My crag, Yrnameer

[rl23455]

Hi,

So because you guys posted about Jimmies, I'd like to tell you about a crag I have been at with FAs. It's called YourNameHere.

It's up near Trout Lake and is very fine grained, very smooth columnar basalt. And very dangerous.

 

Our FFA was done by my friend who almost died. I also cut my finger on razor sharp rock. Needless to say, he did it FFA and I a FA. The bottom goes at 10b and the FA I did goes at 5.9 or so. One cannot access these columns at the top due to steep dirt slope.

 

My friend did a bouldering move to get around a corner and was demonstrating to me how easy it was. I had balked saying it was too dangerous. He said, "It's easy, just hold onto the rock" and at that point the refrigerator sized rock peeled off the wall with him downhill from it. I screamed as he disappeared into a cloud of dust. When the dust lifted he had dead-pointed a tiny shrub and saved himself from being pummeled and from a 60 foot tumble down a 65 degree slope onto boulders. He escaped with minor skin tears and minor blood.

 

While I doubt he will go back, I would. I guess I'm more cautious and paranoid and would still go, because after all it is FA. I would also like to say I did 2 FAs last year, one and Aid climb in the Coast Range and at Yrnameer Crag. I uploaded a photo labeled Just Rewards under my profile.

cheers

 

[Rainman]

Be careful out here! Not all columnar basalt is worth climbing on. It can be extremly unstable with out telltale signs. I did some exploring with Jeff Thomas back in the eighties on some baslat columns that wobbled the entire length while climbing. Very, very scary it could have gone at any time with deadly consequences. An FA isn't worth much if no one else will do it because it's too dangerous. Think about it. Look more for good rock than obscure FA's.

[JosephH]

Careful man, there are places out there where every time you climb the same 'route' you'll be doing an FFA, if it doesn't kill you.

[billcoe]

Hi,

So because you guys posted about Jimmies, I'd like to tell you about a crag I have been at with FAs. It's called YourNameHere.

It's up near Trout Lake and is very fine grained, very smooth columnar basalt. And very dangerous.

 

Our FFA was done by my friend who almost died. I also cut my finger on razor sharp rock. Needless to say, he did it FFA and I a FA. The bottom goes at 10b and the FA I did goes at 5.9 or so. One cannot access these columns at the top due to steep dirt slope.

 

My friend did a bouldering move to get around a corner and was demonstrating to me how easy it was. I had balked saying it was too dangerous. He said, "It's easy, just hold onto the rock" and at that point the refrigerator sized rock peeled off the wall with him downhill from it. I screamed as he disappeared into a cloud of dust. When the dust lifted he had dead-pointed a tiny shrub and saved himself from being pummeled and from a 60 foot tumble down a 65 degree slope onto boulders. He escaped with minor skin tears and minor blood.

 

While I doubt he will go back, I would. I guess I'm more cautious and paranoid and would still go, because after all it is FA. I would also like to say I did 2 FAs last year, one and Aid climb in the Coast Range and at Yrnameer Crag. I uploaded a photo labeled Just Rewards under my profile.

cheers

 

Damn, that's a story! We should have a contest to count the remaining loose refrigerator blocks in your picture:-) Your photo reminds me a lot of the East Side of Beacon. I have a pretty good Steve Strauch near death moment story about Danny Gates and him climbing on those East face blocks out there. Not as near death but pretty dramatic with a long 30 foot runout over the overhang, unable to stop and put in pro, not that there was any, then a long screamer fall due a block popping. A single knifeblade driven up into some blocks the only remaining thing keeping Steve swinging in space and from death in the dirt below. It's the reason I've always avoided that face. With one exception in the 80's where the siren song lured me in.

 

How do you get to Yrnameer Crag?