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Steven Amter
climber
Washington, DC
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 26, 2012 - 06:25pm PT
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"Hornets and snakes and gulls - oh my!
I saw the picture below and it got me thinking about the times I have encountered animals while climbing.
Sometimes it's been memorable - a herd of mountain sheep high up in the Canadian Rockies, or thousands of swifts tumbling out of a crack and taking wing in the Reef of Rocks (Mount Lemmon, AZ).
Sometimes it's been terrifying - rattlesnakes on belay ledges in Yosemite, or dive bombing falcons on Cannon cliff in New Hampshire, or squeaking bats in a handhold in Hueco Tanks(TX).
Sometimes it's been painful - wasp nests under overhangs at the gunks,or biting horseflies in the middle of a move when you can't slap them off your calf.
I heard some good stories too, some that ended in unexpected falls. So if you have or know and good ones, share them.
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Tfish
Trad climber
La Crescenta, CA
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Jan 26, 2012 - 06:34pm PT
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Point Dume at night...The bugs come out like crazy. Centipedes, other random ones, and scorpions.
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nutjob
Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
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Jan 26, 2012 - 06:42pm PT
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I never met Animal on a route, but I've sung more than my share of
"Manah manah" from the Muppets while leading or belaying.
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rectorsquid
climber
Lake Tahoe
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Jan 26, 2012 - 06:46pm PT
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Climbing some easy but odd wide crack route at Sugarloaf, there was this owl just standing there in an alcove. It was about five or six feet from where I would be climbing if I continued.
It was big.
I opted to leave it alone and backed down. I think it had more business there since it was awake and out in broad daylight. I suspect that there was a nest there although I could not see it.
It was very cool to see.
It might have also pecked me to death if I continued.
Dave
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rectorsquid
climber
Lake Tahoe
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Jan 26, 2012 - 06:47pm PT
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Also, bats in a crack. They scared the leader and he backed down and let me lead the pitch. I think it was One Hand Clapping at Donner summit but I don't recall for sure.
Dave
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fgw
Trad climber
portland, or
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Jan 26, 2012 - 07:00pm PT
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these guys would be hanging out 1 pitch up a 5.9 slab on some stuff in Tsaranoro... :)
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Jan 26, 2012 - 07:06pm PT
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In 1975, when I was 17-years old and on my first trip to Yosemite, a British guy I met in Camp 4 wanted to do Snake Dike on Half Dome. I was up for it as it was getting near the end of my trip and Snake Dike was on my to-do list. The night before our climb, we partied into the wee hours as sort of a pre-celebration of my impending departure. We didn't wake the next morning until 10 or so, and didn't hit the trail until probably noon. Needless to say, we were starting way too late in the day for a 16-mile walk, and amble up Half Dome's southwest face. But we went for it anyway. There wasn't a speck of light in the moonless sky when we finally had to stop climbing, on the small ledge before the last roped pitch of the climb. Foolishly, we had left the Valley without a flashlight and without adequate food, water and clothing for a night in the open. We sat, freezing and huddled together on the little ledge, slowly counting the minutes and hours before it would be light enough to move again. As we sat there in the pitch blackness, we started to hear things skittering across the rock, coming and going in all directions. Then we felt things skittering over our shoes and pantlegs. We didn't dare try to touch or grab these things, whatever they were, for fear of being bitten. I'm pretty sure they were rodents of some sort, but how large or small they were I can't say. It seemed like that ledge was THE major highway interchange for all the critter-traffic on the southwest face of Half Dome. I've stopped at the ledge several times on subsequent climbs and smile each time when I think of the seemingly endless night of little, running feet.
By the way, I'm pretty sure the gull picture is photoshopped. The birds are sun-illuminated, but everything else in the photo is under a gray, sun-less sky.
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throwpie
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Jan 26, 2012 - 07:13pm PT
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Bat in a crack which almost led to a whipper, a king snake (orange and black striped, I think a king) under a flake on the apron and I learned how to fly after stepping on a rattlesnake walking down from manure pile buttress.
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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Jan 26, 2012 - 07:21pm PT
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peregrinder falcons dive bombers at 70 mph out of nowhere while free climbing a giant slab but everybody has heard those stories,
let's see, ran into bigfoot ramblin up the trinity alps,
or not.
why would anybody dress up in a bigfoot costume?
target practice, but on the wrong end,
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Steven Amter
climber
Washington, DC
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 26, 2012 - 07:52pm PT
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With reference to one of the incidents mentioned above, many years ago I was doing an easy mountain solo in the Canadian Rockies (Mt. Robson area), and I saw a small herd of mountain sheep above me. As the day went on and I got closer and could see it consisted of a number of females and young, and at least three bighorn rams.
I kept climbing (easy crampons and ice tool moves, initially relatively low angle) and they kept retreating upward. I saw them doing some pretty bad-ass moves on pretty steep slopes and rock bands. But they didn't seem that concerned about me - after they moved away, they would go back to grazing on grass growing out of the rock bands. This slow dance continued for several hours.
