Spam from Beacon Rock

Particulars
SE Corner Route, Beacon Rock, Beacon Rock State Park, Columbia Gorge, Washington

Beacon Rock is 848 feet in elevation.

Difficulty: this route consists of 3 pitches of max 5.7 rock climbing and, if you wish, another three pitches of easier ground. The approach is about 100 yards.

Appeal: Beacon Rock was named by none other than members of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1805. I think this is the best multi-pitch climb within an hour of Portland, Oregon. Some people are just interested in the rock climbing so they rope off after the first three pitches. Others like the adventure, summit experience, and feeling of accomplishment from going all the way up and walking down. Still others may prefer the west side hiking trail.
Spam
Back in the day, I used to get this climb in at least once a year. Now-a-days, I just long for it. I remember the first time I did this route. I and my friends were novice rock leaders and it took three of us to get the first pitch done. I had a go at the thin crack first. It takes stoppers like sponges take water. I put in way too much gear and as a consequence spent too much time on it and blew out my fingers just below the roof. Drew took the next stab and he managed to get some pro in around the roof and lost his nerve on the friction crux. Friend number three got us up to the belay. Some one dropped their camera from here that day. We didn’t bother to retrieve it.

The alternate 5.6 start is a little off to the left of this direct 5.7 start. Its inobvious trail meanders up to an anchor from where you traverse to the top of the direct start. Ann dropped a lot of my gear in this section one year. I roped off and found some of it. What I couldn’t find, she replaced.

The second pitch starts out with a head scratcher, slightly overhung, unprotectable move over a lip to the sweetest climbing slabs I’ve ever seen. I think Drew did this one on our first day. There are a couple stuck cams in the cracks along the way here. Don’t waste any time trying to get them out. Once the slabs end you go left around a corner and up an easy face to a big rectangular platform with a solid tree right in the middle of it. Be kind to the tree – it has been a stalwart friend to many climbers. One year Terry led this pitch and instead of going around the corner went straight up to the tree. I managed to follow his lead but just barely.

Above this, a fun series of open books takes you to the south face of a big rock where some anchors await if you wish to rope off. If not, proceed up past some brush and a short off-width crack to an easy ramp that leads to the corner off to the right. Going left instead of right takes you over some 4th class ground to some ledges that you can bivy on, although I never have.

From this blocky corner, proceed up the ridge on easy ground with a couple of 5.5 moves in it. After a while a little trail veers right into the trees. Hike on up to the railing on the trail. If you want to see the summit, go right. If you want to go home, go left. One year my climbing partner turned an ankle in this section. She managed to make it to the trail where I enlisted the aid of a passer-by to carry all our rock gear and I carried her. …all the way to the car. She was cute and light and I didn’t mind but my heroics still didn’t get me a date with her.
Logistics
Beacon Rock is off Highway 14, twenty-nine miles east of Vancouver, Washington. You can find it in the Portland Rock Climbs book by Tim Olson. By the way, this is the Vancouver Washington that is just across the Columbia river from Portland, Oregon not Vancouver, Canada and not Washington D.C. Ok, I know most North American readers will find this sentence elementary but readers that are not so well versed in the geography of the United States may not know. I have met a few of these people.