Gate Buttress Rock Fall: August 21, 2023
The Salt Lake Climbers Alliance was contacted by the Unified Police Department on Monday, August 21st, 2023 regarding a rock fall at the Gate Buttress area in Little Cottonwood Canyon. When authorities arrived, two cars were in the Gate Buttress parking area. All individuals were accounted for. This rock fall took place in the Beckey’s Wall area. This is on private land that is leased by the SLCA. The rock fall slide down Cheetah (5.11 R), Tarzan (5.10) and Tourist Variation (5.7 R). Highly likely that other neighboring routes have been effected.
The rockfall went down to the Gate Boulders. It is currently hard to say if any of the bouldering has been effected due the amount of down trees in the area. The climbing access trail that SLCA built in 2018 has been obliterated by this rock fall! The rock fall damaged a portion of the 111 steps established to the Dihedrals area. The trail to the Dihedrals was a part of a larger project that took place in 2018. In 2018 the SLCA was able to construct 383 stone steps, 3,291 cubic feet of retaining wall, and establish 3,005 linear feet of trail. We facilitated 620 volunteer hours working on the trails resulting in ~$15k of in-kind labor.
When walking in the area, please do your best to minimize impact and stay close to the original trail. Stay tuned for future cleanup work and fundraising efforts to rebuild. For more information, please visit the KSL News article.
