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radistrad
Mar 5, 2002, 5:39 PM
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Registered: Feb 25, 2002
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I thought it might be fun to figure out all of the little creatures that live in and around the crags. There is nothing more unnerving when you are leading up a climb, like Lunatic Fringe in Yosemite, and all of a sudden that little bird (swift?) comes darting out of the crack just where you were about to sink a jam. Then the bird comes in for a high speed fly by with in feet of one head! I cant stand those lizzards that are cranking out pushups on the vertical wall as I'm peeling off. I have heard stories of rattle snakes climbing cracks, rats eating your food on a bivi that is a 1000' up. I can think of many more but I am going to leave it open for your experiences.
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camhead
Mar 5, 2002, 6:35 PM
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Yeah, there are a couple of lizards that live in the Swediah Ringle Crack at Indian Creek, I've seen them therre the last tow times. While being lowered I caught one and it chilled in my hand for a while. I wish every climb had mascots like that.
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dogen
Mar 5, 2002, 7:12 PM
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i was climbing a crack at my local crag a couple years ago. near the top out i sank a bomber jam just to hang out, get a little rest, and check out the veiw. when i pulled myself back in close to the rock to start moving again i hear what sounds like air leaking out of a tire. i looked in the crack, and just past my tips were a set of tiny white teeth trying to get a piece of my fingers. when i looked a little closer i could see that there was a f*ing bat hanging upside down just above my hand. luckily he didn't get a hold of me, i ran into a guy not too long ago that had the same experience, but he got bit. apparently rabies shots suuuuuuuck.
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old_school
Mar 5, 2002, 7:17 PM
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i nearly put my hand in a wasp hive at a our local crag. that would have sucked.
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camhead
Mar 5, 2002, 7:23 PM
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hey dogen, so did you fall or what? I ran into some wasps once and took a monster whipper.
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dogen
Mar 5, 2002, 7:38 PM
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i was only like three feet from the top so i just hauled ass. my partner thought i was loosing it, until i gave him the bat beta on the route.
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crackaddict
Mar 5, 2002, 7:56 PM
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I was climbing a crack once and almost stuck my hand in to the mouth of a chuckawalla I think that how you spell it(big lizzard). He started hissing and thrashing his tail at me. Had to laugh when my partner followed up and got the crap scared out of him. I was soloing up a 300 ft 5.7 once and about at the 150' mark a big owl flew out of a crack 1' above my head. Good thing I had a good grip because it scared the crap out of me. Another time I peeled off a loose rock while climbing a new route only to find three baby scorpions behind it. The crawled into the crack I had my hand jammed in. I got the heck out of there quick.
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saltspringer
Mar 5, 2002, 9:27 PM
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ran into tree frogs on several occasions with no damage done...lots of bats & birds around our local crags: bat guano really stinks!
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mikedano
Mar 5, 2002, 10:29 PM
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I've always had a fear of meeting up with creatures while climbing. That bat thing is pretty funny though... The worse for me has been spiders. Several times I've run into them, and I have a mild case of aracniphobia. But I've always managed to hang on... But the best animal experience was on Lumpy Ridge in Colorado. About 300 ft. up I heard a massive "whoosing" sound. It wasn't my partner peeling off--it was some giant birds riding updrafts at the same height as us. Awesome...
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atg200
Mar 5, 2002, 10:41 PM
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the gunks is overrun with huge prehistoric looking centipedes every spring and early summer. nothing like latching a good hold over a roof and hearing *squish*
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yarddarts
Mar 6, 2002, 4:41 AM
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once, a friend and i were looking at a route he was going to lead. i noticed a small mouse at the bottom of the route though. then he took off... dyno to small ledge, mantle, ran up about 3 feet, then stopped. it then started rocking back and forth - 1, 2, 3, dyno to the big sloper, mantle ran up another 3 feet, traversed the crack, ran up three more feet, and slowly climbing into a really small, deep two-finger pocket. it was righteous. we didnt do the route that day either
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crazywacky
Mar 6, 2002, 5:04 AM
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My little brother was going up a Top Rope climb out in Mineral Wells, a small area kinda local to Dallas. I was talking him through it.."there you go, you got it", etc. It got to a hard part, well hard for him I guess, and he wouldn't go up any more. I said,"Just stick you hand in that hole, It looks like a good hold from here." So he says "OK" and jams his fist in there. And for about a half second all he did was look at his hand in the hole. Then he started screaming and crying, and it looked like he just about dynoed up the last 8 feet or so to the ledge. Apparently there was a nest of Daddy Longlegs spiders living in there. He does NOT like spiders. Luckily he cleaned them all out before I got to that part... [ This Message was edited by: crazywacky on 2002-03-05 21:05 ]
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wigglestick
Mar 6, 2002, 4:50 PM
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While I bivied at the top of the 3rd pitch of space shot in Zion I spent half the night chasing a ring tailed cat of some kind out of our haul bag. It ran away with one of out water bottles and kept jumping on top of the haul bag trying to get to the food. I ended up having a small pile of pebbles next to me while I tried to sleep and everytime I heard that little f%@#er scratching at the top of the haul bag I would just start winging rocks in that direction. I hit my partner more than the cat but it seemed to at least temporarily scare it away.
