ALPINE BOWLING

[Crackbolter]

Anyone been lately?

 

If so, what was the biggest piece of rock?

 

The one who takes out the largest tree wins.

 

Also, if you get 9 trees with one rock, you get a strike.

 

If you take out 1 tree, you get a spare.

 

Distance is also worth points.

 

If your rock makes it to the road from more than 1000 feet up, you win.

[mattp]

My friend Chris pushed a flake off a climb at Darrington two months ago, and the thing was over 12 feet high. It skipped down to the next belay ledge, shot out into space, and then exploded on impacting the apron 250 feet below. The shrapnel then flew up and came back down staccato style, sounding like machine gun fire. The whole basin below the west face of Exfoliation Dome filled with dust and smelled like smoke. But the thing only took out a couple of relatively small maple trees, so no strike. Due to the overall coolness, maybe a spare?

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

quote:

---

Originally posted by mattp:

My friend Chris pushed a flake off a climb at Darrington two months ago, and the thing was over 12 feet high. It skipped down to the next belay ledge, shot out into space, and then exploded on impacting the apron 250 feet below. The shrapnel then flew up and came back down staccato style, sounding like machine gun fire. The whole basin below the west face of Exfoliation Dome filled with dust and smelled like smoke. But the thing only took out a couple of relatively small maple trees, so no strike. Due to the overall coolness, maybe a spare?

---

 

Spare, nothing! Hell, that's more like dropping a bomb on the bowling alley than rollin' three-eyed rocks! Destruction of that magnitude far surpasses any mere strike or spare.

[dberdinka]

Very near the top of the South Ridge of Gimli my buddy and I were simuling across 4th class terrain. He stepped up on a big block maybe 3'x5'x8'.

 

It began to slide!

 

He surfed it for a few feet before jumping off. It clattered down the slabs past me, then took a 1000' dive down the SW Face. Lots of noise, lots of dust.

 

Next day we checked out the trail that runs below the face torwards Mulvey Basin. The block had dug a crater a couple feet deep just above before ending up in pile in the trail.

 

Glad the place was deserted!

[AlpinistAndrew]

This past summer a friend and I went to the top of 3rd Burroughs Mtn., in MRNP, before the road to Sunrise opened (since we worked there). My friend and I tossed a couple rocks off the side of the peak down a rocky, boulder strewn talus field, it was very steep. It was fun to watche the medium to small rocks skip and fly off the larger rocks and fall down to who knows what in the clouds. Then, as we were leaving, my friend throws one more rock, rather small, it ricochets off one of the rocks on the hillside, and sets the whole thing loose. The whole thing starts rumbling, it feels like an earthquake. Dust is all over the place and bits of rock fragments get in our eyes. An avalanche of boulders and rocks just slides down, it was pretty impressive, didn't take out any trees however, just the whole side of this mountain. We proceeded to run away a bit, considering we were standing at the lip of the steep hillside, fearing it might go as well. All and all, it was the most impressive rock slide i've ever seen.

[pete_a]

About seven years ago I was on the southeast side of Mt.Jefferson ascending second/third class stacked refrigerator and car size boulders just below the traverse to the easier routes up the summit block on the north side. My partner put his hand on a block about the size of a VW bug and it started to slide on the scree it was resting on. Seconds later the block was cartwheeling end over end down the boulder field, hit the glacier, slide the full length of the glacier creating a massive trough in its wake, it hit the rocks of the terminal moraine and exploded into a massive cloud of dust. The rock covered over 2000vf in a matter of seconds...thank god no other parties were anywhere in the path. After that we rather quickly decided that we didn't need to summit Jefferson that weekend and we got the hell off that heap of choss. Have yet to go back.

[Crackbolter]

Matt gets a spare. Although you probably should get a strike.

 

Andrew gets a strike since it started a chain reaction and it was intentional.

 

DBer gets a spare.

 

Pete gets a spare.

 

Sorry, it must be an intentional trundle to get a strike.

 

Anyone else?

 

[ 11-18-2002, 05:16 PM: Message edited by: Crackbolter ]

[North_by_Northwest]

My turn to roll.

