Wildfire @ Rumney Fri 8/14

See below

It's good to share latest info here. Alternatively, the Rumney Climbers Association (our local LCO) has been posting news on their social media account as well. The campground across the street has also been trying to keep people informed.

• https://www.instagram.com/rumney_climbers/
• https://www.instagram.com/rattlesnakecampground/

The latest news is that climbing west of the Parking Lot walls are temporarily closed down.

If people are looking for an alternative place to sport climb this weekend, Russell Crags (in Merriam Woods), the Russell Forest crags, and Exile Crag are all about the same driving time from Plymouth. Yellowjacket Area has great bouldering as well as roped climbs and worth the short hike up the hill.

Send me a message if you're looking to get to to the Eastern lakes region crags near wolfeboro and Alton. Also echo crag. These are trad options, but there's lots of moderate and easy routes. 

Sundown on the Kanc has some 5.11 and up sport but it's more old school 

One of the Instagram links indicated that Meadows and PLW were open, but 8/19 the parking lots were closed with signage stating the whole area was closed.  

On the plus side, maybe the Gem Hunter trail will get enough traffic to clear out. 

The Rumney Fire department and the USFS posted on their FB page that climbing is open again as of today:

The Rattlesnake Fire in Rumney, NH continues to have White Mountain National Forest wildland firefighting resources assigned, with staffing adjusted to meet current operational needs. Containment lines have held for four consecutive days, and only a few interior hot spots were detected today. Crews continue checking for any residual heat.

We are pleased to announce that the Rumney Rocks Climbing Area has reopened as of Friday, August 21, including the Meadows and Main Cliff parking areas of Buffalo Road. The Buffalo Pit parking area, Rattlesnake Trailhead, and Rattlesnake Trail remain closed to support firefighter access.

Any news yet on actual damage at the crags or trails? Did the Very Nice Crag gully get burned up, or was the fire more above, along the ridgeline?

I walked the summit slabs and the fire break/ fire access trail below the slabs yesterday. All upper climbing areas appear unaffected - gully exit at top of Very Nice Crag fine. Summit Cliff looks fine. There may possibly be some debris coming down onto Crows Nest at some point - and the anchors on Clippety do dah are only a short scramble to the lowest extent of the fire and the fire break/ fire access trail - but that's it I think in terms of relevance to climbers. The top of the mountain is much more open now. If the burnt scrub red oaks all die out it could be more of a Kearsarge/Cardigan bald summit situation up there. The fire access trail/fire break they cut to fight the fire skirts the bottom of the slabs and actually is a pretty cool way to check out an interesting part of the mountain. If you were really motivated I suppose you could put together a moderate bouldering circuit up there.

Thanks, Stow!