Old Original - rappelling off the tree in the meadow?

[pylot]

My friend and I did Old Original this Saturday. My understanding is that rappelling off the tree in the meadow at the bottom of the descent gully is strongly discouraged. We found cord around the tree with rappel rings and I removed it. I tried to act with the best intentions, but if that is actually part of the standard descent I apologize. If on the other hand people should not rappel off the tree, I wonder if some kind of signage pointing to the traverse to the right would be in order? I always found Clint Cummins descent topo super useful.

[JC w KC redux]

I routinely find tat on the tree when doing the Machete descent.
I always remove it too.
You did the right thing.
Thank you.

[Brad Young]

J.C. is right, pylot.

Some selfish little twit on Mountain Project just posted/bragged about using that tree to rappel. I'll bet he's been climbing for months at most.

Those of us who have been doing that descent for years are seeing the slow decline of the tree. For now its the dirt and grass around its base. That's getting compressed and eroded. Noticeably. Unfortunately, I think that tree is doomed over the long run, although I hope I am wrong (this is due in no small part to people like our Mountain Project nitwit - his "convenience" is, after all, more important than that pretty little blue oak).

Thanks very much for doing the right thing.

[NOAL]

The post on Mt. Project also suggests to climb over the gate that has been locked due to graffiti in the caves.

Maybe you climbed over the gate because you were too lazy to walk the Balconies trail.  Maybe you rapped off the tree because you were too lazy to do the 4th class descent.  It's one thing to do so and keep it to yourself but to encourage other climbers to do the same is a real A-hole move.

The suggestion to some "AO moves" over the gate is encouraging climbers to lump themselves in with the same POS' who spray painted graffiti all over the caves. 

[mynameismud]

My friend and I did Old Original this Saturday. My understanding is that rappelling off the tree in the meadow at the bottom of the descent gully is strongly discouraged. We found cord around the tree with rappel rings and I removed it. I tried to act with the best intentions, but if that is actually part of the standard descent I apologize. If on the other hand people should not rappel off the tree, I wonder if some kind of signage pointing to the traverse to the right would be in order? I always found Clint Cummins descent topo super useful.

Thank you

[pylot]

Oh great! I'm not very active so wasn't sure what the consensus was. I imagine people don't rappel off the tree on purpose - could they be unaware of the traverse descent? My naive brain is thinking that maybe attaching a laminated topo of the descent to the last rappel anchor in the gully would lead people that way? Although that could also be considered high impact or "littering", but maybe it's better than damaging the tree and/or the face below the tree.

[clink]

 It’s better than carving GO THAT WAY, with a right pointing arrow, into the tree’s trunk.

[F4?]

Remove the tree!

[Atomizer]

Remove the tree!

Yeah!!! Chop it down. But no power tools allowed.

This issue might be a byproduct of the upgraded rappels. With the old descent, before the bolts, the 4th class traverse seemed welcome. I can see how people might be softened up by the new raps and terrified with the traverse.

Where do people rappel from the tree? Straight down towards
 the caves?

[clink]

 Yes, going soft is the root of the problem.

[F4?]

Hand drill in via ferrata rungs.
Paint red arrows showing the direction.

With hand tools of course.

[Brad Young]

This issue might be a byproduct of the upgraded rappels. With the old descent, before the bolts, the 4th class traverse seemed welcome. I can see how people might be softened up by the new raps and terrified with the traverse.

Actually careful studies have shown just the opposite.

After doing the upper gully descent without the upgraded rappel stations, people would be so shaken up and scared, that the remaining class four seemed "the needle in the haystack" and people would opt for the tree rappel.

The upgraded rappels have helped with this problem, but still, a few people get sucked in to what seems to be an easy option. So, although the problem is helped by the upgraded rappels, the tree still gets used enough that it will continue to slowly die. Unfortunately.

[JC w KC redux]

[F4?]

attach a laminated "DO NOT TOUCH THIS TREE" to the tree. 

