Gunks Rock Fall

a friend sent me a picture of that block from the side and I think the stopper is actually holding it in place. that thing is directly above one of the most crowded areas of the traps and depending on how you top out maria, your rope will run directly over that block.

My spies in the Northeast say that the Maria block has been dealt with. Being 2200 miles away, I cannot confirm this.

Marc801 wrote:My spies in the Northeast say that the Maria block has been dealt with. Being 2200 miles away, I cannot confirm this.

it was!

And the corner is covered in dirt!

JSH wrote:The block on Maria was removed in late October by the GCC, with rangers caretaking the area below. Kswissto, I deleted your pics from the Maria page, which is why the link is no longer valid here, but thanks for posting them when it was needed.

Why would you delete those pictures? Even if the block is now gone, those pictures are a useful record of what happened. Believe it or not, some people are not good at recognizing bad blocks, and a thread like this provided a nice example of one. I disagree with your decision to remove them.

JSH wrote:The block on Maria was removed in late October by the GCC, with rangers caretaking the area below. Kswissto, I deleted your pics from the Maria page, which is why the link is no longer valid here, but thanks for posting them when it was needed.

Why delete them? An update that the block was gone would be appropriate, but I don't see a need to remove. It would be nice to have some before and after shots like for Ant's Line.

Can someone genuinely explain the "Gunks rappelling ethic" I actually googled that term but this thread comes up first because someone mentioned it. Are people saying there are too many rap stations? How can there be such a thing, and if so, how is one expected to descend? Not being a troll, just new and confused.

Climb to the top and hike off is how it was done for many decades. It is just in the last two decades that rapelling has become the norm.

johnnymuir wrote:Can someone genuinely explain the "Gunks rappelling ethic"

Start here:
mountainproject.com/v/how-r…

johnnymuir wrote:Can someone genuinely explain the "Gunks rappelling ethic" I actually googled that term but this thread comes up first because someone mentioned it. Are people saying there are too many rap stations? How can there be such a thing, and if so, how is one expected to descend? Not being a troll, just new and confused.

There are several bolted rappel lines at the gunks. use those.
There are bolted BELAY stations as well. Those have been installed because on the top of the cliff in certain spots, it's difficult to build an anchor and using the trees has resulted in many cliftop trees dying. There are some mid level cliff bolted stations too. There are a few climbs where there is a station at the top, but if you rap off of it you'll be completely on top of another popular climb. even if the top anchor and mid anchor line up and you can single rope rap down, it's not a "rappel line". the guidebook highlights the rappel lines. They are often in cliff gullies where nobody climbs.
Bonus, you may meet another party there with a rope and you can combine ropes and get down in one shot.

johnnymuir wrote:Can someone genuinely explain the "Gunks rappelling ethic" I actually googled that term but this thread comes up first because someone mentioned it. Are people saying there are too many rap stations? How can there be such a thing, and if so, how is one expected to descend? Not being a troll, just new and confused.

Sure, I can explain the ethic, but in simple terms it's this: Don't be a dick.

More specifically - rapping is a totally accepted way to get down from climbs at the Gunks, but there are a bunch of things you should not do while rapping:
- Do not drop your ropes on climbers' heads.
- Do not drop rocks on climbers' heads (either through your own movements or those of your ropes).
- Do not rap directly off trees, with no sling.
- Try to stay out of the way of a lead climbing team's progress if your rap shares the same territory. Communicate! Or look for a different rappel.

That's pretty much it.

GO