Sunday, October 27, 2013

Dante's View/Black Mountains - Death Valley, CA

... probably one of the best views you'll get on earth without an aircraft - 'Dante's View' is located high in the 'Black Mountains' of 'Death Valley National Park' - at around 5,440ft elevation, a "vertical mile" above Death Valley's 'Badwater Basin', which at 282 feet below sea level is the "lowest, hottest, and driest spot in the Western Hemisphere"...

 ... viewing north into the 'Badwater Basin' and 'Death Valley', which stretches for 130 miles to the north and south - that's California highway Rt 178 far below...

... from the parking area several trails travel north and south, each
 about a 1/2 mile "out and back" - above, the southern trail, with 'buddy Matt' and 'Desert Dog Koda' for scale...

... viewing south...

... excavate all the gravel from the valley floor - eroded for eons from the mountains above - and the valley bottom would be another 5000 to 8000 feet lower...

... Matt and Koda "on top of the world"...

... northern backtrack and the 'Black Mountains'...

... 'Panamint Mountain Range' to the west...

... this may be the official "Dante's View', located to the north of the prior photos - such a spectacular area throughout - if not - who cares??!!...

Saturday, October 19, 2013

"Fifth Dimension Man"

... hey... here's some photos of 'buddy Tom' from a 'west coast' muscle contest or two - 'Desert Classic' and 'IFBB Championship' - may be wrong - he's really "souped up the space suit" -  we'd say pushin' at least 400 horsepower - small block...

... 'Hemi' for sure...

... "triple-deuce"...

... '411' posi-traction'...

... street or strip... smokes 'em!!...

... turbo-charged "Guardian Angel'... and... "second son" ta' boot!...
...swiped the photos from the 'Muscular Development' website - photos courtesy (obviously) of Dan Ray... thanks...

... gotta officially swear 'em in - "REAL MAN!" (no explanation necessary)...

... hey! -  he can also "cut the rug" on the dance floor - saw 'em in action!!!...

... thank you, our friend...

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Stewarton Bluffs (Rock Climbing Part 5)

... viewed this place for a few years from the 'Bruner Run boaters take-out' along the 'Yough' before exploring - very nice sandstone cliff - 25ft to maybe 50ft  high "climbing-wise" - mostly steep face-climbing on the most solid rock you'll find, with a few great cracks...

... topo-mapping software is down, probably for good (Windows OS SUCKS! - unless you want to invest in a new PC every few years - stick with a MAC!!) - so had to "improvise" - actually, between 'Bing Maps' and the "digital darkroom", is even better - above is a location map to ponder (not liable for accuracy)...

... here's a old "route map" from maybe 2001 - again - no names or ratings - never got around to it - a few more routes have additionally been added since then - Tim Anderson added a few over the years to "up the ante" as far as difficulty goes - don't know what else was done - maybe close to 50 now - not bad for a small area - North Wall and South Wall - the South Wall has two thin but steep ice routes during a good winter - speaking of which - there's a thin water seep that flows near route #7 - the land above was originally surface mined years ago -  a pretty decent-sized resultant landslide (still visible) occurred at the hillside at the south end of the wall in the early nineties - the PADEP fined the mining company as well as made them "fix-it" - went up there one afternoon with a pick and shovel and used some of their scrap 8" plastic drain tile to dig and install a drainage channel to "accelerate" the water flow at the seep - got another pretty decent ice climb the following winter - route #6 is a very wide "offwidth" crack in a corner - spent an afternoon along the 'Yough River' and gathered some large, rounded river stones to take up and (hopefully) wedge in the crack as 'chockstones' to sling and clip to make a "conventional lead" - got two of the stones to fit at, luckily, the perfect distance - seated the stones with several taps from a rubber mallet and subsequently slung and weighted them on rappel - worked like a charm, and never fell on them - nice moderate route (5.8?) - went up the following spring - both 'chockstones' are missing from the crack (not to be found) and the buried drain-tile from the adjacent "ice climb" is laying in the woods at the base of the wall - strange but true...