[Atomizer]

Kelly and myself climbed derringer into old original yesterday. Perfect weather and the descent gully was dry so we down-climbed most of the way. The fourth class traverse felt trickier than I remembered. Maybe that’s due to the growth of the shrubs you have to down-climb around, which felt more consequential than the rest of the descent. Have those grown enough to make it sketchier? Eventhough I have done this descent many times I got confused about how to get into the cave. Seriously I couldn’t figure it out and almost did the northward grassy way that puts you down north of the cave. We found a 30ft black sling with new lockers around a Boulder that people used to rappel into the cave. Somebody spent a lot to get down. Maybe the same people with the tree sling from prior posts? We were having a bit of argument about whether we should enter the cave at all, due to the closure. We ended up scrambling over and ended up ascending to the Balconies trail. We had a view down into the cave a spotted one large case of graffiti. What a shame! If you’re going to make a statement don’t spell it wrong. “PASSY” is unacceptable. I might be okay with the proper spelling… I can only imagine what other mistakes were made down there. 

Maybe it’s time to put up a few real markers and make a more official descent. Especially since the current way drops you into a closed area.

[mynameismud]

I agree

Kelly and myself climbed derringer into old original yesterday. Perfect weather and the descent gully was dry so we down-climbed most of the way. The fourth class traverse felt trickier than I remembered. Maybe that’s due to the growth of the shrubs you have to down-climb around, which felt more consequential than the rest of the descent. Have those grown enough to make it sketchier? Even though I have done this descent many times I got confused about how to get into the cave. Seriously I couldn’t figure it out and almost did the northward grassy way that puts you down north of the cave. We found a 30ft black sling with new lockers around a Boulder that people used to rappel into the cave. Somebody spent a lot to get down. Maybe the same people with the tree sling from prior posts? We were having a bit of argument about whether we should enter the cave at all, due to the closure. We ended up scrambling over and ended up ascending to the Balconies trail. We had a view down into the cave a spotted one large case of graffiti. What a shame! If you’re going to make a statement don’t spell it wrong. “PASSY” is unacceptable. I might be okay with the proper spelling… I can only imagine what other mistakes were made down there. 

Maybe it’s time to put up a few real markers and make a more official descent. Especially since the current way drops you into a closed area.

[Brad Young]

Maybe it’s time to put up a few real markers and make a more official descent. Especially since the current way drops you into a closed area.

Do not underestimate the importance of Adam's second sentence. In spite of what buttwipes on Mountain Project post, it's not a good idea to knowingly enter a closed area!

Adam, I'll work this over with you. The new written description is a big improvement and describes two ways to descend from below the class four traverse (one to the caves and one to their east then around Balconies Cliff Trail).

Will you spend a day with me on this? I'd love to have you first test drive the new description. And then it wouldn't take much work by two of us to make both use-trails fairly clear. Email me to talk schedules?

[waldo]

My friend and I did Old Original this Saturday. My understanding is that rappelling off the tree in the meadow at the bottom of the descent gully is strongly discouraged. We found cord around the tree with rappel rings and I removed it. I tried to act with the best intentions, but if that is actually part of the standard descent I apologize. If on the other hand people should not rappel off the tree, I wonder if some kind of signage pointing to the traverse to the right would be in order? I always found Clint Cummins descent topo super useful.

I was on the Balconies Trail and saw you up there. I was glad you had plenty of daylight to deal with the intricacies of the descent. I made it dozens of times over the years and never considered a rappel from the meadows tree. It's a terrible idea for many reasons, not the least of which is the danger of dropping something significant on folks in the caves. I also removed tat when I found it there. Depending on who was with me and how wet things were, I would sometimes protect the traverse with a cam or two and slings. Also, I had my own way into the caves (when open!) It comes in close to the upper railing and steps, though I'm not sure it dovetails with Brad's.

[Brad Young]

Bob, my directions that lead into the cave join the trail at the upper railing. I suspect we're using the same exact descent.

[waldo]

Bob, my directions that lead into the cave join the trail at the upper railing. I suspect we're using the same exact descent.

  Brad, I'd leave the climbers' trail just before it headed north and continue down the dry (usually) creek on boulders until the caves were below. I'd then down climb a big boulder onto another and walk to the railing.

I spoke with the rangers at some length about the graffiti. It will be a major project and large expense to remove it. Specialists from back east will likely do the job, which will require sand-blasting among other things.