Bellefonte Quarry (Rock Climbing Part 1)

Back in the "early days" we used to visit a place called "Bellefonte Quarry" located just outside the town of 'Bellefonte', near State College, Pennsylvania. Totally hideous-looking "hole-in-the-ground", but home to some of the best thin crack and steep, thin face climbing around - still remains a personal favorite - although, haven't been there since the early '90's. It's since been long closed by the landowner and off-limits to visitors for what-ever reasons. The place also boasts an excellent swimming hole which resulted from the mine being flooded after striking an artesian spring-head during mining operations - it's said to be around sixty feet deep - always clear blue water. We've also been told that some mining machinery was abandoned at the bottom of the mine as the flood waters rose and the mining company beat a hasty retreat - this apparently reported from scuba divers who also frequented the quarry - not reporting it as fact. The "pond" also attracted many students from nearby 'Penn State College', many of whom  occasionally swam "sans bathing suit" - the top of the wall was an excellent vantage point for viewing - unfortunately, more often than not is was some "hairy-ass guy"...

... anyway - the rock is a hard, stratified, Dolomite-type Limestone that is steeply folded at probably 80+ degrees. Irregular shearing of the rock face has resulted in some "flaking" between strata breaks, producing some awesome crack systems from top to bottom. There are also a few stress cracks, two of which have arguably (not from me, however) produced a pair of the best crack climbs on the east coast - "El Crackitan" - a long alternating finger and hand crack, and "Kolmans a Faggot" (Gasp!) - mostly finger locks.... both sport very thin feet ta' boot - Brilliant!!...

... here's a shot walkin' into the far end of the quarry, along the 'main wall', with the pond below... there's a 'Beginners Wall' further out... there's also an adjacent 'Death Star Quarry' which boasts some very difficult stuff - good luck finding it - was very overgrown back then - we got turned around returning from it late one evening - to avoid being "lost in the dark" (with no lights - who would expect to get lost in this place?), we wound up crawling (literally) for a few hundred feet on hands and knees through a "jungle" of thick shrubs 'till we finally "escaped" and made our way back to "camp"... (Goodman photo)...

... here's a shot of the main wall from the opposite end - there's a person (red shorts) photo center for scale - I had a ton of good photos from this place but wound up losing a whole "box" of stuff - all negatives and prints - during a "move" long ago - everything here is scanned from what "prints" remained (identified Goodman photos were "swiped" from him)... didn't go through and "retouch" scratches, etc... who cares...

... Rob on 'El Crackitan'...

... 'El Crackitan' close up - what a great climb...

... Rob and 'Kolmans Crack'... even better... (Goodman photo)...

... "ditto"... (Goodman photo)...

... "ditto" again... (Goodman Photo)...

... "ditto" - nearing the top... those aren't power lines to the left and below - are scratches in the old print (Goodman photo)...

... think that this may be 'Dismal World Left'... may be wrong... (Goodman photo)...

... this is 'Dismal World Right'...

..."ditto" - higher up...

... check out this "dihedral"! - 'Left Hand Eliminator' - one of the "old" Seneca Rocks guidebooks therein rates the classic 'Seneca' route, 'Triple S' (also an "inside corner"), as "probably the finest single pitch of ("moderate" - my edit) climbing on the east coast"... now I gotta' argue... (Goodman photo)...

... descending the main wall...

... ya' could practically (four wheel) drive to the top of the wall - great campsite... if ya' ran into four other climbers the entire weekend, the place was "packed"...

... cooling off in the "pond" - some good high dives off the wall - which reminds me - around 6pm Sunday night here - the sun has suddenly re-appeared since who remembers when - been raining around here relentlessly for probably six weeks straight with more to come... have a few hours of daylight left to head out to the river...