Rock fall, Jah Man, Sister Superior

Hooo man, I wish I could be there to nail those hairline/discont fingercracks out (constructive scarring, eh?) to keep it still accessible to the blue collar Jane Everyday types.  I guarantee that it will get locked in at 5.hard and thus my prior ascents will be all the more rarified for it.  There are times that I love this kinda community's "protective" actions, and other times when I just hate the way that elitist stuff masquerading as "conservation" locks things into an inaccessible realm without direct aid.

EDIT: it was definitely tighter than feet to back when I did p1 the first couple times.

Edit for Rob T: nailing is so out of vogue it's back in, catch up will you?  You won't mind if we drill the varnish outta the foot dish at the crux, right, or do you own the place?  

Glad I did it in 1997.  No memory of width.

Please be tradiban troll in disguise....

RIP

Damn it... why couldn’t it have been Ancient Art? :(

Probably slack liners.......  

Great some new bs arbitrary first pitch. It will stand to be a great spot to send Colorado climbers this spring. 5 stars, go get after it bud! Nah man

Ho Lee Fuk

"Greg Child" MP account was first reporter.  

Local observation shortly to arrive on my end.  

I'd personally advocate for "5.8 chimney" type access to reach the base of the second pitch splitter godness (goodness?)  of the overall supremely excellent W face standard (Jah-Man) route.  

The Regular NW Face of Half Dome's little brother!

I wonder who got the LA?

I went up there today to check it out. It did indeed fall off. I wrote an article about it with side by side before and after photos. Check it out here.

https://moabgeartrader.com/2020/01/14/iconic-desert-rock-climb-jah-man-is-gone/ 

Wow that's too bad. What a great line on a classic tower! I hope somebody finds an alternate way to get to the original route.  Also that chimney was definitely narrower when I did it 10 or 15 years ago. I remember it being a tight squeeze!

Fritz Nuffer wrote: Geologic time includes now.

Well put sir. However, wasn’t it last spring that a few cheeky tossers, renowned for their long traverses in the basement of the NPS system, so eloquently stated that with modern gear desert climbing was inherently safe? Hmmm... bummer to hear about this. It was a fun pitch, but decidedly tight squeeze the last time i did it. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4xWp9lnsB0/?igshid=zsygzuixdyc

This may be the very last video footage of P chimney?  Glad to have climbed it, was only party on route that day in November.  

This must be all  my fault. In 1989, bailing on my first attempt of this route my partner and I did not have anything that would make an anchor at the bottom of that flake. So
I traversed to the right where I found an old, single quarter inch bolt (K.T's bolt???) This was reasonably soon after a Salt Lake climber had died when a single bolt anchor had failed in
Indian Creek, and there was no way in hell, especially at that time, that I was going to rappel off of an old single quarter incher in desert sandstone. So I backed it up by drilling a hole
in the huge flake, and filling it with a baby angle piton. The hammering I did to make that hole must have started a series of vibrations that was the beginning of the end of the flake. I feel terrible because that first chimney pitch was so cool. It's all my fault!

I have a picture of Derek Hersey and Annie Whitehouse doing dueling handstands on the summit of Sister Superior when I climbed it about a year later with them.

I apologize to the climbing community for wrecking a very cool Wingate tower route.  ;-) Somewhere in the dust of the rockfall is an old baby angle pin.

This is a blessing in disguise. Now all pitches go at 5.10 or above undoubtedly keeping most of the riff raff out. Can’t wait until other side of the north chimney/kor ingalls falls off; you’ll finally be able to find a camp spot in Castle Valley 

April is a few months away, or is January the new April?

another victim of global warming.... 

Nick Pinto wrote: The missing rock should be glued back on to preserve the integrity of this classic line.

We agree with Nick. This is what Sika was made for. We have also made the case that this should be common practice for all big rock falls, such as the 2015 Half Dome incident that altered two full pitches and saw hundreds of tons of granite calved off the big stone. Bring out the Sika.

If anyone finds a Kershaw pocket knife and my brand new blue DMM Revolver I'd be stoked to get it back!!

They both fell victim to the backside of the flake.  One on the ascent and one on the descent.