Big Trundle on El Cap- deathblock on Freerider goes flying

[squamish climber]

We've had a few trundles like this in Squamish. This block was being held up by dyneema string, until a crew let it go on Halloween night.

[jipstyle]

Wow .. that thing was perched and waiting to kill someone. Thanks for taking care of it!

[gnarnaphobe]

There is a similar, yet larger death block perch at belay 26 on Muir, not quite as preciously tied in place, but offered an utterly terrifying experience none the less.

When I arrived there I had short fixed the pitches before so was soloing until I ran out of rope. I ran out of rope ONE meter before the anchor, at belay 26, on of the best bivys of the route, a 6' x 1.5' ledge waaaayyyy up there.

So Im hanging out beside the ledge, because the pitch ends with a leftward traverse, until my partner finally gets me on belay, and I hop over on to this beautiful ledge without noticing that the right third of the ledge is completely detached, looming directly over the nose.

Oblivious to the situation I set up the haul the rightmost two of 3 bolts, and my partner lowered out the bags. The haul line then situated itself in a groove in the ledge, which turned out to be the left side of the detached death block just itching to kill some people on the nose.

The load of the bags combined with the position of my haul anchor produce a leverage effect on the block and pried the out several inches from its already delicate perch.

At the moment I was quite frazzled by the seriousness of the situation, I yelled at my partner to re-secure the load to his anchor. The situation appeared as though attempting to haul would pry the block, which would CUT the haul like and send 150 pounds of rock and 150 of kit on a 2000 foot ride, with several parties below.

My partner informed me that the bags were lower out 20 feet from his belay and that re-securing them was not an option.

I ended up attaching a jumar on the haul line on a long sling to the extra bolt way out left at the belay and carefully lowered out the load to the left, the haul line release pressure on the death cookie, and redirected itself out of the groove.


I notified Cheyne Lempe about the block, and hopefully him and his crew Yosemite ambassadors can organize a day when the Nose is empty and the base is clear to rap in and cut it loose.