RRC Archives

Ok, so it was really a bat...
Still to be avoided, but not nearly as dangerous as i first thought. Sorry.
I tell ya, it sounded a lot like a rattler with the echoes coming out of the hole. When i looked in and all i saw was fangs, i assumed the worst. I didn't want to find out for sure the hard way.

2 members of my party were rattled at by a small/medium sized rattlesnake living on bedtime for bonzo at fortress yesterday. It was living inside a small horizontal crack on the second pitch of bedtime. Nobody was bitten, but it sure scared the poo out of me, and i thought i should try to warn others.

His location was about 10 feet into the second pitch inside the small horizontal 1.5 feet right of the main crack. Although it's possible to safely bypass said snake, there is a tempting jug there that is probably used by a large percentage of the people who climb the route as both a hand and a foot.

The rattle also had a very unfamiliar sound coming out of the small crack. It sounded like more of a buzz than a rattle, for a moment i mistook it for an insect.

There was a fair amount of poo inside the hole, so that is probably a regular hangout for him.

Please be careful when climbing this route!

*Edited to reflect reality more accurately

perhaps that was Bonzo?

great beta, thanks!

So did you actually see the snake? From what I know, timber rattlesnakes don't make their homes in rock cliffs. Bats can make a buzzing sound when they pissed which might be mistaken as a rattle. Just curious...

yeah, he saw it. we also saw 3 copperheads on a ledge ten feet from the ground to the left of rappel line.

Copperheads have lived there for years.

most rattlesnakes I have come across made that buzz sound instead of a rattle. saw a bunch out est last month and all but one sounded like buzzes. Fuckin things are fearless too.

Yeah, it sounded a little weird because of the acoustics of the crack, but i'm pretty sure it was a rattler.

When i looked in there he even smiled at me! All i could really see was what appeared to be 2 pair of fangs spaced about 1/2 inch apart. i don't know much about rattlers, but i'm guessing that would make it about 1-1 1/2 feet long?

I've seen hundreds of copperheads but only 3 rattlesnakes at the Red since I've been going there since the mid-70's. All 3 rattler's were on ledges or large horizontal cracks well off the ground. They do seem to be a lot more agressive than copperheads, but, maybe that's just cause they rattle

The rattlers are bad this year, from previous times I've known them to stay around the FS road 9 area, but now they're everywhere.