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SNAKES

Original Post
Greg D · · Here · Joined Apr 2006 · Points: 883
Snake

So I had some climbing gear in my truck when I saw this guy which makes this appropriate for a Climbing forum. Can any one identify it? Bull snake? Looks like someone smashed his head. Poor guy. I heard bull snakes eat rattle snakes. Is that true? Perhaps someone thought they were doing a good thing.

Now that he is dead are there any good uses for it after I scare the pants off my gf?

Edit: and while we're at it let's just make this the climbing and snakes thread. Share your stories and photos of your snake encounters while climbing. What kind? Where were you? What did you do? Etc.
Anonymous · · Unknown Hometown · Joined unknown · Points: 0
One up

If it is not cold yet I would skin it. Once it is cold it gets a little harder to skin.

Other than that just scaring people.
Greg D · · Here · Joined Apr 2006 · Points: 883
J Hazard wrote:
you have to reference climbing or you will get flamed.
Anonymous · · Unknown Hometown · Joined unknown · Points: 0
Greg D wrote: you have to reference climbing or you will get flamed.
Oops.... should my rope look like that ^^^^
JesseT · · Portland, OR · Joined May 2011 · Points: 100


Found at top of P1 on Easy O at the Gunks. Not sure what kind of snake it's from. #1 C4 for scale (no pun intended).
Finn The Human · · The Land of Ooo · Joined Jul 2008 · Points: 106

I've run into a few rattlers while climbing in BCC. Once my buddy and I were standing at the base of a climb, scoping things out. When we stepped back a ways from the wall so we could see the upper portion, I looked down and saw a baby rattler slithering along right where we had been standing 10 seconds previously. That was a little sketchy.

Another time we came across a rattler on the trail while we were on our way up to Glass Ocean. I was all for bushwhacking our way around it, but my trad mentor (who is in his sixties) would have none of that. He picked up a thick stick and started poking and prodding the snake till it got out of our way. Talk about a hardman.

Dustin B · · Steamboat · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 1,275

looks like a bull snake to me, but I'm no expert. In the context of climbing, carry him with and next time you arrive at an anchorstation with less than great slings, just tie him into the mix, now thats some tat!

Sam Lightner, Jr. · · Lander, WY · Joined Apr 2006 · Points: 2,732

The internet does not have room for all my snake stories. However, here is a photo or two...

Looking for a shoe to crawl in

King Cobra that showed up at my birthday party in 1994. He came in mad, left dead.

Rogerlarock Mix · · Nedsterdam, Colorado · Joined Sep 2008 · Points: 5

Sam that's a bull snake. California King snakes do indeed eat rattlesnakes.
Shame you had to kill the cobra.

timt · · Wheat Ridge, CO · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 50

FINALLY a topic worth posting on!
That is a bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer). They do not to my knowledge--or anyone I have spoken with--eat rattlesnakes or any snakes for that matter. This is likely confused with the kingsnake, which will eat other snakes including rattlesnakes.

There is more to do in Black Hills S.D. than just climb. On a rest day, check out Reptile Gardens. They have one of the best snake collections in the country. This is one of my personal favorites the black mamba.

black mamba

Sam Lightner, Jr. · · Lander, WY · Joined Apr 2006 · Points: 2,732

Niether of mine is a bull snake.
Yeah, well, Kings are territorial. Trying to explain to the locals that its ok to have the SE Asia equivalnt to a polar bear wandering around the village cus he thought it was hi territory, does not go over well. I didn't kill him, they did, and in my opinion the way the combat went down was pretty sketchy... I wasn't sure who would die. The cobra was just under 13 feet long, so he could strike about 8.5 feet. They attacked him with 4 foot pieces of bamboo. SSSSketchy.

Scott O · · Anchorage · Joined Mar 2010 · Points: 70

I was hiking the approach to Leaning Tower, and my glasses had fogged up pretty badly from the effort of carrying all our water and gear. I couldn't really see the trail that well, when all of a sudden my partner grabbed me from behind.

"Dude! Rattlesnake!"

Sure enough, there was a small rattlesnake in the middle of the trail that I would have stepped on if he hadn't stopped me.

Mike Lane · · AnCapistan · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 880

Castlewood stories could be an entire subtext to this thread:

The final move on Pay Homage at Castlewood is a blind reach over the rim to a hueco from which you clip the anchors. I came across a rattler once coiled up in it. There's no way you would know. If you pulled up high enough to look first, you'd likely get a shot to the forehead.

