Reminder: Mountains will kill you

[Pharmseller]

Mofo tried to kill you.




P

 

[RS_Non-Res]

Reminder to self: Don't hunt/hike/[edit]climb below[edit] @Poser.

 

[Oldrifle]

That sounds insane! It serves as a reminder of how quickly things may happen. I'm pleased you survived unscathed.

 

[BRTreedogs]

I hope the Mountains kill me, as opposed to the 1000 other things.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

This type of hazard is no joke in the high country. Back in 2015 I went with a friend of mine into one of the more remote lakes in RMNP. We crested a ridge and started descending the steep rocky slope to the lake and at one point I was about 40 feet below my friend with a steep slab of granite between us. The slab was probably a 45 or 50 degree angle and he kicked a basketball sized rock loose that quickly picked up a lot of speed and was headed toward me fast, but because each bounce changed its direction slightly I could not tell where it was directly going. I literally had about 5 or 6 seconds to make a move and had no place to completely escape it because I was standing at the edge of a cliff and could only safely move a foot or so to either direction, so I had to time it perfectly on the last bounce. In a lucky Matrix sort of move I swung my torso to the side at the last second as the boulder went hurtling by my head missing by a few inches. My buddy looked ghost white after that and we both knew how close to a certain catastrophic head injury and - more likely - instant death I was.

 

[Poser]

This type of hazard is no joke in the high country. Back in 2015 I went with a friend of mine into one of the more remote lakes in RMNP. We crested a ridge and started descending the steep rocky slope to the lake and at one point I was about 40 feet below my friend with a steep slab of granite between us. The slab was probably a 45 or 50 degree angle and he kicked a basketball sized rock loose that quickly picked up a lot of speed and was headed toward me fast, but because each bounce changed its direction slightly I could not tell where it was directly going. I literally had about 5 or 6 seconds to make a move and had no place to completely escape it because I was standing at the edge of a cliff and could only safely move a foot or so to either direction, so I had to time it perfectly on the last bounce. In a lucky Matrix sort of move I swung my torso to the side at the last second as the boulder went hurtling by my head missing by a few inches. My buddy looked ghost white after that and we both knew how close to a certain catastrophic head injury and - more likely - instant death I was.

This is going way back to the summer of 2002. I was rock climbing in the Wind River Range on a popular multi pitch route with another party 2 pitches (maybe 250 feet) below us. I accidently knocked a baseball sized rock off and watched it soar, taking 2 bounces on the slab. I yelled "rock!" as loud as I could. The belayer in the party below us, who was anchored in to a hanging belay barely had time to do anything more than look up at my warning. The rock drilled her right in the center of the forehead areas of her helmet. She was ok, helmet did its job but, damn.... she would have certainly been dead without that helmet and had the rock been 3 inches lower, it would have hit her in the face as she was looking up.

 

[BKIdaho]

Had a Mt Goat tag in White Cloud Mtns here in Idaho in 2014. Goat is feeding above a scree filled draw, but in a great spot. I hit him twice in the boiler room. He walked slowly over and laid down next to rim rock above the draw. I should have left him to die, but all the Goat experts say, keep shooting. So one last bullet into the boiler and I literally think the pass through sound of bullet hitting rocks made him jump up, and you guessed it, basically dive off in this scree draw. He cart wheeled 300yds down to almost my level. Sweet.

So there’s 30 min of light, so I head over to see him. As I’m making way into bottom, where he is, I’m hearing occasional small rock coming loose and careening down. As I get to him, and I’m examining his broken horns and scarred face , I start hearing rumbling above me. It’s not an avalanche of rocks but approx a dozen rocks from probably softball to soccerball size are ping ponging toward me.

I could not see anything clearly due to low light. I simply got lucky dodging them, though all but two went wide. Two big ones were within 5 feet.

Needless to say, unfortunately o came back at first light for that goat. He’s my fave critter ever for sure and the revenge he tried to take on me was no small part.

So easy to die doing what we love. Totally worth it.

 

[OKHunter84]

Sounds wild! Glad you are safe. Did you see if it was a buck?

It would be a shame to get killed looking at a forkie. It would make it seem less of a waste if it was a toad right?!

 

[Hnthrdr]

It would be a shame to get killed looking at a forkie. It would make it seem less of a waste if it was a toad right?!

Absolutely, if you are getting taken out, better be by the king of the mountain

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

I was out and about on Saturday, hiking around, exploring a bit. While traversing at 11,400 on a game trail across a willow choked scree slope (blue line), a spooked mule deer exploded out of the willow above me and hauled ass straight up the slope (red X and arrow are the approximate line) into goat country.

View attachment 746026

In doing so, the deer managed to send a number of brick sized rocks flying which triggered quite a few more rocks. Next thing I know, rocks are landing everywhere around me. I crouched down as small as I could get relying on my pack to absorb any potential impact. Rock fall went on for a good bit longer than one would expect and sounded like a few, bowling ball-size stones came down as well in a cascade effect. Nothing hit me but it was all around me and there was a lot of it.

As the sound of falling rock started to subside, I hear a white noise getting louder and louder and then crescendos to "very loud." The ground starts shaking a bit and this goes on for a solid 45 seconds or so before it starts to subside. A slide had started about 30 yards laterally to me and it took the rocks right down to the bare dirt, ripping the willow out of the ground along the way.
At my elevation, the path was only about 10 yards wide, but 100 feet lower, it was easily 50 yards wide.

Stay frosty out there.

Damn man, glad you're okay. Scary stuff there, wow.

In the last issue of Fur Fish and Game, the back page story was told from the perspective of a couple 12 years old boys that went camping in the mountains in 1969. He admits to one of the more stupid things he ever did in life, kicking the brace rocks and gravel out from under a huge boulder to watch it cascade down the mountain. He and his buddy had no idea the carnage that would ensue as the rock and then rocks and then slide collapsed down into the lake they were camping next to. One of his biggest regrets, and your story put a visual of rocks flying by my head and took me back to this piece. Those scree fields are definitely nothing to mess with for sure.

 

[bluemaroon]

A Rockslide on Rokslide!

Be careful out there and a good story to keep in mind as we’re going across the mountain scree with heavy packs.