Saturday, April 09, 2011

It has been awhile.

It has been 7 months since my last posting. I think that has been the longest stretch yet. I don't have much to post in the off-season as most my posts are about the developing we have done. I also will post odds and ends but it usually pertains to the outdoor scene.
We have had another stormy winter and the damage to MainFace has been significant. I haven't been down there myself but it sounds bad. The access ramp is almost completely washed out! It is only a couple feet wide in places. One more winter and that will likely be gone. For those of you unfamiliar with this area, Main Face is our best developed area. It has over 60 routes of sport, trad and mixed. It has some of the best climbs in the province. It is on a sea cliff with a nice wide ledge at the base. The best access was a wide ramp built by the military long ago so they could get heavy equipment down there to harvest boulders for a breakwater. That is what is washing away! Without it, the only access is to rap in and climb out.
Aside from that, a lot of ground has been washed from the base of most climbs. The starts have been extended by 5 to 10 feet of polished rock. Not very good if the opening moves on every route are about 5.12 before getting to the first bolt 20 feet up.
There has been a significant rock fall as well. The bottom half of the 'No Freebee's' wall has come off. The routes used to have a small roof about 12 feet up, then a bolt within 3 feet of that roof. About 8 feet above that was a long horizontal crack that would take a piece of pro. One more bolt above that and then the anchors at the top. Everything from the crack down has come off. Three 5.10's were on that section and the upper part doesn't appear stable. So it has been a hard winter on Main Face. I would think that Manuel's is fine where it is inland but Igor did some significant damage last fall...we will see.