6/19/06 - Beacon Rock Early Opening!!!!

Beacon Rock is open as of today...!!!

After a a couple of months of fantastic cooperative effort by Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife [WDFW] (David Anderson / Raptor Management Plans), Washington State Parks [WSP] (Lisa Lantz / SW Resource Steward), and the Beacon Rock State Park staff [BRSP] (Erik Plunkett, John Ernster, Breanne Jordan, Gabe Bailey) we are open almost a month early. This past Thursday through Sunday was a particularly strong push by everyone involved to make this early opening possible. The short story is a whole lot of folks, especially all of those above, went way out of their way and above the call of duty to contribute their time and effort to make this all possible. So what can you do to contribute now that Beacon is open? Well, the South face is now cleared of all significant threats of rockfall but the trail at the base looks like a war zone from the combination of the New Year's rock fall and our day-long trundling session. All in all several tons of rock came down. What would be a great help is if everyone who goes out could just pick and clear a short stretch of the base trail when you go out. If everyone would do this we'd have it back to normal in a week or two.

For a long version events and the gory details read on...

Timeline of 2006 events:

* Feb 1st / Climbing closure per the Peregrine Management Plan - Closure in Febuary, March, and Early April insures there are no external influences on the Peregrine's choice of the location of their scrape (nest). This is an imperative part of the plan as Peregrines are under much stress from mating and scrape competition such that they are highly sensitive to any of a myriad of influences relative to settling down onto a scrape to attempt to hatch and fledge young. Our not climbing during this period eliminates one controllable source in an otherwise highly stressful part of the Peregrine's mating / nesting cycle.

* April 1st / Active monitoring of the Peregrines begins - Last year, for the first time, the Peregrines did not use their usual Big Ledge scrape. The two Raven's nests above the parking lot on the high East face were likewise unoccupied. But the Peregrines did likely fledge somewhere on Beacon last year as they were consistently present and active there on a daily basis and the South face base, ledges, and column tops were strewn with much evidence of predation in the form of discarded wing sets and large feather circles on column tops and ledges - both from birds they had killed and eaten. We do not know either why they did not use Big Ledge last year or where on the rock their scrape might have been. We do know that the survey of the Big Ledge scrape last year in early July found the scrape completely engulfed by Cheat Grass and it is possible that had some influence on the birds decision to not use it; but we don't know for sure. My own monitoring had me convinced they were successful on the high East face in 2005, but I could never prove it with consistent observations. But, regardless, they did fledge a chick successfully in 2005 and after observing a parent take the fledge out to teach it to hunt we opened last year's season about a week early.

This year was a somewhat different story. Upwards of four Peregrines were active with courtship / pairing flight behavior in early April with a pair forming that attempted to nest on the Big Ledge scrape. Some time in early May David Anderson and other monitors observed that pair were no longer spending time on Big Ledge and in fact we now know the evidence from last Thursday's survey of the scrape was consistent with the pair abandoning the scrape about that time. Peregrines are known to sometimes require two attempts to fledge, at the same or a different location, so monitoring continued through May and early June in the hopes pinning down a second attempt. By early June, however, a pattern began to emerge of many sightings East of Beacon, often towards Hamilton Mountain. That, combined with less frequent perching and sightings around Beacon along with a complete lack of signs of predation along Beacon's South face base began to make it clear if the Peregrines managed a second attempt it wasn't taking place at Beacon. Coincidental to this, and for some unknown reason, the Ravens this year decided to return to their old nests high on the East face yielding a complete explosion of about a dozen young, manic, and incredibly noisy Ravens who completely dominate the East side of Beacon. Pretty much anything flying in their vicinity is fair game, lively entertainment, and mercilessly harassed. While not knowing if the Raven's presence this year made any difference to the Peregrines in general, there is some suspicion it may have kept them from considering a high East face scrape.

* June 7th / Understanding this emerging pattern of observations could signal a possible early open the BRCA filed a plan with the BRSP for a second annual Pre-Opening Work Session for 2006 to clear both a decade's worth of accumulated rock on the Grassy Ledges and the strewn results of the New Year's rock fall from the SE corner ridge. Last year we had three fairly close calls of significant rock fall in the SE Corner base and Tunnel #1 vicinity while climbers were present. The situation changed from one of concern to one of alarm after the New Year's rock fall which further showered the Grassy Ledges and indeed the entire SE flank with a heavy load of shattered rock hanging above the start of the SE Corner route.

