Heads up!

[Nate]

For all you who wish to climb The Abyss at Main Face. Beware of the flake past the pod! It seems pretty likely to snap and therefore while I cleaned the route I cleaned more of a variation out on the cracks below the arete. I think using the cracks below the arete will make the route a little harder with some wicked exposure!

Nate

[chameleon]

Perhaps it would be best to break the flake on rappel, rather than on lead? Just a thought.

[seanT]

Chipper!!!!!!!

[chameleon]

Father !!!!!!!

[peter]

Should have rolled it, when I rolled that 100 pound beaut hanging about Dr. J & Mr. H, which then accidently bounced Teth's way (Donna paid me to do it).

[Nate]

I would have, but I figured Teth wasn't in the mood to be turned into hamburger that day. It'll go next time though..

Nate

[The Teth]

I was just happy that Nate was quick to yell “Rock!” when he knocked off the first little one. I did not realize how long it took for a rock to fall from that height. I actually had time to take cover. It was about the size of a tennis ball and landed within 6" of where I had been standing.

How big is that flake you left up there Nate? I should probably be glad you did not knock it loose. That one Peter let loose was interesting enough, and that was launched from quite a ways off.

Teth

[Nate]

Maybe the size of a teachers desk?..enough to rough you up a bit if it landed on you.

[The Teth]

Eie yi yi! Glad I did not know that was up there. How loose was it?

Hey, are you going to send me those photos or what? I PM’ed you my email address.

Teth

[Fred]

I tossed a part of the cliff off on Upper Tier in Welsford last year. I'd say a boulder or a rock but realy it was part of the cliff. A large exfoliation about 6ft high x 8ft long x 1ft thick. It left a mega crator at the base and took out a few trees.

side note:

if you happen to be cleaning routes in areas that have other walls below be carefull throwing stuff off. The small stuff (1ft diameter approx) will probably stay close to the cliff but the large stuff can keep going. Upper Tier in Welsford has a shelf of trees and brush about 20ft wide but is slightly downsloping and flat for the most part. An area where you would think a boulder could be pushed off and land near the cliff and stay putt. A big block will cruise right past all of it and down to Joe's Garage below. Tremendous momentum. I'm really only talking about areas where you would think the rock would STOP. Don't under estimate that. I've seen blocks roll 500m down into the forest taking out just about every living thing in its way even on the flatest terrain near the cliff.

[Nate]

The flake is pretty solid if you're not messing around with it. If you were climbing along and grabbed it and leaned back you might be in for a surprise. Sorry about the wait with the pictures. I'm loading them on to the computer now..

Nate

[The Mitt]

Fred is right. Cleaning off these large pieces is not a laughing matter. Last week I pulled a piece off that was the size of a fridge. I was only anchored via one jumar when the block grabed a small bite of my rope and gave me a tug (scared the PooP out of me). I did not think the large chuck would go just the little one that I was pulling on. Thank God noone was below.

Mitt

[Nate]

Teth,
I've given up on uploading the pictures on website, that doesn't work too well with dail-up, I'll try and e-mail them to you soon. They turned out alright...

Nate

[Fred]

Nate,

resize photos to 600 pixels on the longest dimension, save as JPEG with 90% quality and that should make your photos much smaller.

[Nate]

OK, I'll do that.

Sorry about the wait teth! I'll resize them and send them your way soon.

Nate

[Nate]

wow, yeah right now they are 1200x1600...

[The Teth]

Yeah, 1200 by 1600 would be nice for printing but would take for ever to upload on dial-up. The dimensions Fred suggested (in .jpg) should be good enough for what I would likely use them for.

Teth