There's no-where that this post really belongs. I'll put it here because it is about a very strong climber (as will be Dennis when he reaches his goal), and Dennis has climbed (put up routes even) with this strong climber.
Tom Addison. He climbs up here in The Lost World. He's developed what, 100 climbs there? From 5.6 to 5.13b. Including what's likely the best 5.8 on the Sonora Pass Highway. Great eye for a line. Funnier than hell. He creates excellent routes by really working hard (cleaning, toproping, cleaning, bolting, and lots of cleaning).
This last Sunday he was working to prepare a new route down there. He really puts in a lot of effort to clean routes. Macro-cleaning (the big stuff) and micro-cleaning. In this case he thought that maybe a large block was loose and needed to be trundled.
There was another party climbing in The Lost World. They were significantly down-cliff; nowhere near the line of fall.
Tom started trying to move the block (BIG - eight feet by eight feet, by two feet thick). Suddenly, BOOM, the whole thing shifted and then dropped. With almost no effort, no notice and no ability to warn the down-cliff party.
According to Tom, the block exploded in the talus with the sound of an echoing "nuclear explosion." Wow! As the echo subsided, and with no control over what had already occurred, Tom simply said, in his loudest speaking voice: "rock?"
The down-cliff party ran into him later. The rock fall had scared the holy shit out of them. But when they heard Tom say "rock?" First they knew he was OK and then they just started laughing.
Kinda glad I wasn't there to see it.
