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Sinks Canyon Fire

Original Post
bob branscomb · · Lander, WY · Joined Feb 2009 · Points: 1,198

The last few days has seen a big fire on the north side of Sinks Canyon out of Lander. The road through the Canyon is still closed with no camping at present. It will probably remained closed until Saturday, 7/27, at least.

From the pictures it appears that the entire cliff from around the Hardware Wall in the Main Area all the way to the end of Fairfield Hill was torched pretty good, as well as the east end of the granite buttress. Nobody knows yet how this will effect the routes, with the spaulding of the rock that goes on with intense heat, or any effect of heat on the bolts, so when it does open, be aware of those things.

Bummer.

Locker · · Yucca Valley, CA · Joined Oct 2002 · Points: 2,349
"From the pictures it appears that the entire cliff from around the Hardware Wall in the Main Area all the way to the end of Fairfield Hill was torched pretty good"

That CAN'T be good.

Bummer is right!
James Glover · · Boulder, CO · Joined Apr 2008 · Points: 5
inciweb.org/incident/3549/

This is a huge bummer.
Frosty Weller · · Colorado · Joined Mar 2004 · Points: 1,145

GRIM. :-(

"From the pictures it appears..." - Can you point us to the pics?

Please keep us posted with updates if you can.

bob branscomb · · Lander, WY · Joined Feb 2009 · Points: 1,198

A picture of the north side of Sinks Canyon from 7/23 2013, off the County 10 website:

county10.com/wp-content/upl…

Frosty Weller · · Colorado · Joined Mar 2004 · Points: 1,145

Efing hell... that sucks.

J. Albers · · Colorado · Joined Jul 2008 · Points: 1,926

Wow Bob, that picture is a huge bummer. Hopefully it didn't get hot enough near the walls to cook things. If you get a chance, post up when you hear something about the damage to the rock and hardware.
Thanks for the updates Bob.

bob branscomb · · Lander, WY · Joined Feb 2009 · Points: 1,198

The road is still closed today (Friday) so nobody has been up to the cliffs to check it out. I'll probably go up there next week and take a thoroughly depressing stroll along them. I'll let you all know what I see.

Chris Cavallaro · · Lone Tree, CO · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 151

Holy cow. So sorry to hear.

What are we looking at in the picture? Is that Killer Cave smack dab in the middle and just left of the where the burn ends?

Thanks. Here's to praying the wall is still climable, but I don't remember much fire 'fuel' (trees/sage brush etc.) ever being that close to the actual walls, am I correct?

bob branscomb · · Lander, WY · Joined Feb 2009 · Points: 1,198

That's the Moss Cave in the center by the edge of the fire. You're correct that there are not many places where trees are right against the cliff, so we hope that not too many climbs will be torched.

Dustin Anderson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2009 · Points: 0

Any news on this? The killer cave is amazing, really hoping it didn't get completely torched.

bob branscomb · · Lander, WY · Joined Feb 2009 · Points: 1,198

Drove up the Sinks today and checked it out. Camping and hiking are allowed again in the State Park and south of the road. The north side of the road from the Main Area (Killer Cave) to beyond the Granite Buttress including Fairfield are still closed to any activity as the USFS is still mopping up and doesn't want a lot of gumbies in the way.

The Main area from Scud Alert to Hardware Wall is untouched. The only route that got badly torched in the Hardware Wall/Face Dancer area is the slabby start to Billie Idol, which is badly spaulded.

Moss Cave doesn't look too bad, and things look okay out to Cavity Search and Picture of Industry and Bust a Nut which all look like they got a bit of burn on them.

The Wilds looks okay.

On Fairfield Hill, the L,L and L, Yer Own Private Idaho and Physical Graffetti all got badly fried as did the routes immediatly left of Blind. Things look okay out to Screaming Trees/Born X-Eyed which look a bit singed. Things look okay to A Dream of Least Weasels area...all those look singed and the trees at the start of Hiho Silver Away got torched, but the real climbing doesn't look effected on that route, just the bouldery start.

The rest of Fairfield to Don Ho doesn't look too bad.

The east end of the granite buttress was only burned along part of the top, nothing along the bottom so those routes are still okay.

When they open the dolomite to hiking etc, I'll do a closer inspection. Aesthetically, the place is trashed right now, but in terms of the climbing, we didn't lose that much, in my present thinking. What's done is done and we just have to go from here. It was never ours to keep anyway, correct?

J. Albers · · Colorado · Joined Jul 2008 · Points: 1,926

Thanks for the info Bob, we appreciate your efforts.
Have a good day man.
Cheers.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Colorado
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