Another Trundling Incident on Mt Borah

If any of you are up on Borah soon please take a picture of the summit log for July 25. If I could track down the idiots who threw the rocks down the East Face on Wednesday I would like to meet them in person. All morning we remarked on how clean the snow was and how quiet the face stayed until around noon when all hell broke loose. For 15 minutes in 15 to 30 second intervals we experienced some of the most horrific rock fall I have ever experienced anywhere in my life. I'm not taking one or two rock but hundreds. The sound of exploding rocks was so loud Wes and Kevin could hear it from one valley away on the North Face of Sac. As quickly as it started it ended and not another single rock fell all day unless we kicked it off ourselves. Luckily, we were up about 5 pitches and to the right of the main rock fall but one (basketball size) took a 45 degree bounce and was tracking straight at me but fell about 50 feet short of my belay stance. In a strange way it was kind of cool listening to the vrrrrrr, boom, tinkle because all of it was missing us but had we been on the Direct or at the bottom of the climb we would have been killed for certain. The only punishment I could see fit for this kind of behavior would be to force the guilty person or persons to walk off the mountain without their boots. We thought that perhaps a warning sign on the summit might be useful but that implies that the people who throw rocks have the ability to read and that might be a stretch.

Bob