Gooseneck Rocks, NW Ontario (along the road to White Dog First Nation)

I was scheduled to go rock climbing with friends at my favorite crag (the Gooseneck Rocks) this past weekend, but the combination of multiple days of rain along with flagging energy levels dissuaded me in the end. My good friend Simon Statkewich (president of the Alpine Club of Canada, Manitoba Section) did make it out however, and today he sent me the above photo of himself standing on “a wee bit of rockfall” that recently peeled off the base of one of the newer bolted climbs on the Roadside Face (about 7 meters to climber’s left of the start of the classic route Frog-in-the-Crack put up by Peter Aitchison et al in the 1970s).

A quick calculation shows that the granite “flake” Simon is standing on weighs between 40 and 60 tonnes (at 2.691 tonnes per cubic meter). Here’s sincerely hoping there’s no hapless boulderer caught beneath it… Hester? has anyone seen Rob Hester?!?