* Thursday, June 15th / Armed with everyone's monitoring observations, David Anderson made the call that we should survey the Big Ledge scrape and based on what we brought back in the way of pictures, plant, and predation evidence he and Lisa Lantz gave WDFW's and WSP's approval for BRSP to authorize our 2006 Pre-Opening Work Session for the next day, Friday, June 16th. They further gave their permission to immediately rap down to the base of the SE corner ridge to survey the site of the New Year's rockfall to see if we were dealing with anything large enough to effect rail traffic. That was very important, because the railroad holds real power; it can and has fined the BRSP for interrupting rail traffic in the past. Had we found anything substantial, the railroad would have to be notified, the tracks closed, and railroad workers present during the work. All of which would be a big deal on a busy rail line and likely would have caused a long scheduling delay in our opening. Fortunately, no large threatening rocks were found in the survey, but a large quantity of earth mixed with rocks was found still hanging over the SE flank and the areas we wanted to clear debris from.

* Friday, June 16th / The BRCA's Pre-Opening Work Sessions have several pre-requisites:

a) Adequate BRSP staff has to be available to close the trail and monitor the overall effort

b) A WSP or WDFW biologist has to be on hand for a pre-work survey and to observe in case some event (plant or animal) occurs that would curtail the remaining work

c) BRCA must have someone to monitor both the climbers trail and the railroad tracks at all times

Unfortunately neither David nor Lisa were available on Friday to observe, and it turned out the weather was lousy as well, so a full work session wouldn't have been possible regardless. Instead, the ever-intrepid Jim Opdycke and myself tackled the main SE ridge rock fall site rapping down the slick ridge slabs on a wet fixed line left from the survey the day before. We established working anchors for Saturday's main effort and after rigging up a fairly elaborate aerial bucket line we spent six hours clearing the earth and rocks from the main rockfall working downwards from the top in two inch slices filling approximately twenty five 5-gallon buckets of material along with relocating numerous large rocks. This material was not dropped down the South face but rather lined down back away from the edge and deposited in a secure location and manner on the slope above the East face. This work would allow Saturday's main work session to proceed without the need to first clear this large hanging threat.

* Saturday, June 17th / Finally getting after it! We assembled an able work team consisting of Ranger John Ernster, Jim Opdycke, Ivan, Bill Coe, Jason Frick, myself, and brothers Kyle and Jeff (?). Erik Plunkett, the Head Ranger, graciously agreed to cover John's normal busy Park duties to allow him to work with us. But unfortunately our non-climbing trail / track observer didn't materialize causing us great concern about one of our crew having to observe instead. But on starting up the tourist trail we spotted Beacon old-timer Gordon Melz and a friend on the NW face and Gordon agreed to grab a radio and head down to the tracks with John to do the observing. Gordon's serendipitous contribution just can't be overstated and his help went a long, long way towards making the day as successful as it was. We split into two teams on the rock with Jim Opdycke's team of Ivan, Kyle, and Jeff tackling clearing the "Land of the Little People" ledge and starting work on the decade of accumulated rock on the Grassy Ledges.

Our team of myself, Bill, and Jason made our way back up and down to the site of the New Year's rock fall at the base of the SE corner ridge and rapped down to set up shop at the top of Young Warrior's p4. From there the three of us rapped and cleared the entire SE flank of both new and accumulataed rock hazards. After a couple of hours both teams met up on the Grassy Ledges and joined forces. Kyle and Jason took on the gnarly job of clearing both the SE Corner chimney above and the "blackberry rock jam" off below the Grassy Ledges while the rest of us focused on clearing and grooming the Grassy Ledges proper.

