RRC Archives

Half Moon, open or closed to climbing?

Open.

Full Moon is really good.

Are there still trees on top of Half Moon? If there are you can use them as anchors in order to top rope Fallout, Meter Maker, and possibly, Meteor Fall. These are pretty fun.

There are some trees there but I'm not sure if I'd trust all of them for an anchor. I'm also not sure where the trees are in relation to the routes. They looked pretty far back from the edge though.

Other than bring some long ass slings, somone who's been out there recently to climb will give you more precise beta.

I equalized three trees last fall to toprope some stuff on the NW end. I used an extra rope for the anchor. The trees are pretty far back. Watch out for the loose stuff.

Is there much danger from folks on the top - throwing stuff etc.?

Lots of trees are gone and the routes are often caked with sand.

Bummer, Half Moon was once a beautiful place. Vandals trash every place with easy access in the Red.

Interesting story- a few of my friends in high school were sport rappellers. I only went with them once or twice. But even then I had the climbing bug. I knew I wanted to do more than slide down the rope.

Anyway, there used to be a substantial pine at the top of Rockhouse. It was “The Tree” at Half Moon. It was the main anchor for the main rappel. So two or three of my friends went up late one afternoon to rappel and some people of the buckeye persuasion had cut down the tree at waist level and had turned it into a cozy camp fire. The alleged vandals were also rappellers (just adding more evidence to support the idea that rappellers are pretty stupid).

The story didn’t end any better. The northerners got their tires slashed over the ordeal and two of my friends had to walk out to Pine Ridge for some reason that I can’t remember now.

I avoid Half Moon like the plague.