Geological time includes now...

Matt Swaimwrote:

One whole side of Prototype wall @ Reimer's came down

This is what renains:

Not rockfall, but there must have been a huge avalanche on Peak One outside Frisco, CO that caused this scar. I have a picture from 2017 with no scar, but now it looks like the second photo.

Before scar ^

After ^

Iron Resolution, a classic problem put up by Sharma, is on a big chunk of rock that peeled off in JTree

Paul Lwrote:

This is a big chunk of a popular trad route, Thin Air, that came off at Smith about 1.5 yrs ago. 

You can scroll the photos to get a better idea of the size, and in the comments someone climbed it the day before it fell off.  

That was me! I had 2 cams in the hand crack on the left side of the now-missing-chunk, belaying from the anchor above, when my partner fell and loaded those cams as they were still above him. I found it interesting - in hindsight - that the force/weight of his falls didn't pull the chunk off and bury him, given it was apparently just barely hanging on. And that "chunk" has the dimensions of a bedroom, except with just 2 to 5 feet of depth. To keep on climbing after hearing about events like that you need to have a bad memory and a strong sense of denial. 

P Degnerwrote:

Not rockfall, but there must have been a huge avalanche on Peak One outside Frisco, CO that caused this scar. I have a picture from 2017 with no scar, but now it looks like the second photo.

Before scar ^

After ^

Many times I’ve looked at this scar and thought that it looks more like a clearcut than an avalanche path. Below timberline, it’s not very steep, it maintains the same width for a long distance, its sides are parallel, and there’s no visible debris scattered along it. The likely path of a real slide seems farther to climber’s right. At its base are lots of dead trees, which is in a wide area where the town of Frisco has done fire mitigation and left a lot of debris and other slash to burn or remove. Most of the big paths in this part of Colorado, including on the flip side of the pictured peaks, were created when we had heavier winters, not since 2017. And's then I wonder why would anyone go WAY up there to cut trees and create a slide path. I could ask the locals. 

George Bracksieckwrote:

Many times I’ve looked at this scar and thought that it looks more like a clearcut than an avalanche path. Below timberline, it’s not very steep, it maintains the same width for a long distance, its sides are parallel, and there’s no visible debris scattered along it. The likely path of a real slide seems farther to climber’s right. At its base are lots of dead trees, which is in a wide area where the town of Frisco has done fire mitigation and left a lot of debris and other slash to burn or remove. Most of the big paths in this part of Colorado, including on the flip side of the pictured peaks, were created when we had heavier winters, not since 2017. And's then I wonder why would anyone go WAY up there to cut trees and create a slide path. I could ask the locals. 

This avalanche path was created during a big storm event in 2019.

Andrew Stegswrote:

This avalanche path was created during a big storm event in 2019.

Wow. Thanks for the info!

Volunteer Canyon in NorAz always gave me the heebie-jeebies after we watched a full section of the opposite wall shed while we were 3 pitches up in 2020 (?). 

Wasn't there some major concern about an upper section of Half Dome's North Face a few year back? Whatever happened with that?

bmdhackswrote:

I watched a large part of El Cap fall off of El Cap from the summit of Higher Cathedral Spire.

Terrific pic!

George Bracksieckwrote:

Many times I’ve looked at this scar and thought that it looks more like a clearcut than an avalanche path. Below timberline, it’s not very steep, it maintains the same width for a long distance, its sides are parallel, and there’s no visible debris scattered along it. The likely path of a real slide seems farther to climber’s right. At its base are lots of dead trees, which is in a wide area where the town of Frisco has done fire mitigation and left a lot of debris and other slash to burn or remove. Most of the big paths in this part of Colorado, including on the flip side of the pictured peaks, were created when we had heavier winters, not since 2017. And's then I wonder why would anyone go WAY up there to cut trees and create a slide path. I could ask the locals.

Bunny slope for skiers on the UFO??

