Post your stories of animal encounters on route!

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ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber

bouldering

Jan 27, 2012 - 01:56am PT

A porcupine on the Ahwahnee Ramps.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Jan 27, 2012 - 01:57am PT

So Dave and I were enjoying a loverly evening on Dinner Ledge; we had
special permission from the matron of the Old Climbers' Home to go camping.
We tucked each other in for the night after a second helping of Dave's
special 'Geritol' brownies. It has always been my practice to keep my food
bags close at hand as I'm not fond of sharing so they were arrayed like a
couple of extra pillows. I awoke from one of my habitual dreams of
stealing helicopters to sounds emanating from the haul bag about 3' from
me. I leapt to my feet with headlight in hand. I stood the bag up and
shone the light in. To my amazement I was greeted by the sight of a Ring-
Tailed Cat and a goodly sized one at that! Well, since this was a National
Park I decided to refrain from my usual practice of gene pool cleansing
and went with a little behavioral modification instead. I closed the bag
and proceeded to administer a suitable number of vehement wacks all the
while reminding the little bugger that he'd picked the wrong haul bag to
crawl into especially considering it was bereft of comestibles. When I re-
opened the torture chamber I peered in and started gagging. Apparently I'd
scared more than the bejeezus out of him. Who knew they were related to
skunks! Then I realized that in my maniacal raging I'd been completely
unaware that I'd also managed to scare the bejeezus out of Dave. Poor boy
had downed more than his share of the brownies and had awoken from his
stupor to such a commotion as to cause him to think I'd finally gone around
the bend. I turned the varmint loose to Dave's relief and watched it
seemingly hurl itself off the ledge. Oddly enough the next morning found
the haulbag purged of the stench. We had a good chuckle when I found an
empty one pound package of fig newtons (not ours) about 30' up the wide
crack. Apparently other campers hadn't been so 'defensibly' minded.

tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber

Leading Edge of North American Plate

Jan 27, 2012 - 02:24am PT

Leading the 3rd pitch on Lucky Streaks I placed my right hand about knuckle deep in a finger crack when I heard a strange clicking sound. I pulled my hand out and looked in to see a small bat hanging upside down in the crack. I think I woke him up. He showed his teeth and then went back to sleep.

briham89

Trad climber

los gatos. ca

Jan 27, 2012 - 04:07am PT

I poked a bat in a crack and it almost bit my finger :O

Also saw a frog 12 pitches up just chillin on a ledge...how did he get up there?!?

YoungGun

climber

North

Jan 27, 2012 - 08:58am PT

Here's your frog:

couchmaster

climber

pdx

Jan 27, 2012 - 10:59am PT

Most memorable was leading some unnamed possibly unclimbed crack near my limit and coming eye-to eye with a rattlesnake at Elgin wall in 1976 or 1977.

Last year on one of the El Cap routes Ujahn found what looked to be a california king snake inside of a crack 3/4 of a pitch up. Scared him till we got a better look at what it was. Maybe the snake felt the same way.

Often see little frogs inside the cracks around here hundreds of feet up.

cintune

climber

Midvale School for the Gifted

Jan 27, 2012 - 11:05am PT

Had something growl at me from a deep brush-filled overhang on a ledge in the 'dacks once. Just kept moving on up, didn't say anything to my bro-in-law following.

Not like he was gonna be able to avoid it anyway.

Whatever it was, it either stayed put or scurried off.

drljefe

climber

El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson

Jan 27, 2012 - 11:12am PT

Be vewwy vewwy kwyette

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jan 27, 2012 - 11:39am PT

Nice kitty!

Brandon-

climber

The Granite State.

Jan 27, 2012 - 11:58am PT

I was climbing a the leap a few years back. The three of us were at a third pitch belay (can't recall what route) when we hear monkey calls. Monkeys? In CA? As soon as I think this I hear a loud crack above. I look up and see some sort of monkey like creature fly by me.

Damnedest thing.

Steven Amter

climber

Washington, DC

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 27, 2012 - 01:38pm PT

I was climbing at New River with Stuart Pregnal some years back. He was about 90 feet up on the first pitch near a grassy ledge, I was sitting on the ground with my back against a tree belaying him.

I though I saw him drop something and a few seconds later a fluorescent green runner landed on my leg. I then nearly had a heart attack when the runner slithered up my leg!

Just a cute little green snake (and I even like snakes), but man was I startled. Although the snake appeared to be unhurt, I kind of felt bad it had been displaced from its home.

