe wall late this summer, and since I've been clipping bolts all spring and he's been occupied with other adventures we figured it was time to kick the wall training into gear.
We did bit of adventure climbing around lost warriors, then hit Free For Some where I took a couple of falls before figuring out the pinky-finger-killer crux as I have decided to call it. After a few laps on FFS we did windsurfer before heading back to PDX for beer & BBQ. Saturday we hiked in a stupid amount of food, gear and beer and Tyler aided up pipeline while I worked on wall training (basically pushups, crunches, squats, lifting big rocks, tagging up beers to Tyler, etc.) while occasionally tending the grigri. I did a couple laps on Pipeline to get a pump going then we had to make a beer run. Armed with more beer we planned to haul two bags up to big ledge and bivy. I took both our racks and the haul line and lead up free for all to dod's jam, intending to make a rope-stretcher pitch up to the anchor by the tree on dods. Pushing through the 10c off-width on Dods was a hell of a lot of work as the rack(s) got tangled in the haul line and the damned #4 got somehow wedged in my crotch as I grunted and bled my way up. On the ground, Tyler was getting chewed by mosquitoes and was wondering what was taking so long. Eventually I untangled everything, placed the #4 and pulled onto the belay ledge like a gasping beached whale. Sweet!
Then the true crux kicked in. I'd forgotten my ascenders and pulley so planned to haul through the grigri. Surprisingly enough, this method is even worse than it sounds! Since I was out of slings I used my belt as a prussic to get a 3-to-1 going on the haul line and through
mucho grunting was able to lift the bags a few inches at a time. whew! Fortunately Tyler was in a cheery mood and after he jugging up to the belay we replaced the prussics with ascenders and both got to work on the hauling. Somehow we managed it with more suffering than I would have thought possible. Another 50 feet of handcrack got us to big ledge where we were able to enjoy a luxury rarely seen on the wall: beer in
bottles and plenty of 'em.
The next morning we were informed that Tyler's car had been ticketed for "overnight parking". Not letting this ruin the day, we hung out on the ledge bullshitting with whomever stopped by (i.e., Ben and Mike) before cruising Dastardly crack and rapping with the bags to the ground.
Anyway, about the parking ticket: We talked to a couple of rangers who were very understanding and informed us that, while is is O.K. to bivy on the wall, we needed to pay $10 and get an overnight parking pass. They are working on a climber specific overnight pass, but for now are requesting that climbers use the envelopes from the campground and write a little note explaining that the car is being left overnight due to a planned bivy so that they don't call for a rescue. Anyway the upshot of the whole deal is that they wanted us to pay the $10 and spread the word, and they weren't actually citing us for the $125 "violation".
All told, it was a good weekend and awesome to get away from the bolts and crowds of smith, ozone, etc.
