Gunks Temporary Hazard Report, 6/1/2021

Here’s some updates, thanks to your submissions, to the Gunks Temporary Hazard Report. If you have a new hazard to report, please use the form here: https://bit.ly/gunkshazardform.

Don’t forget to check for the types of hazards all over the Gunks, like tick bites and poison ivy!

The list is in alphabetical order by crag, with the newest additions to the list in red font.

Hoping that these warnings can help you decide which climbs you may want to avoid for a bit. Thanks to everyone who submitted reports!

Gunks Temporary Hazards

Trapps

• Andrew/Brozone – Snake
  • Very young copperhead snake slithering around the base of Brozone on the GT ledge (5/13/2021)
• Ant’s Line Approach Trail – Snakes
  • Two copperhead snakes on stairs leading up to Ants Line area like 15 feet up the stairs from the carriage road. (5/15/2021)
• Bunny – Snake
  • Copperhead on ledge (5/3/2021)
• Dirty/Herdie Gerdie – Snake
  • Copperhead base of Gerdie block (5/20/2021)
• Ken’s Crack – Snake
  • Baby copperhead in Ken’s Crack. I was following, removing gear, and it was sitting right behind my nut. 100% a baby copperhead. (5/22/2021)
• Erect Direction – Snake
  • Unidentified snake at the top of P1 (4/14/2021)
• 2020 Notable Reports
  • CCK – Snake – 3 reports in July 2020
    • Copperhead in the approach stairs just before the base of the climb, at the very top of the CCK trail
  • City Lights/Frog’s Head Wall/Pas De Deux – Snake – 3 reports from July to September 2020
    • Copperhead was reported  in various places on the access trail up to the base of the Frog’s Head Wall/Pas De Deux area.
  • Madame G’s – Wasps/Hornets – multiple reports of nest & multiple stingings on Pitch 2, July through September 2020
  • Northern Pillar – Wasps/Hornets – 2 reports, people getting stung on 1st and 2nd pitch in July 2020
  • Red Cabbage – Wasps/Hornets – 2 reports in July 2020 of a ground wasp nest in the rocks next to the steps at the base of Red Cabbage.
  • Sixish – Wasps/Hornets – 2 reports in July 2020, wasp nest in finger crack of 2nd pitch about 3/4 of the way up.

Near Trapps

• 2020 Notable Reports
  • before King of P – Snake – multiple reports in August and September of 2020, adult copperhead lounging on a rock in the middle of the trail on a slab just before King of P.
  • Yum Yum Yab Yum – Wasps/Hornets – Ground hornets nest spotted in 2019 and 2020 at base, just to left of the start, also start of P3 underneath a block 12′ above belay ledge.

Black Rat Snake (photo: Jannette Pazer)

Gunks Rockfall Hazards

Rockfall on ledge under Predator, near Yum Yum Yab Yum in the Nears – click to expand

Trapps

• Middle Earth – Large unstable rock on the climb that injured a climber is no longer there, but there is still loose rock on pitch 2.
• Moonlight – Very loose microwave sized block on pitch 2, shortly after leaving the belay on the right side of the route. Part of the route shared between Moonlight and Erect Direction. Felt like a natural place to grab and pull up. Pulling hard would likely tip it off the ledge, angle of the cliff there makes it likely that it would bounce past GT and down to bottom. (4/17/2021)

Near Trapps

• Yum Yum Yab Yum – Remnants of massive 2020 rockfall from Predator (nearby climb) left lots of loose rock on ledges.

If you have a hazard to report, please use the form here: https://bit.ly/gunkshazardform.

This is a public service for the Gunks climbing community based on reports submitted by the climbing community – sightings are not verified. Please do not spam it with jokes and bogus entries, those of us monitoring this have better things to do than delete multiple bogus comments a day. If there is too much abuse, we’ll have to shut it down.

Want to see the entries that have been posted recently? See the responses in a Google Spreadsheet here: https://bit.ly/gunkshazardsheet.

Have fun and be safe out there!