To Trundle, or not to trundle

I was climbing at white cliff in 10 mile canyon today, and found a loose block on Zebra. It's not totally detached, but it's loose enough and fragile enough that it spooked me. The block is roughly 16 inches, by 8 inches by 10 inches and it's straight up from where the belayer sits. I don't mind knocking it off, but don't want to do it without some consensus. Should I go pull it off? or leave it? Anybody local want to go have a look at it and give their opinion?

Can't speak for the area, but where I climb if it's loose it gets pitched. Provided of course that the coast is clear below.

Trundling is a sure fire way to attract bad juju! Resist the temptation!!

If the coast is clear: trundle. Everybody wins. 9 out of 10 times you can't do it due to travel below. Do it when you can.

Not a local, but if the coast is clear I would trundle it. It was a new concept to me 25 years ago when I climbed with a local here in Tucson who followed me up a route and cleaned on the way. You might save someones life.

Just be damn sure nobody is below, and scream "rock" for a while before you let it rip.

Trundle but be sure you anticipate any rock bounce. My belayer and I learned that the hard way long ago then I trundled a rock about the size you describe from near the anchors on a sport climb, and when it hit the ground it exploded. The largest piece then ricocheted in an unexpected direction, nearly hitting my belayer (who was crouching under a little overhang off to the side of the start of the climb).

Trundle, but only if you film it.

protect your rope as well... heavy rock cauterizes and slices rope in half really easily

Trundle. Smartly and SAFELY.

Make sure the trundel doesn't damage any of the bolts on the route.

Tristan B wrote:Trundle, but only if you film it.

Ok, I will get out there and send it down, and I'll do my best to shoot some video and post it up. It shouldn't be too hard to hike around and rap down, thanks for the tip though about the rock hurting the rope, I'd be above the block, but I'll make sure to pull up my rope before I send it.

Do it at night and watch the sparks fly! Just don't set anything on fire. :-)

I'm pretty sure that there's enough trees to prevent it from making it onto I-70, but that should be you're main concern; and then doing it w/out jacking something else up.

If you do it right, you'll get a good blast of ozone smell. A good trundle releases a lot of energy, which can cause the rock to do unexpected things. This is a relatively small one though.