David Awrote:

My partner and I attempted Baron Spire (Old Smoothie) in the Sawtooths in Idaho 6 days before the summit spire fell down. 

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/106072783/baron-spire-aka-old-smoothie

Wow, that probably gave ya cause to ponder. But, I hafta ask, with the earthquakes up that way, what was thinking, going up in the alpine at all? We felt one of the 2020 Stanley quakes in Boise. Made an indoor wind chime chime, and I decided it might be prudent to stand in the (nearby) doorway. 

March 2020 was.... interesting.

Anyone who hasn't seen the vids of this, do! Hikers caught it on their phones.

Thanks, all! Fun stuff! Didn't a hunk of something fall off at COR sorta recently??

Earthquakes would be somewhat concerning, climbing, but I think I fear fire more. City of Rocks, is my go to place, and geez, I can't even imagine a wildfire there. Or maybe that's the problem, I can. Being in Boise, there's been some pretty significant fires here, or not far from here. The real whopper topped out at 280,000 acres. The scariest one was in our foothills, super close to town, and visible from the whole town. Well...and one south of us that dropped burnt grass blades on our yard. 

It's snowing again here, and I sprained a wrist recently. So. I'm kinda stuck, here. Guess I'll wash the dishes. One handed. That'll be entertaining. 

Not.

Sympathies to the great many of us who are stuck with....interesting....weather, at the moment.

Helen

Old lady Hwrote:

Bunny slope for skiers on the UFO??

That’s it! The same aliens who built the Pyramids!

Geologic time?

Not Not MP Adminwrote:

Geologic time?

…is now. In the case of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, it happened about 4,700 years ago. Btw I have it on good authority that the block that fell from under the Great Roof departed the Captain 4,700 years ago. You think those were coincidences? You think that the Gendarme just fell off? In recent blips of geologic time, climbers have made amusing targets for the bored inhabitants of the Mother Ship, waiting around for just the right time….;)

A couple big-ish rock falls have happened recently on the Great Northern Slab at Index, one a couple months ago and one last year. Much of the granite at Index is stacked blocks or layers of "onion peel" that is held together by dirt, moss, roots and prayers, and big storms with lots of rain can cause things to shift. The rock fall last year knocked a 10ft pillar loose that I had previously stood on top of (linking two routes together) and I've seen people make anchors behind it (not a good idea but they didn't die). Latest rock fall tore some trees out that were rooted on the upper slab and sent a couple refrigerator-sized blocks bouncing like 50+ ft away from the wall. Luckily both times nobody was at the base of the area, as often there's usually multiple parties on most nice spring/summer/fall days. Basically the left 1/4 of the lower town wall area is closed until a lot more cleaning and trundling can happen. 

Not a major spot by any means, but the cliff face in next to Box Canyon Boulders in Wisconsin’s Governor Dodge State Park gave up the gun last year, smothering where previous boulders had been. My personal first time showing up to climbs from a previous year and discovering a whole new boulder field on top of where they’d been.

Sometimes geologic time is the same as human time: a cliff upon which I learned some of the initial dark arts of climbing has since been consumed by quarry operations. The cliff is freakin GONE. I've outlived my learning cliff!

Cherokee Nuneswrote:

Sometimes geologic time is the same as human time: a cliff upon which I learned some of the initial dark arts of climbing has since been consumed by quarry operations. The cliff is freakin GONE. I've outlived my learning cliff!

A cliff being quarried is not part of geologic time unless we consider it to be an unmeasurable part of the Anthropocene. 

I do not agree. Human-caused erosion is geologic erosion too, as a geologic record of the event is recorded in time. Human-caused extinction events are also recorded in the geologic record. Highway cuts, part of the geologic record. Etc. etc. etc.

Not Not MP Adminwrote:

A cliff being quarried is not part of geologic time unless we consider it to be an unmeasurable part of the Anthropocene. 

The name of this thread is “Geologic Time Includes Now.” We’re in the Anthropocene now.