Massive rock face dislodged with industrial airbags.
Massive rock face dislodged with industrial airbags.

Rock trundling is the practice of preemptively dislodging loose rocks from cliffs or climbing routes to clear them before they fall from natural erosion. Amateur trundling by members of the climbing community is a highly contentious activity but professional crews who handle dangerous rockfall hazards are essential to providing safe environments in mountainous areas.

The following video comes from the Swiss company Steimändli GmbH who offer “rock clearance” or trundling as one of their services. In some cases a simple pry bar is sufficient for dislodging troublesome rocks but for larger jobs, strategically placed industrial air bags are inserted and inflated to separate the entire faces like the one below.

We do not condone rock trundling when done in an amateur context without proper safety precautions but seeing a professional team like Steimändli GmbH efficiently mitigate a potential rockfall problem before it happens is quite impressive.

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