Chunk of Half Dome Breaks Loose
Regular Northwest Face is unclimbable
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A large section of a classic route up Half Dome fell off and likely left the route unclimbable, Climbing reported Monday.
A team of rock climbers on the Regular Northwest Face route discovered the missing piece of Half Dome, after pitch 11 of the 23-pitch climb, over the weekend. In the route’s current condition, reaching pitch 12 would require a section of unprotected rock climbing.
“Often, when you see rockfalls coming from underneath a roof at the base of an exfoliation slab, more will follow,” climber and geologist Roger Putnam told Climbing. “ I hope nobody goes up there for quite a while.”