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kamofladge
Mar 6, 2002, 5:14 PM
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There was an article in the newspaper, in Salt Lake City, last summer about a kid who was climbing up Big Cottonwood Canyon who stuck his hand an a sloper and got bit by a rattle snake. That totaly bites! (no pun intended)I mostly have seen lizards that just sit and stare at you as you climb on by. [ This Message was edited by: kamofladge on 2002-03-06 09:15 ]
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kamofladge
Mar 6, 2002, 5:16 PM
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There was an article in the newspaper, in Salt Lake City, last summer about a kid who was climbing up Big Cottonwood Canyon who stuck his hand an a sloper and got bit by a rattle snake. I mostly have seen lizards that just sit and stare at you as you climb on by.
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camhead
Mar 6, 2002, 5:37 PM
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Dude, wigglestick, those ringtail cats are an endangered species in Zion! Hope you didn't injure it.
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wigglestick
Mar 6, 2002, 5:46 PM
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Nah, I wasn't really trying to hit it. Just scare it away from the haulbag. I thought that since we had the food put away and everything it would leave us alone. But I was wrong. In retrospect it was pretty funny. I had spent the whole evening making sure that everything was set up safely and that I was tied in adequately (it was my first night on the wall). But after I was woken up for the 6th time to the sound of one of the water bottles being dragged away I was running around in the pitch black night barefoot, leaping blindly between boulders trying to get our water bottle back. The next morning when I retraced all the places I had been climbing I was pretty astounded. Some of the places I was scrambling around I ordinarliy wouldn't climb without a belay but in my sleep deprived state I didn't think twice about it.
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agrauch
Mar 6, 2002, 9:07 PM
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Wigglestick, that same ringtail cat woke me up when I soloed Space Shot last fall. There's something very disturbing about being woken up at 1am and discovering that you're no longer alone. When you're 3 pitches up, you really have to wonder just what came visiting. After being blinded by my headlamp, the cat left me alone for the rest of the night. Picas also make unwanted nocturnal visitors. I was bivied in a comfy cave below Mills Glacier when I was horribly attacked by a pica. The little bastard that lived in the cave snuck out of his lair and took a bite out of my finger. After a wakeful night worrying about rabies and other fun diseases, I failed gloriously in my attempt on the Diamond.
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bold
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Mar 6, 2002, 9:26 PM
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One day a few buddies and myself were climbing the local crags. When decidng who's climbing the first crag we always end up in a fight. My buddy jimmy won the fight this particular time. He ascends the rock and the crux is last ten feet, so he gets to top of the crux, looking really strong, and about that time he yells and peels off. I thought that was weird because we climb this crag at least two or three times a week. He screams let me down and I was like ok, so when he gets down he show's us his hand, and it looked like someone had taken a s--- in his hand. What it was, some kind of animal had got into the crag and dispersed some funky doo-doo and he stuck his hand directly in it.
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sethifer
Mar 7, 2002, 3:22 PM
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I was bouldering once and I saw this really nice hold..reached in..and all the sudden about a hundred termites came out and started crawling up my arm..small little guys..but they scared the crap out of me. Then I was climbing in Europe once..stupid pigeon flew out of a crack just above my head..lucky i had a good hold
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pollux
Mar 7, 2002, 4:39 PM
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My favorite, wasp nest. As i get i level with where i stuck my hand i pull it out of the crack and see a lovely wasp nest. thank god they didn't sting me.
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brinton
Mar 7, 2002, 5:01 PM
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I was leading this one crack, and about a third of the way up I spotted a little tree frog just chillin in there. When my second came up he accidentally hit the little guy, making him fall about 30 feet. After we climbed the route and went down, the little pecker was still alive. I was climbing in January, and stuck my hand in a crack disrupting about a million lady bugs, real nasty.
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radistrad
Mar 11, 2002, 3:40 PM
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Lots of ants, climbing in the Valley (Yosemite) a few weeks ago we were belaying from a tree when the ants came out to visit us. Soon they were swarming all over, I would brush them off of me and knock them off of the wall, but I dont think one fell to his death, each ant I knocked off of the wall would simply roll a bit then regain his footing. Little bastards.
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milesdesbrie
Mar 14, 2002, 4:06 AM
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I was leading some route on Stately Pleasure Dome in Tuolumne when I looked over and saw a marmot looking at me like "what the hell are YOU doing here?". At about that time my partner yelled up to ask me how the pro was up there and I said it's pretty bomber, I just clipped in to a fixed marmot. Well we thought it was funny at the time.
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cragmyre
Mar 14, 2002, 5:30 PM
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Black Widow spiders chillin on the center of your favorte prob can make for some interesting moves :eek
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