We climbed the NE Face of Ha Ling yesterday, June 10.

I climbed this route at the end of June last year and at that time felt the route was cleaner than I had ever seen it. It was different story yesterday. There was a lot of gravel on the holds and more loose holds than last season.

In addition there are some significant large, loose blocks that were not an issue last year. I would not recommend climbing this route until they have been cleaned.

Of particular note:

- There is a large loose block beside the bolt below the roof on pitch 7 (would be an obvious hand or foot hold), and another large loose flake/hold near the moves through the roof.

- In the big corner pitch on pitch 9 something has fallen out of the area where in the past there have always been a series of rather suspect looking large jammed blocks. There were several volleyball/basketball sized rocks just laying on sloping ledges directly above the anchor. One of the hangers on an anchor bolt was bent from the rockfall event. These loose blocks could kill someone at the anchor if they were dislodged, and they are loose enough that the rope could move them. One of the rocks was dislodged by our group on this pitch so I'm not sure how many are left, I suspect enough to do damage.

Above pitch 9 things seemed pretty clean again. I wonder if a large rockfall has come out of the corner and sprayed the rest of the route below resulting in the gravel. And the route probably has not been climbed a lot this year because of the cold spring.

Other observations include snow on the approach (I was glad I wore light mountain boots for climbing on the snow and on gravel/small ledges to bypass the steepest snow); and wet sections climbing through the roof on pitch 7 and gaining the corner on pitch 8.

Cleaning on a route like this is problematic as you never know if anyone is below. It may require a coordinated effort from the community to get this sorted out.