I was bouldering a overhanging traverse once, and crossed my hands badly. So I stepped one foot down onto a rock. The snake under it started thrashing its head violently back and forth, snapping to within a couple inches of my ankle. My hands were still crossed. Adrenaline alone allowed me to fire the V27 move up that boulder. To top it off, it was an albino rattler; bright yellow with red eyes.

Wandering the base with Hanson, he stepped up past a bush and the corner of that wall. Immediate buzzing, saw two by his feet. Then more buzzing erupts from inside the bush. He's snake dancing around, and asks me for my stick so he can probe his way back around the bush. When I javelin it back to him, I hear the buzz right by my ear. There's one up in the bush right at head level, less than an arm's length away from my face. Staring at me. Tom makes it back, we turn around. The 3rd guy with us steps over a 5' log across the trail, which sort of jerks into a lazy S shape. Momma, and she's about 4" fat in the middle. We all have to do the standing broad jump over her. Once out of that mess, we realize its sundown and they're out and we have a solid half mile of bushwacking back to the cars; or a 2 mile round-a-bout hike. We did the mileage.

Richard Wright once had one coil up onto his rope while belaying.

I've almost put my hands on them on ledges, sometimes they dart across the trail right in front of you. Had a baby one once keep darting at my Teva-bare toes while belaying. It was hyper aggressive, I'd flick dirt at it strong enough to roll it backwards, it'd uncoil from that and zing right back at me.
I could go on and on, but Sam's stories are still a dimension higher.

matt davies · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 25
El Tigre wrote:Castlewood stories could be an entire subtext to this thread: .
On the trail to go bouldering in Castlewood with my then gf, I stepped up a kinda terraced slope and realized my gf was no longer walking with me. I turned around and she was about 30 feet behind me, eyes wide as saucers and stock still. "What?" I asked, and she just pointed at the biggest goddamn rattlesnake I had ever seen, about 15 feet behind me, at least a tennis ball around in the middle and stretched across the entire 4' trail. I had managed not only not to notice it, but to luckily step over it. It didn't even rattle until I chunked a couple of rocks in his (or her?) direction. That was the end of that sesh.

It was good to meet you today Greg, did you by chance find that snake on that job?
Travis Dustin · · Mexico Maine · Joined Jan 2012 · Points: 1,665

Ran into lots of rattle snakes in Arizona while climbing/hiking. Once i thought for sure one of our group of three was going to be bite by one of the 20 or so snakes we encountered out in the middle of some canyon. Another time at J tree a rattler went under our tent while we were climbing. Our neighbors saw it and removed it for us before we got back.

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190
Josh Kornish · · Whitefish, MT · Joined Sep 2009 · Points: 800

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.

Olaf Mitchell · · Paia, Maui, Hi, · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 4,190
Sam Lightner, Jr. wrote:The internet does not have room for all my snake stories.
Sam, Please tell us a snake story.
Please !
Greg D · · Here · Joined Apr 2006 · Points: 883
matt davies wrote: It was good to meet you today Greg, did you by chance find that snake on that job?
Good to meet you too! No sign of the snake but it looks like he wears a 9 1/2 shoe. Can anybody identify this shoe? This mother effer stole a boat load of copper from me recently.
Sole of the thief
Todd Cook · · Burlingame, CA · Joined Nov 2011 · Points: 230

Western Pacific Rattlesnake at Suicide Rock

Western Pacific Rattlesnake at Suicide Rock

Western Pacific: hematoxin and neurotoxin = bad cocktail!

Most terrifying aspect of this one was, he refused to rattle. I suspect these are the ones that wait until you step on them or pass too close and then they bite.

Chad Wagner · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2007 · Points: 75

Sean, Mark, and I went to climb Return Of Jeff Beane at RRG. We flaked the rope out and racked up, shot paper, rock, scissor for the lead and I won. Got about half way up to the last good rest and placed a solid cam. Mark was sitting on his bum leaning against his pack by a boulder and Sean was belaying. I looked down to shoot my shit eating grin at them for winning the lead and saw way more than I wanted. Out from underneath Mark's leg came the biggest copperhead I have seen. This snake just kept coming. It was all of 5' long and fat, 4" at least in girth. Mark's heart stopped, he said later, and as soon as that snake was clear from him he jumped from sitting to warrior instantly. I have never seen this 6'5 guy move that fast. He coiled up under the rope at the base and just sat there, until Sean started probing him with a stick. I was 30' up the wall telling him to stop out of fear the snake would take it out on me. What a puss right, haha. Good Stories.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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