 

A very large block of sandstone in Red Rocks, probably 5 X 4 X 4 ft, in the shape of a rectangle. It took three of us sitting and pushing with our legs to send it off a sheer 120 face. It rolled twice, making sparks in the night, as it started to fall, then didn't touch the wall again until the bottom. A person living nearby was brought out of bed by the exploding sound and started yelling to see if we were all right.

In the morning there was only a lot of loose red sand where it had hit.

[Lambone]

 

[ 11-18-2002, 09:40 PM: Message edited by: Lambone ]

[mattp]

I used to work for Outward Bound and when running the "hoods in the woods" courses we would routinely "build rapport" by getting ten juvenile delinquents involved in pushing a boulder off the edge of a cliff. It taught them problem solving skills and teamwork. I wish we had the bowling alley scoring system -- we could have taught them something about the discipline necessary to strive toward and accomplish challenging goals as well.

[russ]

If you take out 3 pins, is that only a spare? But if there are only 3 pins, then you got them all, so it should be a strike - right.

 

First time up to Tahquitz in So. Cal. ('78) and we didn't know there was a very nice trail to the right. Instead we headed straight up the boulder field. I touch a rock about 18" in diameter and it set off a chain reaction that had all three of us tumbling down to slope amongst all the bouncing rocks. After 30-40 ft, somehow we all washed out, as the rocks continued another couple hundred feet. Between the three of us we lost enough skin to feed one of those snafflehounds you'all yammer about for a week.

 

Being the hardcore newbie's we were, we licked our wounds and still went up to have a great time on Sahara Terror.

[Crackbolter]

N X NW gets a spare. Sparks and the smell from sparks gets a spare.

 

Gee I was hoping someone would have a good story about taking out trees. So far its just rocks taking out other rocks.

[Dru]

I took out over an acre of forest near Scuzzy with a huge boulder off the top hitting a scree covered ledge and setting the whole thing in motion off a 500m cliff. Sort of like bowling with a shotgun.

[specialed]

In Montana we used to try and light dead trees on fire at the ski area to clear new runs. Once we got this big ass dead tree blazing, but the other trees never caught on - too much snow. Not really trundlin but good clean fun nonetheless.

[slaphappy]

Hmmm, I might be able to help you CB.

 

While rapping down a route in Leavenworth my climbing partner nudged a block the size of a big fridge. Surprisingly, it moved a few inches. After makin damn sure no one was around he proped his feet up on it and gave it a shove. It slid down a short slab, went airborne, then crashed on to a slab below. Instead of breaking up it bounced, hit the hillside below pulverizing a small vine maple and creating a crater where it used to be. After tumbling a few hundred feet downhill, still gaining momentum, it hit a 12" dia. (aprox.) Ponderosa. The tree appeared to explode. The block, still in it's original form, continued it's path of destruction down the hillside occasionally visible bouncing through the dense undergrowth and finally coming to rest in a large scree/boulder field. After rapping to the ground I went down to see what was left of the tree. The block had crushed the trunk but instead of cutting it, the tree was actually up-rooted. What a terrifying display of power!

 

What about trees that come spontaneously crashing down cliffs, nearly wiping out two climbers? That's gotta be worth somethin!

 

Surely you have seen a few CB. Let's hear it.

[Cpt.Caveman]

Someone should do some alpine style cow tipping on top of Snow Creek Wall with one of those goats

[slaphappy]

[snoboy]

I helped pull a 8'x3'x1' flake off a friends project in Squish this last winter.

 

Not really alpine, but it was raining, so maybe it can count.

 

We got at least two trees and two bolts for our trouble. They were the bolts we were supposed to rap off to get down. One was sheared right off, the other was a flattened hanger.

[Crackbolter]

Not bad you guys.

 

Slapp gets the first place prize...

 

A weekend climbing trip to Vantage no expenses paid and he has to give me a ride.

 

A beer from my six pack after I drink all of his.

 

All the climbing BS stories you could ever hear, and then some more and later on possibly more.

 

[G-spotter]

i got a spare today

[ScottP]

i got a spare today

 

That's it man, game over man, game over!!