Unfortunately, a piece of the very first significant rock we tossed took out one of the railroad warning wires which resulted in all trains slowing to a crawl as they passed Beacon and delaying our work which stopped as they passed under us. This was a bit of a bummer but we needed the breaks to pace ourselves and eventually a guy showed up coming down the tracks in one of those convertible pickup trucks to scope out the situation. Both John and Erik jumped into explain the trains were never in danger, that we had track observers, and that we were trying to make Beacon safer. The railroad seemed to take their explanation in stride but didn't have the tools or ladders to fix the wire. So John had BRSP tools brought down, Gordon got his harness to climb the poles and between Gordon, John, and the railroad man they got the job done so we and the trains could all get back to work. All in all the work went faster than we expected and we got all the rock we hope to deal with cleared by the end of the day. We encounter few problems but did run across a remarkable number of scorpions, some of the mature ones had gray/black bodies about 1/2" in diameter and 2.5-3 inches long.

Everyone was pleased with the work, but also completely exhausted by the end of the day. Gabe was especially kind in volunteering to hump our very heavy haul bag out which was much appreciated. What got accomplished? Essentially the South face is now cleared of most all obvious and immediate rockfall threats of any significance. Does that mean Beacon Rock is now "safe"? Not by a long shot - it is much safer - but you have to be aware that objective dangers do exist out at Beacon and rockfall is still preeminent among them. Particularly walking roped across the Grassy Ledges you still need to be cognizant of every foot fall and your rope path. Jim Opdycke wants to remind everyone doing that traverse roped to not simply drag your rope on the ground but to try and drape it on the bushes and branches where possible to keep it off the loose rocks on the trail - even a small one could hurt someone and they are all aimed at the base of the SE Corner route and the often populous Snag Ledge. What else? Well, it's now safe to top out to the Grassy Ledges from Blownout and other climbs that top out on the Lower Grassy Ledges. The area around the top of Blownout has been well cleaned. This is a big improvement as a disasterous amount of loose rock barred all the ramps between the Upper and Lower Grassy Ledges. All-in-all it was an incredibly successful day, we all lived through it intact, and many thanks are due everyone who volunteered their time and energy to pull it all off, especially David Anderson and the entire BRSP staff.

* Sunday, June 18th / In our exhaustion we left three fixed ropes and a number of temporary anchors from Saturday's work in place and we needed to do a final check of everything and retrieve our work gear. Fortunately Rick Harrell, Doug Ward, and Reed Fee came out to lend a hand and with a one pair heading up to Grassy Ledges and another up Young Warriors we were able to both retrieve the ropes (which were tied both at the top Grassy Ledges rap and the top of Young Warrior's p4) and do a last survey of everything. Note, there are now three pitons on the SE corner ridge that were placed for the work session - one at the top of the ridge below the trees that Jim Opdyke and us concur should stay as there are essentially no good anchors at this spot - and two at the top of Young Warriors p5 in the notch that will be removed as soon as we get enough energy back to do so. Also, John kindly stayed late and swapped out most of the signs and closure barrier for this morning's open.

To top a great weekend off the Peregrines put in an appearance in what to me looked to be a parent teaching a fledge to enter and exit the strong ridge lift that developed above Beacon at day's end and they did about six loops between the top of Beacon and the strong thermal that develops above the Nature Preserve just to the East. It was the first [unconfirmed] sign the Peregrines were successful at fledging somewhere this year and that is great news.

* Today, Monday, June 19th / All WDFW, WSP, and BRSP paperwork and approvals are final. Breanne finished the signage and phone machine message changeover and we're officially open! Again, Get out and get on it!!!

And while you're out - please stop in at the BRSP ranger station, introduce yourself and thank them all for making this possible. Ditto if you run across a shady-looking WDFW wildlife biologist in a dark green extended cab pickup who is soon to become a climber as is Gabe from the BRSP staff. David Anderson and WDFW have been instrumental in making this evidence-based, early opening possible - our hats are off to him and many thanks are due him for all the extra time and effort he put in to making this possible. Lisa Lantz is also due a warm thank you for her continuing efforts at both protecting Beacon Rock's habitat and her generous and out-going efforts to help us with both this and last year's openings.

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NOTE (Edit): The cleanup is complete - please do not do any further trundling or tossing of rocks of any size at any time or place - someone was tossing way too close to Jim Opdycke on opening day! If you see any loose rocks of note please secure/stack them somewhere off to the side but again, please don't toss anything at this point - thanks. If you find anything amiss, missed, or needing attention please notify any of the BRSP staff and contact the BRCA at Beacon.Rock@AvaSys.com - enjoy.
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