Major rock fall at the Gate Buttress

Third pitch of Cheetah. Came down right through Cheetah and Tarzan and the approach to Beckey's Wall.

Photos shared with me:

Here is what broke off:

Dear God

Seems like mother nature has it out for SLCA stair masonry. 

Scary seeing how much time everyone spends in the area

DrippySnot Peggs wrote:

Can we fix it?!? Yes we can!! 

Seems like cheetah could be a pinch harder now

Brian Smoot went up this morning, added three bolts, and flash the roof. Goes at 5.11

Definitely UDOTs fault 

"Brian Smoot went up this morning, added three bolts, and flash the roof. Goes at 5.11"

Yeah, it's 4 stars!     Joking aside it's lucky that with all of the natural rock fall, so few people have been hurt. I'm going to try and compile a chronology of natural rock fall in the Wasatch over the years.

Ok, here's my list, please let me know if I've left anything out...thanks

                       ROCKFALL IN THE WASATCH

- 1990's  Green A Gully... Large chunk of slab falls containing the routes, Old Reliable, Catalyst and Nip & Tuck.

- 1990's   Altered States Gully...The big ledge atop the first pitch of Altered States comes down. Also part of the corner by Air Express broke off.

- 2000 early,  Small rock fall on the Pentapitch, changing the lower part of the route Nuke the Whales

- 2000 early,  Major rockfall to the left of the 2nd pitch of the GWI, taking out the P1 belay chockstone. 

- 2008   Coalpit Buttress... rockfall takes out a section of P2 of House of Cards and part of the P2 pine tree.

- 2010   Coalpit Buttress...small rockfall takes out the guillotine on P3 of House of Cards.

- 2016   Major rockfall on the North facing side of LLC just above Wasatch Resort, nearly hitting cabins.

- 2021   Crescent Crack Buttress... Medium size rockfall near the Great Chockstone route....

- 2021   Rock Canyon...  Rockfall at the Wasp. 

- 2022   Crescent Crack Buttress... Major rockfall takes out the huge great chockstone. 

- 2023   BCC, Buena Vista Wall... Ridge with a View and Viewmaster lost the lower part of the climb to rockfall.

- 2023   Thumb...Rockfall in the gully of the Standard Thumb.

- 2023   Another big rock slide on the North facing side of LLC, again close to Wasatch Resort.

- 2023   Lone Peak... Smaller rock fall on the Open Book Route, Summit Wall.

- 2023   Gate Buttress...Rockfall above Cheeta and Split Pants.   

There have also been smaller occurrences in Big Cottonwood and Provo Canyon that I'm aware of.        

Brian that's an scary list! 

Unfortunately, I believe last year (or the year before) there was a rockfall right in the Dihedrals area that caused a death. 

bsmoot wrote: Ok, here's my list, please let me know if I've left anything out...thanks

The Wasp wall up Rock Canyon had some pretty serious rockfall a few years ago. Good pictures are posted by Perin on the crag MP page showing the damage

Way to go Brian and Pete!
https://ksltv.com/580335/sounded-like-a-lightning-strike-huge-rockslide-in-little-cottonwood/

I love that Pete (being an ER doc) has a helmet, gloves, etc and Brian is there is shorts and chacos. The closeup of the source location of the rockfall is really cool. 

wow

This is the roughly the same vantage point before the rockfall.

Out of curiosity, does anyone keep a map or list of rockfall the way the Utah avalanche center tracks avalanches? It could be interesting to have somewhere to compile information in a similar way.

https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanches

JJ Marcus wrote:

Out of curiosity, does anyone keep a map or list of rockfall the way the Utah avalanche center tracks avalanches? It could be interesting to have somewhere to compile information in a similar way.

https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanches

The Utah Geological Survey Hazards Program catalogs and works on these types of things. Their data is publicly available. 

https://geology.utah.gov/hazards/

Peter Lenz wrote: His saw is bigger than my saw.

So are his breasts!

Has the Becky's Wall climb been impacted, or just the approach?

No, just the approach.

The big fall across from Green A  was mid to late 90s 

bsmoot wrote:

"Brian Smoot went up this morning, added three bolts, and flash the roof. Goes at 5.11"

Yeah, it's 4 stars!     Joking aside it's lucky that with all of the natural rock fall, so few people have been hurt. I'm going to try and compile a chronology of natural rock fall in the Wasatch over the years.

Ok, here's my list, please let me know if I've left anything out...thanks

                       ROCKFALL IN THE WASATCH

- 1990's  Green A Gully... Large chunk of slab falls containing the routes, Old Reliable, Catalyst and Nip & Tuck.

- 1990's   Altered States Gully...The big ledge atop the first pitch of Altered States comes down.

- 2000 early,  Small rock fall on the Pentapitch, changing the lower part of the route Nuke the Whales

- 2000 early,  Major rockfall to the left of the 2nd pitch of the GWI, taking out the P1 belay chockstone. 

- 2008   Coalpit Buttress... rockfall takes out a section of P2 of House of Cards and part of the P2 pine tree.

- 2010   Coalpit Buttress...small rockfall takes out the guillotine on P3 of House of Cards.

- 2016   Major rockfall on the North facing side of LLC just above Wasatch Resort, nearly hitting cabins.

- 2021   Crescent Crack Buttress... Medium size rockfall near the Great Chockstone route....

- 2021   Rock Canyon...  Rockfall at the Wasp. 

- 2022   Crescent Crack Buttress... Major rockfall takes out the huge great chockstone. 

- 2023   BCC, Buena Vista Wall... Ridge with a View and Viewmaster lost the lower part of the climb to rockfall.

- 2023   Thumb...Rockfall in the gully of the Standard Thumb.

- 2023   Another big rock slide on the North facing side of LLC, again close to Wasatch Resort.

- 2023   Lone Peak... Smaller rock fall on the Open Book Route, Summit Wall.

- 2023   Gate Buttress...Rockfall above Cheeta and Split Pants.   

There have also been smaller occurrences in Big Cottonwood and Provo Canyon that I'm aware of.        

Hey Brian--the Granite Guide mentions Cheap Thrills/Inquisition being changed since the corner fell off, and there is a large scar on the slab that Air Express goes up. Is this the rockfall event you reference in the 90s in the Altered States Gully? Or is ledge failure you are referring to a separate event?

Hi Susan, thanks for mentioning the corner by Air Express. Don't know if it occurred at the same time as the ledge,  but I think it's likely. I'll add to the list.