Smith Red Wall closure?

[Chad_A]

Thinking about taking someone up Moscow for a bit of alpine rock training. Then I read in Watts' book that that part of the wall is closed from February to July. No one ever talks about this, but it may be because there's no sun over there this time of the year, and no one typically climbs there right about now.

 

Do they still do this, or is this a thing of the past? Thanks.

 

Chad

[corvallisclimb]

it is not closed, only little three fingerd jack is closed right now due to a pair of bald eagles.

[G-spotter]

to moscow for alpine trainings? why not to rattlesnake chimney or vulture's ridge? while throwing chalkball to simulate avalanching?

[Chad_A]

Cool, thanks for the information.

 

Sure, yah, I'll try those routes. No, wait a minute, I won't. If I want to kill myself, there's much easier ways.

[Alasdair]

Dont know if this info is still usefull to you, but I was at Smith this weekend and checked out Red Wall.

 

From what I could see there is no nesting activity on RedWall at all anymore. There used to be a pair of Golden eagles that nested on Red Wall every spring, but it looks like they have abandoned that area. There are two nests (also Golden Eagle) accross the valley on the North point climbing area and that entire wall is closed. We checked the area out below one of the nests and found tons of little bone fragments, complete skulls and other rodent body parts. It was pretty cool to take a look. In addition to the Golden Eagle nests we saw lots of Peregrines. More bird of prey activity than I have ever seen at Smith. Its really great climbers and birds apparently thriving in the same area.

 

Disclaimer: Dont ever go near bird nests. It is ok to look in the area below a nest provided that there is no sign of the birds, and the nest is a long way above the ground (at least a couple of hundred feed), but do not make a habit of it. If you do this do it after the nesting season. Oh and dont remove any of the bones, they help people studying the birds do lots of research.

[Alasdair]

it is not closed, only little three fingerd jack is closed right now due to a pair of bald eagles.

 

You mean Golden Eagles. Bald Eagles nest in trees, Golden Eagles nest on cliffs.

[corvallisclimb]

it is not closed, only little three fingerd jack is closed right now due to a pair of bald eagles.

 

You mean Golden Eagles. Bald Eagles nest in trees, Golden Eagles nest on cliffs.

 

looks like the ranger was wrong

[Alasdair]

Interesting. I would tend to thing the ranger might know, but I have never seen a bald eagle at smith. I saw several golden eagles this weekend. It is actually not unheard of for a bald eagle to nest on cliffs, but usually they will prefer to use trees if they are available.

[Johnny_Tuff]

Fuck it, just climb in Aggro.

[corvallisclimb]

Interesting. I would tend to thing the ranger might know, but I have never seen a bald eagle at smith. I saw several golden eagles this weekend. It is actually not unheard of for a bald eagle to nest on cliffs, but usually they will prefer to use trees if they are available.

 

Ya I don't know I'm no bird expert, but I specifically remember him saying it was a pair of bald eagles.

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

If DFA is not mistaken, there are bald eagles, which nest pretty much directly across the river from Northern Point, up in the choss. Although, now that the Doctor thinks about it, don't bald eagles usually nest in trees? At any rate, looking across the river from Northern Point, one can spot the nest of whatever kind of bird it is by identifying the enormous white slick of bird shit issuing forth from the nesting zone.

[DirtyHarry]

We climbed at the Red Wall on Saturday morning and saw no raptors. But in the afternoon, near Monkey face, we saw and heard a pair of peregrines all afternoon.

 

But, I suppose they could have been Red Tails. They do look pretty similar:

 

Peregrines:

 

 

Red Tails\

[John Frieh]

I'm starting to wonder who wasn't at Smith on Sat?

 

I talked to 5 ccers on Sat... sound like quite a few more were there

[layton]

dirty harry, kat_rosyln and I were there...at the red wall actually. so were fgw and his partner and dog.

i was the guy walking around trying to keep a birthday cake upright.

[DirtyHarry]

I'm starting to wonder who wasn't at Smith on Sat?

 

I talked to 5 ccers on Sat... sound like quite a few more were there

 

Strange. Didn't seem like too many people were at Grasslands. Though, one crew was having some French Toast feed which we didn't attend, and then a campfire at 5:00 in the morning Sunday. Some other folks were playing some bad techno Saturday morning too.

 

One dude climbing at the Red Wall asked monsieur Layton if he was THE Mike Layton.

[Chad_A]

 

Al, thanks for posting the info; didn't see that until just now.

 

We were there; saw John and Eric (glad you're healing, Eric), but didn't see anyone else. Didn't know we were in such cc.com company. I was just happy that it didn't piss on us on Sunday.

[Alasdair]

We climbed at the Red Wall on Saturday morning and saw no raptors. But in the afternoon, near Monkey face, we saw and heard a pair of peregrines all afternoon.

 

But, I suppose they could have been Red Tails. They do look pretty similar:

 

Peregrines:

 

 

Red Tails\

They are Peregrines. Just look for the pointy wing tips. Also they are quite a bit smaller than redtails. Another way to tell them apart is there call. The red tail call is the one that evey single fucking movie and TV show dubs over any shot of a bald eagle(the bald eagle has a horrible sounding call so they dont use it). I guarantee youve heard it. The perigrine usually has a series of screetches not unlike the structure of the swift that most of us have heard in levenworth and places like that.

[Distel32]

yeah they are actually very easy to tell apart.

 

wing shape, size, coloring, call, everything is different. "Flight pattern" etc

 

I'm with alasdair

[DirtyHarry]

If you know what to look for, I'm sure they are easy to tell apart. But, since I'm ignorant its hard. But thanks for the info, now I know. And knowing is half the battle.