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Biggest surprise on a route???


RuMR

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Let's hear 'em!!!

 

mine...

 

Smiff: finish of darkness, a flying rat (aka pigeon) literally exploded out of the last pocket...almost wobbled off...

 

or

 

NRG:

 

Stuck my fingers into one of the famous letterbox slots there and heard something that sounded like crinkling newspaper...i could feel this sort of scratching on my tips...pulled them out and a fucking deathstar exploded into my face...yellow jackets came out at warp speed and stung the shit out of me...promptly lobbed off for a good 20 footer...bastards!!!

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New River: I know someone who grabbed a bat at Kaymore and got bitten. He actually had to get rabies shots!!

I had a black snake crawl out of a crack while belaying at Junkyard wall -- it stuck it's head in my face and I froze solid for a full minute while it sniffed my face. It then slithered down the route (4 Sheets to the Wind) and the guy following me freaked!

 

However... probably the biggest surprise was grizzly bear scat on a local peak. We didn't see the bear but it was in a place where you wouldn't think a bear could get to -- and had we actually encountered it we would have had to downclimb a nasty loose headwall to get out of the way.

 

IMGP3405.jpg

 

 

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New River: I know someone who grabbed a bat at Kaymore and got bitten. He actually had to get rabies shots!!

I had a black snake crawl out of a crack while belaying at Junkyard wall -- it stuck it's head in my face and I froze solid for a full minute while it sniffed my face. It then slithered down the route (4 Sheets to the Wind) and the guy following me freaked!

 

However... probably the biggest surprise was grizzly bear scat on a local peak. We didn't see the bear but it was in a place where you wouldn't think a bear could get to -- and had we actually encountered it we would have had to downclimb a nasty loose headwall to get out of the way.

 

IMGP3405.jpg

 

 

lol. maybe the bear got real scared and dropped this load

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Climbing unroped high on Coleman Headwall on Baker, hurrying to get out from under the seracs we heard a large 'boom'. I thought a serac cut loose and was going to wipe us off the face. Then I saw two fighter jets fly low overhead. Scared me pretty good.

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New River: I know someone who grabbed a bat at Kaymore and got bitten. He actually had to get rabies shots!!

I had a black snake crawl out of a crack while belaying at Junkyard wall -- it stuck it's head in my face and I froze solid for a full minute while it sniffed my face. It then slithered down the route (4 Sheets to the Wind) and the guy following me freaked!

 

However... probably the biggest surprise was grizzly bear scat on a local peak. We didn't see the bear but it was in a place where you wouldn't think a bear could get to -- and had we actually encountered it we would have had to downclimb a nasty loose headwall to get out of the way.

 

IMGP3405.jpg

 

Nope.

That was mine.

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New River: I know someone who grabbed a bat at Kaymore and got bitten. He actually had to get rabies shots!!

I had a black snake crawl out of a crack while belaying at Junkyard wall -- it stuck it's head in my face and I froze solid for a full minute while it sniffed my face. It then slithered down the route (4 Sheets to the Wind) and the guy following me freaked!

 

However... probably the biggest surprise was grizzly bear scat on a local peak. We didn't see the bear but it was in a place where you wouldn't think a bear could get to -- and had we actually encountered it we would have had to downclimb a nasty loose headwall to get out of the way.

 

IMGP3405.jpg

 

Nope.

That was mine.

 

lol. looks like a type 3

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Seneca Rocks, WV: Pidgeon exploded out of a pocket in the alcove where you turn the roof on Westpole. Scared the bejeezus outta me, but I hung in.

 

Another time at Seneca: I had just summitted the famous Gendarme route (it ain't there no mo' - fell down a few years after this) in the gunsight. I had just finished the obiligatory unbelayed standing yodel when I noticed a dark cloud down the valley and a low rumble akin to thunder. Puzzled, I squinted for a better view. Within a few seconds, a VA Air National Guard A-7 Corsair came blasting up the valley, about 200 feet out in front of me and slightly below the level of the top of the rocks. I was looking down into the cockpit and could clearly see the pilot looking back up at me through his darkened goggles. He peeled the aircraft hard right and floored it outta there, shaking the shit out of the place. My partner, unaware of what was making all of the noise, starts screaming that the whole mountian is coming down. I couldn't contain my enthusiasm in relating what I had just witnessed. It was pretty fucking cool.

 

It was one of these, but obviously in a different paint scheme.

a7e_corsair.jpg

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Leading a climb in the Gunks years ago.... after a blind reach to a ledge I mantled up to find a copperhead snake less than a foot from my hand, and another not much further away to my right. They stared at me and I stared at them before quickly moving upward. This was after being assured by a local the day before that "...there's no snakes around at this time of year...".

 

Leading an ACC trip to Welch Peak.... Upon getting up onto the south ridge, a not unattractive female club member decides that she and her boyfriend don't want to go any further and will head back to their car. She then strips down to a very revealing string bikini to do a little suntanning first. The rest of the group reluctantly continued the ascent.

 

Aid climbing a route in New Brunswick and having a chopper from the nearby Canadian Forces base hover a few hundred feet away while the crew watched us.

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Seneca Rocks, WV: Pidgeon exploded out of a pocket in the alcove where you turn the roof on Westpole. Scared the bejeezus outta me, but I hung in.

The biggest surprise I had on Westpole was when my partner handed me (a newbie) the sharp end and said "you lead it - it's only 5.7". I hung on but it scared the bejeezus out of me.

 

It's cool you got to climb the Gendarme. What an iconic route.

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Hey Billy!

By the time I was doing Westpole, I had already attended the "Seneca 7 Skewl of Hard Knocks." My initiation to that school was Alcoa Presents, on the back side. Frightening as one's first 5.7 at Seneca. And very humbling, too.

 

It's too bad you missed the Gendarme. Getting on it was always a classic outing.

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