En première loge

Les discussions sur l'alpinisme en général, les événements en région parisienne ou ailleurs.
JFM
Bivouac tous les week-ends
Messages : 285
Inscription : 15 novembre 2012, 15:13

En première loge

Message par JFM »

Des spectateurs au première loge...

Sep 27, 2017 – 02h19pm
Just got a call from Pete - he witnessed a massive rockfall from high on Waterfall route on El Cap.
They are safe (Ryan, Patrick and Pete) but think they can see bodies at the base. Pete said it looked like a sheet of rock about 100 feet square. Check in on any friends in that area.

Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 17, 2017 – 08h56am PT
All
Beware. On 9/16/17 we intended to climb the West Face of El Cap and discovered that the area has been completely obliterated by rockfall. The gully has been wiped out completely. The climber’s bivy has filled in with 2’ of fresh talus. It is unrecognizable. There are huge craters in the ground and the surrounding walls in the gully have been hit hard by huge rock. Many of the trees in the gully have simply disappeared. White dust covers everything. This was huge.
After climbing a very dusty, rock-impacted first pitch of the West Face (and getting a bird’s eye view of the destruction) we made a decision to get out of there. Rockfall barely missed the West Face P1 bolt anchor. We climbed KP Pinnacle and then walked over to Ribbon Falls where we were able to get a better vantage point of the source area.
It appears that a massive section of wall immediately above the end of the West Face’s Thanksgiving Ledge Traverse has fallen off. There is a huge white impact scar right on Thanksgiving, on the part of the easy traverse where there may not be much gear. The source area is very high on the wall. Rockfall fanned far up the gully, past Beyer’s route, all the way down to Mirage. We even saw evidence of the rockfall on the west side of KP Pinnacle!! Yowza. The rock fall scar and path of destruction are visible without binoculars from Ribbon Falls.
Please be careful!
Répondre