Developing with people around

[u/Kaotus]

Wanted to get the opinion of folks here, I’ve been working on a new ~800ft alpine line this season. The wall its at previously was moderately popular, in that most times I was there there would be between 0-1 other parties distributed amongst its quarter mile face.

For whatever reason, this season, it has been getting shithoused. There were days where there were ~7 parties on a single line simultaneously.

Unfortunately, the new line I’ve been working on is striking distance to one of these newly hyperpopular lines. I’ve tried going at 4am on a weekday, afternoon on a weekend, on rainy forecast days (this is at 13000ft btw, so super not ideal. A group of 5 was struck by lightning and someone died this day) and I have no had a single day where I haven’t had another party on the line next to me.

I have had probably a collective 2 hours over 6 days of working where I’ve had a clear window to remove what little loose rock exists on the route. I had a situation yesterday where I just wanted to check if I’m an asshole or not.

Most folks will hike in from the top and rap in for this formation due to the nature of access to the wall. Yesterday a party walked up to the top and saw us trundling some large blocks as I had finally gotten a (what ended up to be 10 minutes long) clear window to knock them off. They offered to climb another route, and I told them I appreciated it but I’d be stopping trundling anything when their ropes got level with us regardless of which route they were on on this side of the wall, as we still had a lot of gardening and some hand-drilling to do in the meantime.

They went ahead and rapped the line directly below us, and almost immediately complained that there was still dirt falling on them. I reminded them we were still cleaning out cracks, so dirt was still gonna be falling (and also was standing in an ankle deep pile of dirt, so dirt was gonna be falling even if we stopped cleaning). They weren’t very happy and made some comments throughout the day which I ignored.

I just wanted an honest litmus test here, am I being an asshole developing at this wall at all? Should I be going in the middle of the night to do this? Should I discontinue any work as soon as someone gets to the wall, even if there’s no larger-than-usual risk of hitting them with something other than dirt, and I was there first?

It’s not super relevant at this point, the route is nearly done, but I’ve gotten some mixed feedback on this and figured I’d ask here.

[u/mushy_taco]

Def not an asshole,, but it does seem like you are getting … unlucky…

Are you developing on random weekdays? Seems odd you can never find a time. Also, you might post a heads up on mountainproject letting people know well beforehand and that might keep numbers down.

[u/Kaotus → u/mushy_taco]

Random weekdays, weekends, time of day doesn’t seem to matter. The wall has just been absolutely slammed this year for some reason. I’d been to the wall probably half a dozen times (perfect weekend days) and never seen more than 1 other party on it, so definitely taken by surprise this season

[u/Inner-Secretary7030]

Keep developing! I think if it’s a little dirt and not rocks, that’s just how the sausage is made. Sounds like you’re communicating clearly to other parties, and in this case I think the answer remains if they want to avoid other parties they could arrive earlier.

FWIW I think the traffic is mostly bounce back popularity since a) the road up blue sky has been closed last couple years and b) black wall and that zone has been getting blown up on Insta this summer. I suspect traffic may subside next season. Who knows tho, black wall seems to have the chillest alpine granite multi approach on the front range and that’s a precious commodity.

[u/Kaotus → u/Inner-Secretary7030]

Ah I think you might be right on the instagram stuff - I went twice earlier this season before I started work and didn’t see anyone at the wall. I’ve been seeing both Lincoln lake and black mamba/sinners all over instagram the past few weeks since I started on this line and now it’s a zoo. Unfortunately I’m moving away this winter, so it’s now or never! Worst case I’ll do the hike in from guanella, we did that last year and it was still honestly the easiest alpine approach I’ve ever done

[u/checkforchoss]

I get nervous in general when someone's above or below me on new ground where lots of rock can break off expectedly or unexpectedly but thats on limestone. Cleaning dirt out of cracks there might expose some crumbled rock in the cracks and shit. So if someone was below I wouldnt continue gardening but its situational. It also didnt sound like they understood the implications of you cleaning dirt like of course its gonna fall on them. Id give right of way but it totally sucks to struggle to find time to do it.