Eventually, near the summit where the peak narrowed, I had to angle across an increasingly steep slope to gain the summit ridge. Below the ridge was a small bench where the herd had huddled, apparently trapped, with no way to go upward because slope above was too difficult.
When I was about 60 feet from them, it got really interesting. Three males came to the front of the herd in a protective line, heads down, looking aggressive. I was close enough to see their impressive curved horns and how large and powerful they were.
I got the message loud and clear: don't come any closer, dude. Now feeling a bit scared and exposed, I stopped moving. I certainly didn't want leave the slope and climb onto the bench with them and get flattened. I also didn't want to forgo the summit. So I just stayed still looked at them. They stared back. After about a minute of this standoff, one of the females peeled away and rapidly angled down across an impressively steep part of the snowy slope, with the young and the rest of the herd right behind her. When they were a good distance away, the three males turned and followed.
As they quickly disappeared from view, I continued up to the summit, the whole time feeling I had just been watched an episode of National Geographic.
Memorable!
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Steven Amter
climber
Washington, DC
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 26, 2012 - 07:55pm PT
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Great story Dos xx!
Yeah, I think you are right about the gulls being photoshopped in. I just snagged the photo of the internet while doing an unrelated search...
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disneyland freakshow
Trad climber
California
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Jan 26, 2012 - 07:55pm PT
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The grack-snake!
kingsanke in the crack about midway up, through the hands-fingers section..
I've talked to others who have met said snake, it just pokes its head out and watches as you pass by.. And a bat a quarter of the way up Hedonistic Pursuit at chapel wall, when they screech its damn scary.. Chose to downclimb instead of use the bat pocket..
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steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
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Jan 26, 2012 - 08:07pm PT
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Many bat stories.
I got attacked by an eagle on Yamnuska, ( Canada)in 1966. It was dive-bombing me, as I unexpectedly encountered the nest full of baby chicks. I had a camera around my neck, but it was rally steep there and I never got a picture. They were pure white with little black beaks.
I'm pretty sure we were climbing the Red Shirt Route.
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KabalaArch
Trad climber
Starlite, California
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Jan 26, 2012 - 08:15pm PT
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Hmm…
Came across a buzzworm the size of my arm, while returning from an xc drop over the Toroweap Rim, near Point Sublime, North Rim of The Grand.
In a deer use trail, he’d managed to dye himself green. Another step, and I’d have waken him from his afternoon slumbers!
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Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
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Jan 26, 2012 - 08:22pm PT
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Mid seventies sometime, we were poking around at the base of The Pirate at Suicide. I don't think it had gone free yet, but we were just dinking around. There were very small pin scars, and after stuffing a finger in one this sound came out, inspiring a hastily retrieved digit. Sure enough, a little bat face came out of this very small hole.
We've got a climb on the quarry on my property in Tenino named Critter Corner which at various times has sported snakes (rubber boa), alligator lizards, swarms of millipedes, frogs, a salamander, and packs of ladybugs. Helps keep the easiest route at the crag, a finger tip lieback, plenty exciting.
On the Lost Arrow Direct, I spent a long (long) time on the triangular ledge at the end of the first pitch oft the biggest belay ledge, a hooking pitch that ends with a free mantle. Lots of golden granite, the ever changing Yosemite Falls, and a jumping spider that hung out with me for a couple hours, leaping from rope coil to coil, on the wall, on me, just scoping everything out. They're pretty amazing creatures - I think a recent national geo had a good set of pictures.
Had the bag of apples stolen from under my head while sleeping on the Oasis on Glacier Point Apron, I'm pretty sure it was a ringtail cat, though it may have been a raccoon.
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selfish man
Gym climber
Austin, TX
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Jan 26, 2012 - 09:55pm PT
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Topping out on the Elk Slab formation, Wichita Mountains, I faced a huge buffalo. After a silent pause, it turned around and started to run away. what a relief.
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dmons
climber
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Jan 26, 2012 - 10:02pm PT
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was at the short wall in august years ago and came across a rotting critter in the bottom of the jam crack
years later, was belaying a leader on crank queenie, a route just a formation away
watched a big horn sheep tearing across the desert floor headed straight for us
he took the boulder field in two leaps and came to rest a hundred feet away just staring at us
his hooves on the rock sounds like metal
huge animal
after less than a minute he turned and bolted
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Jan 27, 2012 - 12:10am PT
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My friend Tiff had a pretty bad encounter up at Hueco Wall.
Photoshop credit Mr. E
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Steven Amter
climber
Washington, DC
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 27, 2012 - 12:17am PT
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Nice one Justthemaid.
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Cancer Boy
Trad climber
Freedonia
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Jan 27, 2012 - 12:30am PT
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The smell of pee usually means bats in the crack. Plenty on Positively 4th St.
Birds are always cool. An eagle on Traveler Buttress took off next to me: Whomp Whoomp. Size of a labrador retriever. Swallows always in the Valley, coupling and chirping as they fall and peel off. A Peregrin falcon on the Shield. Barked at my partner leading to Chickenhead ledge then went into one of those 200mph dives.
Hundreds of Crack bugs crawling all over me leading the pitch 2 chimney of New D. No big thing under the circumstances.
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