YOSEMITE VALLEY, Calif., July 8 (UPI) -- A slab of rock, approximately 200 feet in length, fell off Yosemite National Park's popular Half Dome in California, altering the the classic climbing route.
No one witnessed or was harmed by the fall of the triangular shaped, 800 cubic meters of thin granite on Tuesday. The route was listed in the iconic climbing guide "Fifty Classic Climbs of North America" and remains open but pitches 11 and 12 of the mountains 23 pitches have been affected.
Park officials believe the rock fall was created by heavy rainstorms last week.
"We get a rock fall of about this size once a year here in the valley. It's possible that the big storms toward the end of last week, the rain involved... may have been a trigger," Park Ranger Jodi Bailey said, according to My Mother Lode. "This does not impact the hiking route up the cables that most visitors are interested in using. It only affects a technical climbing route up the steep face of Half Dome."
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The rock fall was discovered by climbers who were forced to turn back while attempting the climbing route. The climb is now more difficult and forces climbers to find new routes.
"From a distance you can't tell that there's anything different. Half Dome still looks like Half Dome. Even at the bottom, it's a boulder field and you can't pick out the new ones," Bailey added. "If you're up on the face of it... you can see it. So, from a distance most visitors are not going to notice anything."
