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Significant amount of rockfall at Riverside Quarry

Original Post
Drew Hecht · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2009 · Points: 15

A friend of mine and I noticed a significant amount of the right side of the Slab City area is gone and now open for new routes. It looks like everything from approximately Synchronicity (11c) to White Heat(10b) are gone. It could be more though. There's a lot of carnage at the base.

Rock fall at Slab City Rt

Kevin Mokracek · · Burbank · Joined Apr 2012 · Points: 342

Any cars left parked in the area for a while? Hope nobody was around when it cut loose.

Drew Hecht · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2009 · Points: 15

Interestingly, there was a car (PT Cruiser looking) parked at the base with Idaho plates on it. It's passenger window was rolled down. This is notable because normally people don't park near the cliffs because of access issues and getting nails in their tires. I looked through the windows for anything that would indicate a climber and found nothing. A Sheriff came by and ran the plates while we were looking for signs of climbers among the boulders. We didn't find anything visually. There were a bunch of dead Swifts(?) around that all looked to be fresh kills.

Old lady H · · Boise, ID · Joined Aug 2015 · Points: 1,374

Hope no one was hurt!

Our local cliffs had a huge section fall off a few years ago. "Geologic time includes now" (Black Cliffs, Idaho) is the new route. It's easy to forget that!

Best, Helen

phylp phylp · · Upland · Joined May 2015 · Points: 1,097

WOW! Thanks for the info...

socalbolter · · Ten Sleep, WY · Joined Aug 2004 · Points: 887

The ever-evolving crag...

Whoever bolts new routes in the rockfall area, please be careful and clean whatever loose rock is left on the wall. Please also send me route info on whatever you end up doing.

Thank you.

Looks like there are some new boulder problem options at the base as well now...

Adam Stackhouse · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 13,970

Wowsers!

Jeffrey Constine · · Los Angeles, CA · Joined May 2009 · Points: 674

My friends were climbing a 5.12a middle left, they were taking a break from doing laps on it, walking off to the side, when 6 bolts worth of the climb fell off landing on all their gear car keys included. Bad day.

Nick Nystrom · · Monroeville, PA · Joined Sep 2010 · Points: 120
Jeff constine wrote:My friends were climbing a 5.12a middle left, they were taking a break from doing laps on it, walking off to the side, when 6 bolts worth of the climb fell off landing on all their gear car keys included. Bad day.
The climb fell off *after* they walked off to the side. Good day.
Jeffrey Constine · · Los Angeles, CA · Joined May 2009 · Points: 674

KINDA GOOD KINDA BAD. I could have gone a different way.

Matt Himmelstein · · Orange, CA · Joined Jun 2014 · Points: 194
Jeff constine wrote:My friends were climbing a 5.12a middle left, they were taking a break from doing laps on it, walking off to the side, when 6 bolts worth of the climb fell off landing on all their gear car keys included. Bad day.
I would take this type of bad day over the tragic day it could have been if they were still on the route.
Jeffrey Constine · · Los Angeles, CA · Joined May 2009 · Points: 674

^^^ yup!

tom donnelly · · san diego · Joined Aug 2002 · Points: 364

rainfall at riverside airport
.75 inch 16Dec
1.1 inch 22Dec
.56 inch 23Dec

Greg Parker · · Cardiff, CA · Joined Nov 2002 · Points: 1,396

Wow! I've seen some stuff slough off there, but this is huge! Jeff - what 12a fell down in the "middle left" area??

Adam Stackhouse · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 13,970

shit ton more rain to follow this week.

Drew Hecht · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2009 · Points: 15
Adam Stackhouse wrote:shit ton more rain to follow this week.
I live ten minutes from the quarry. We've had a TON of rain in the past three weeks. I'd suggest to anyone a heightened level of caution. My climbing partner and I consider this an outdoor gym and hit it often. For now, we've self imposed an indefinite moratorium on climbing here. Be safe.
Nick Jens · · Aarhus, DK · Joined Jan 2016 · Points: 0
Drew Hecht wrote: I live ten minutes from the quarry. We've had a TON of rain in the past three weeks. I'd suggest to anyone a heightened level of caution. My climbing partner and I consider this an outdoor gym and hit it often. For now, we've self imposed an indefinite moratorium on climbing here. Be safe.
Any updates on the crag? It's been a while since the rain.
Drew Hecht · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2009 · Points: 15
Nick Jens wrote: Any updates on the crag? It's been a while since the rain.
Sorry, no. We haven't been there and I haven't heard of any further rock fall. The piece that fell was a good candidate due to its size and lack of a supporting structure. That said, it remains a quarry and as such has significant blast fractures - I'm always on alert there.
Jan Tarculas · · Riverside, Ca · Joined Mar 2010 · Points: 917
Nick Jens wrote: Any updates on the crag? It's been a while since the rain.
I was just there last Wednesday after all the rain. Stupid idea on my part since majority of the routes were either waterfalls or still completely wet. But no further major rock fall as I can tell. I frequent the quarry a lot. One BIG BIG concern is the main trail. The trail has been getting washed out over the years and the HUGE Rock right by Uncle Ho seems like it's ready to Kill anyone below it if and when it comes trundling down. Facing the wall, the right side of the huge block has been washed out quite a bit, including a lot of rock and sand/mud supporting it from below. I was never scared going up the main staircase before, but now its pretty frightening.
tom donnelly · · san diego · Joined Aug 2002 · Points: 364

What is the parking policy at the quarry now?

Ahram Park · · Los Angeles, CA · Joined Mar 2017 · Points: 5
tom donnelly wrote:

What is the parking policy at the quarry now?

Street parking. 

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Southern California
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