South East Corner

Airy views of the Columbia gorge, good rock, and superb climbing make this route a classic and THE most popular route at Beacon Rock. Almost every climbable weekend will see ascents.

Finding the start of this route can be a challenge. Go down the climbers trail on the East side of Beacon. After turning the corner watch for a rise in terrain. Just past the rise the route starts in a right angling corner.

Pitch 1: 5.6 Climb up the right leaning corner and then up a crack to a nice ledge. Be careful pulling onto the ledge as there may be loose rocks. Belay from a bolted anchor

Pitch 2: 3rd class Traverse down a few feet and then straight right for a pitch. Belay at bolted anchors. Pro is sparse but the climbing is easy. Most people link pitch one and two.

P3: 5.7 Pull the steep mantle immediately up and left of the anchor and continue up the ramp above (or the right-leaning, right-facing dihedral just left of the ramp) until you have pulled a couple of vertical moves past some old pins. Make a short traverse to your right, around the corner, to a hand crack, and then head straight up for a short distance to the large belay ledge with tree. Do not belay off the tree! 30m.

P4: Ascend the obvious left-leaning, right-facing dihedral/ramp up and left from the belay. Build a trad anchor shortly after you gain the narrow dirty ledge. Anchors for

Jill's Thrill

are down and to the left, around a slight rock outcropping. Ignore these if continuing to the top. 40m.

P5: Walk left along the dirty ledge for a very short distance then turn right up a wide, shallow gully that is littered with dirt and loose rock. The short offwidth is at the top, and slightly to the right, of this gully. I personally prefer to build an anchor here at the top of the offwidth. ~20m.

P6: Head up and right along the low-angle ramp, and clip the ancient bolt off to your left at the top (for the rope) before walking right along a ledge a short distance and around a bit of a corner. Go straight up the face above you and build an anchor on the large ledge at the top. ~40m.

P7: Many people solo this pitch as it's unexposed and easy (5.4?). Go up and left from the ledge, taking the line of least resistance up the low-angle ridge/spine of clean rock. At a large ledge on the last of the solid rock, you'll have a hard-to-see piton down low and a bolt scar. Body belay, redirect off the piton, or belay off your harness with the piton for backup. DO

NOT

GO UP THE SCREE SLOPE TO BELAY FROM A TREE! ~ 30m.

Unrope and walk off initially to the north (climber's right), then up the trail through the trees to the hikers' trail.

A regular rack of nuts and cams up to 3"