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Thread: Moonlight Buttress. Front row seat to the Zion rock slide.

  1. #1

    Moonlight Buttress. Front row seat to the Zion rock slide.

    Last night at around 6pm my climbing partner and I were at the hanging belay on the last pitch on Moonlight Buttress when we heard a rumble. The first thing I thought was a low flying 747. "Whats that?" my partner asked. "Sounds like a freight train on the next pitch!" I said. Just then we both looked across the canyon and saw an avalanche of white Navajo Sand that had cut loose from the top of the East Rim. My first thought was about the safety of the two climbers on Spaceshot, but they were about 2,000 feet up stream of the rock fall. Huge boulders the size of Volkswagens trundled down onto the road and into the river. Most exploded on impact. After about a minute all that was left was an up side down mushroom cloud and fine dust covered the valley floor. The main slide ran down between Disco Inferno and Spaceshot. The decent of the Spaceshot's rappels probably have a fresh coat of sand and dust on them.
    After 1 minute a propane bus turned the corner at Big Bend to see the big cloud. Imagine if they were 1 minute ahead of schedule! They drove up to the edge of the cloud and parked for 20 minutes until a Loader cleaned the rubble off the road and dumped it into the swollen river. The river is still at flood stage and my partner and I had to hike in from the Grotto. BOY that hike is not fun with 70+ pounds of climbing gear and water! I bet we had the route to our selves because no one wanted to hike in. Temps were in the 70's and the constant light breeze was nice too.
    All in all it was a good day, one that I will never forget.
    Hay a big shout out to the ASCA for replacing the anchors on Moonlight. I was totally puckered until the bolts came into view. It was so nice to see big, solid, glued in bolts at the belays.
    Kevin Hansen
    A good mountaineer dies in his bed.
    I'm always looking for rock or ice route info and a partner.

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  3. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by climbinghalfdome View Post
    Last night at around 6pm my climbing partner and I were at the hanging belay on the last pitch on Moonlight Buttress when we heard a rumble.
    Wow, that's a heckuva thing to see!

    Was ledged on Spaceshot at dusk when a couple of base jumpers launched across the canyon from us, neat. But, nothing like seeing that kind of rock fall. Wild stuff.

    Moonlight's fun, eh? Did it prior to the last bolt replacement. Still pretty solid, though (Jason(s) and Jared did a nice job and sounds like those new glue-ins are pretty cushy). Just push those stardryvin bolts back in their holes...ha ha.

    Cheers!

  4. #3
    Wow, that would have been amazing to see. Glad you weren't caught up in it.

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