Current Conditions

[mike a]

Morning, we did the new ones Grahm put up, he put 3 to the right and 3 to the left of your routes, they are pretty fun, happy climbing Mike A.

[DaveyTree]

Cool. ‘‘Tis for the info.

[mike a]

Hi all, the fall weather has been great this year!!! Looks like the next 12 days is more awesome fall climbing weather!!! been climbing mostly as the Balls at the Sphinx, I know some of you thing the area is grid bolted but I must admit with some many routes and the quality of rock and the fun factor of the climbing there the Sphinx is a super fun place!!!The 5.11a on the steep wall is super fun and pumpy!!! Hope you all get a chance to go out climbing and enjoy the awesome fall weather, happy climbing Mike A.

[DaveyTree]

Weather was perfect yesterday at Night Watch. Paul and I ran up The Way: aka Walk the Line with a new guy to get him his first multi pitch climb and his first trad lead. Fun romp only to return to my house for more beers and treated them with fish tacos and whiskey.

[susan]

We enjoyed Saturday's beautiful weather too at the Balls. We saw Paul's truck in the morning and looked for you guys at the end of the day.

Sunday the weather turned cold as expected. The wind did not seem that bad in the Gray Eagle area when we were there til almost 4. By about 4:30 when we were driving home, the wind was whipping like we have never seen. John had to chainsaw a fallen tree on the dirt road from Gray Eagle. There were so many downed trees on Minarets that had already been sawed. Our friends in another truck only minutes behind us were blocked by a tree that had fallen. Debris was flying about, and sand and dirt swirled high into the air even as we came through North Fork. Something loud and yet we don't know what had thwacked our windshield but didn't leave a mark. North Fork was dark, thankfully, everything closed and no electricity.

Did anyone hear the sad news about a couple in a jeep who were killed by a falling tree when they were driving on Beasore Sunday night? This link is to an article about it and reports that Sunday night, 50 to 70 mph winds ran through the Beasore corridor and caused a number of large trees to fall across the roads:  https://sierranewsonline.com/accident-involving-falling-tree-claims-lives-of-ylp-couple/

Stay safe everyone...

[mungeclimber]

yeah, no joke on the winds and dead trees out there.

Thought about it too as we were driving out a 12 mile road back to the hwy Sat and another road on Sunday.

Hadn't seen that article. Sad.

[susan]

Did you bring a chainsaw? Or friend with one? Or have a buddy system or reception of sorts to make sure all’s well?

I wonder where on Beasore that accident occurred. That’s a very long tree corridor.

As we were driving out Sunday, we were wondering what are the chances of getting struck by a falling tree. Saw a yellow traffic sign warning of rock fall and wondered if those will need to be made for falling trees.

Anyway, on the bright side, forecast is looking good though much cooler. Great for climbing in the many areas in Soyo with southern exposure.

Have chainsaw, will travel. Actually I’ve not used a chainsaw yet and am timid of the thing but have done some hauling to move downed logs with the truck and toe straps.

[mungeclimber]

I didn’t have my chainsaw with since I had likited storage space, but had both plb and cell and know a faster way to hwy by hiking a closed road.

There are some good youtube videos on chainsaw use. Also some bad ones that are hilarious!

After this weekend, if it doesn’t snow, I’m thinking of soyo trip. Need to hit Bela up to finish some projs.

[susan]

Hi Mike-I couldn’t fully say about the Sphinx, but everyone seems to suggest it appears excessively bolted now. I want to check it out one of these days as I haven’t actually seen it up close in several years.

One thing that was nice about how another sport area around nightwatch was done: the bolts were painted to be well disguised. We must have walked off that dome countless times before noticing much development over the years.

[susan]

Yeah Munge let us know-would be nice to see you two!

[susan]

What is too many bolted routes in a space?

To me, to name a few situations, if you see a lot of hardware in rock where a climb could be led especially easily on good traditional gear, or if you can no longer tell just looking at climbs which bolts were placed for one climb over another being so nearby, and if an original line is no longer obvious with bolts distracting climbers to take another path off it. Or if you just walk up to a place and see anchor after anchor catching the sunlight..., if they could actually have been shared anchors. There are many caveats to all this probably, so just saying in general. Seen bolts for what looked like sit starts lol...

I find it exhausting to talk about every single bolt in terms of where it would be better placed and how it upsets an ethic except in obvious cases which happen. Then you hopefully climb the route(s) to really be sure to better understand the situation if possible and see if you get the rationale, or not.

[John]

Minarets is passable with high clearance to McCreary Trailhead, almost to Beasore Rd! Looks like a week or two to get through the next stretch of snow we saw but there is probably more down the road and trees of course to cut out.

Little Jackass Rd is still blocked by big trees at Minarets Rd.

That's all I got!

[wingnut]

Does anyone know if Beasore Rd is clear of snow at the summit?

[John]

As of Sunday you can reach Beasore from Minarets and continue up to about Tempest, maybe up to Nightwatch by this weekend.

I don't know how clear cold springs summit is.

[wingnut]

cold springs summit was still heavily snowed in. I am guessing at least 1 more week