Lace

climber

las vegas, nv

Jan 27, 2012 - 02:16pm PT

Met this little guy on straight shooter in Red Rock. About 15 feet higher, a chuckwalla was chilling out in the same crack.

Brandon-

climber

The Granite State.

Jan 27, 2012 - 02:18pm PT

I was climbing in El Chorro, and had rocks kicked down on me by Spanish goats one time as well.

Elcapinyoazz

Social climber

Joshua Tree

Jan 27, 2012 - 02:25pm PT

Snow Creek Wall Goats:

Seen plenty of goats in the Cascades. Bears at the base when on numerous valley routes. At Mississippi Palisades, had a guy huck a 6' snake off a ledge on a sport route that almost landed in my lap.

Was bouldering that fingercrack behind Camp4 one day and went to plug in a jam about 3/4 up to find a king snake in the middle of my lock. You can make him out in this pic:

On Punk Wave at Tallulah Gorge, my partner is halfway up P1 when a snake crawls out of the route about 6' up, down the crack and across my foot.

On Don Juan in the Needles, the swifts or swallows were nesting in the second pitch and one mandatory jam felt a little soft and cushy, as you just brushed the little fellers who were kind of deep in there.

More bats that I can remember, peregrines, list is endless.

And OT, but kina on-T. Here's the kind of surprises you can get working for Caltrans in SoCal:

MisterE

Social climber

Jan 27, 2012 - 04:15pm PT

This is an excerpt from a story I wrote, "Adventure Gaping At Washington Pass: A TR":

"At the base, we false started, then found the route. There was little to no chalk on this route, and I thought: not good. As we were getting ready, a goat wandered by and Mike shot a picture as it traversed across the steep slope below.
The altitude was sapping, but we took a short break, then Mike started out on the initial “10.b” pitch. Within minutes he was cursing and whining, and eventually had a take on the gear. .10b? Mike? Hmmmmm...
I start to worry immediately about my .11 pitch, which is next.
As he was climbing the pitch I looked down and saw the Malamute pup from the hiking party running up and past me. The pup had spotted the goat, chased and caught it.
I must admit I was a negligent belayer as I watched the following scene unfold before my eyes:

The pup chased the goat onto a rock where he started to sniff it curiously. The goat stomped it’s feet repeatedly on the rock to warn off the dog, but puppy remained undeterred. The dog then charged the goat, who lowers it’s head, and somehow catches the dog sideways on its head between horns and the crown of it’s head. The quite large dog looked like a head drapery as the goat lifted its head, turned sideways, and dumped the dog 15 feet over rock onto the scree below. There were some serious puppy cries as the dog tumbled, got onto wobbly legs and ran by me again. Totally aghast, I scanned the retreating dog for blood, but saw none. Soon, I heard the call of the owner, and I yelled down to her: “I would check your dog out, he just got attacked by a goat!” She stares at me for a minute in disbelief, then says in a broken voice, “Thanks!”. I could hear the desperation in her voice as she resumed calling for her dog, who now wanted mommy and was well on it’s way.
I don’t know why I said the goat attacked the dog, maybe out of kindness for the situation. It was just the opposite."

labrat

Trad climber

Nevada City, CA

Jan 27, 2012 - 04:26pm PT

Third pitch of Knapsack at the leap. My friend who was working on some of her first trad leads came upon two rattle snakes. it was past the steep part so she just went around. One was still visible when I came up.
Erik

Mark Hudon

Trad climber

Hood River, OR

Jan 27, 2012 - 06:50pm PT

On ZM last spring, I was bivying one pitch from the top when I was woken by tiny little feet walking over me. Only for an instant did I see a rather muscular looking rodent of some kind, looking at me in the moonlight, before I flicked my lower leg forward and launched it off the ledge into the dark abyss.

hooblie

climber

from where the anecdotes roam

Jan 28, 2012 - 07:14am PT

bunch more over here: http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1480413/What-creatures-have-you-found-climbing

including this one ...

while we fixed a couple of pitches on one of the biggies in the beartooths, my partner rathole and i left a scattering of gear laying where we started the route. that left us pretty exposed to whatever kind of havoc a beautiful mountain goat could have wreaked upon us. as it turned out, the stuff all got pretty thoroughly inspected, the goat was really non-chalant about us just above him, and he eventually kneeled down amongst our debris for a long period of rumination. a sweet bond of trust developed in which we were able to continue with our project