SNAKES

So, funny story. After pranking my gf and her whole family and a few neighbors with my new pet we hear the doorbell ring at 11pm. I look through the peep hole a see a cop standing wayyyyy back. I open the door and he says don't move. There is a snake at your door. I casually walk over the snake and laugh. He came to the door to let us know we left a kids bike on the sidewalk and was met with the snake curled up at the front door. Gotcha! One more victim to the snake gag!

This is was my first time encountering a snake while climbing. I was out climbing with a group of friends at the Riverside Quarry. I had just clipped the chains and was being lowered this guy was right under me. So I announced that there was a rattler which immediately got the group nervous. It made its way into a hole by my be layer as I hit the ground with enough time to snatch it up by its tail.
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Check out the route "whodunit" at Tahquitz, in one of the photos (about halfway) you can zoom the photo and see a rattler in the photo hiding in a small cave/crevice. For those that dont know the route is 900 ft so the snake is about 400 ft off the deck

This thread has absolutely assured that I will never go climbing in AZ or Cottonwood canyon.

I had never seen a rattlesnake in person until last spring when I almost stepped on one while out trail running in San Diego. I did not go trail running again while I was in San Diego.

"Snakes, why's it always gotta be snakes?"

Not a good photo, but a week ago we found this dude chillin at the start of a climb in Courtright.

That looks like a rubber boa. They are also pretty prevalent at Lovers Leap along with rattlers. That place is sanke heaven, but not nearly as bad as AZ or cottonwood from what it sounds like. They are crazy snakes though, I have ran in to ones off the deck on belay ledges.

I grabbed a snake in a horizontal in the Gunks climbing by headlamp at night. Man was I glad the rope was above me.

Nick K wrote: "Snakes, why's it always gotta be snakes?"

I was leading a group of 5 down the trail to the falls at Fosters this past spring/summer and happen to stop to look back at everyone. I heard, what to me sounded like a katydid (i'd never heard a rattler). I look 3'-5' off the trail and there is a good 3.5' ft rattle snake. Beautiful

For the rest of the weekend I was scared of stepping off every overhanging boulder in the trail. also saw a baby copper head on the trail in front of white wall.

Josh Kornish wrote:My partners in Yosemite had some fun encounters with king snakes. Nothing like reaching up to a hold and grabbing a snake. They love to chill under packs as well. A friend of a friend topped out a boulder problem here in Montana and was bitten by a rattler. He had to get a heli evac and once at the hospital was just recommended to ride it out instead of fork up the cash for anti venom.

That's the story. I don't much detail beyond that.

I sure don't ever want to find myself in that situation.

I agree with Chris. NEVER try to ride out a venomous snake bite. Even a copperhead, which will certainly not be fatal, can cause permanant disfigurement & morbidity than could seriously affect your lifestyle to say the least. Bites for N.A. rattlesnakes have ~5% mortality without treatment, so you could realistically ride it out and live. HOWEVER, the tissue destruction can be absolutely devastating & also cause damage to organs that could be permanent. The longer you wait to get antivenom on board, the more tissue destruction you are looking at.
Also, new antivenom (CroFab) is made with sheep serum instead of the old horse serum. This makes for much less risk of anaphalactic reaction, but is WAY more expensive to produce. The wholesale on a vial is $900 & expect a minimum of 7-10 vials for a bite. Do the math.... think how much aspirin costs in a hospital. People I know who have been bitten in Colorado average between $150-200k hospital stays with an average 3 days in intensive care.

As a note, to avoid lifelong health & financial problems NEVER EVER EVER pick up a rattlesnake as Zach did in the above post. I have worked with & handled venomous snakes on a daily basis for 15 years & would never attempt to pick up a rattlesnake by the tail. Their body musculature allows them to easily whip around & nail you. If they do not, it is only because they chose not to. Keep this in mind, over 90% of venomous snake bites in the U.S. are to males between 18 & 32 & are to the face or hand. Only ~5% are considered "legitimate bites," where the person was not doing something foolish to get nailed. Avoidance is the best bet.

timt wrote: As a note, to avoid lifelong health & financial problems NEVER EVER EVER pick up a rattlesnake as Zach did in the above post.

Back in the '70s, two pioneering Texas climbers, John Sanders (aka Goomba John) and Lauren Clayton caught enough rattlers and sold them to the San Antonio Zoo to buy their first cars in high school...

Was climbing at Hueco Tanks, spring break '79 and was bouldering the split boulder crack at the base of All the Nasties on the Front Side of North Mountain... Looked into the crack and thought I saw a snake... Being stupid I climbed it again and noticed the pits of a pit viper looking at me...

I holler and Lauren comes over and pokes it out of the crack... And it is a 4 foot albino rattler... He catches it and keeps it in a pillow case under a boulder in the campground for a couple of days... It was cool enough that the snake would basically hibernate...

Every morning for kicks, he would release the snake with all of us gathered round... All sleepy ans slowly warming up... Somebody hollers to Mike Head, and without thinking Mike crosses the circle and the snake strikes his pants leg... We had theses special desert pants made for us by Steve Cheney out of 20oz Duck... Fangs bounce off leaving a wet spot...

Lauren then hitch hikes home to Austin with is girl friend Sabina... And the snake... In a pillow case.... They would get a ride... The driver would ask "What's in the sack?". "A rattle snake...". Brakes, out of the car.... Outside of Fort Stockton a helicopter was flying along the interstate and Lauren tells Sabina to show them her tits.... The helicopter lands, picks them up... Flies awhile, until the pilot asks..."what's in the sack?". Helocoptor lands.... And they were hitch hiking again, but 100 miles closer to Austin....

I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!

lots of snakes in the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge in SW OKLA.

@Bryan G: californiaherps.com/snakes/…

Yes, a Boa in N. America. Snakes are pretty cool..

I have heard from multiple people that the base of Stained Glass and Fly Boy boulders in the Buttermilks is a massive rattler den that becomes active with hundreds of baby rattlers during April. Can anyone confirm or deny this and do you have a picture?

Greg, that's a Pituophis, which (bull, gopher) would depend on where you found it. I found a beautiful female a couple weeks ago, I scooped her up off a road to relocate her after helping with a bad shed. While dealing with the shed I noticed she was gravid so I hung onto her until she laid as I will get a 100% hatch rate in my incubator and I will let the babies go after they hatch (I found a dead female in the road with 7 eggs shot out behind her from a car). I absolutely love them!

I have seen almost all of the snakes in AZ at some point and will attach a photo of the last one I found at a resort. I had a crowd of people watching me as I wrangled him into my Klean Kanteen water bottle to relocate (I'm certain the resort would have killed this AMAZING snake), they thought I was INSANE!

I used to breed snakes as my sole source of income prior to the hobby turning into a mess I didn't want to deal with. I still have friends that breed reptiles and are pulling in 7 figures a year!