... but maybe not - Rob Goodman on the "classic route" up there - '5.8 Crack' (route #22) - very cool...

... Rob again on another good one - route #5 - one small 'Lowe Ball' protects the route to this point to pull the  slightly overhanging left-facing corner - then ya' step out right onto a most always damp thin 'smear' to get in to one of the best finger cracks around to reach the top - maybe 5.10 at best - definitely R-rated on gear...

... another offwidth (route #25? - forget)...

... very young 'buddy Matt' leading one of the easier inside corners (think this may be the aforementioned 'phantom chockstone' route) - not bad for probably ten years old - more impressive to rig a belay and bring up a 'second' at that age - check out those old 'Campbell Saddlewedges' - and giant (now'days) 'biners...

... good work, Moe...

... more recently and Tim...

... solving a steep arete (right of route #16)...

... and repeating an old top-rope "test piece" (route #21 - in approach shoes!?) - cool diagonal crack photo-left (route #20)...

... and topping out on the ("barn door") '5.8 Crack' - this wall gets great western exposure "'most all afternoon and right up 'till late" - the last four images were photographed in December, 2006, right around Christmas...

... almost forgot to mention - head north following the 'CSX Railroad' (from parking at the 'electric power substation' at the end of 'Stewarton Road' - see the map) for maybe 1/2 mile until reaching the obvious gas pipeline 'right-of-way' - hike (right/east) up the pipeline for a few hundred feet and you'll reach a northern outcrop of the 'Stewarton Bluffs' - or, 'the Incredible Overhanging Wall'...

... here's the location...

... and an old 'bare bones" route map - good enough...

... two good cracks - route #1...

... and #3 - with #2 (no photo) being a hard face climb up to a thin crack - includes a harder variation as well, courtesy of Tim...

... Tim says - "Everyone should experience the 'the Incredible Overhanging Wall! - you don't know SWPA climbing 'till then!!!"...

... Uh-Oh - almost forgot (again)!...

... took a bit of a tumble down the stairs at home last week - "broke some bones" - but still standin' (or will be) - vietnam vet (thank you, sir) - 'snake' wrangler - mountain man - taught 'Ed Coll' the "ropes" around "this neck of the woods" - who in turn showed 'Ivan Jirak' - who in turn showed....

... get well, my friend...

... cool - covered three generations of SWPA rock climbers ('70's >) in less than 500 words and 20 photos!!... 

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Road & Track 1 (Drag Racing Part 2)

... those guys at 'Pittsburgh Raceway Park' (PRP) know how to put on a show - 'Nostalgia Weekend' classic car show and drag racing - very well paced afternoon of fun - following are some "hot rods" ...never was fond of the term "Hi-Performance" or "Muscle Car"... "back in the day", if ya' pissed off some "old fart", or better yet, the "police" (had a few - "sorry officer"), or "cops" (had more than a few - "I wasn't doin' nuthin' man!!!"), or "fuzz" (ya' don't say nuthin' - just hand 'em a pack of 'Zig Zag' rolling papers when they ask to see your license - know a guy who did that once) -  either way, you were a "XX!! hot rodder!!" (OK - fixed it) ... by the way - don't know any of the guys/gals who built these machines - salute them all - sorry we don't have room for everyone... also not going to pretend that we know what we're lookin' at all the time...

... like this 'Street Rod' (30's Ford?)...

...  50's Studebaker - great 'primer'd' paint job - all race cars should "look as such"...

... 60's Plymouth (Fury?)...

... w/ "blown" Hemi(?)... maybe...

... this is an easy one -  Pontiac GTO - 6 cylinder - (10/06 - I know it's not - was actually makin' fun of myself - man, right over the head of some!!)...

... now we're talkin' (prejudiced Chevy guys here) - '55 thru '57 - somewhere in there...

... '55(?) Chevy...

... now we're really talkin' - '70(?) Nova SS - owned two of 'em ('70 396 screamer and '73 350 sled - see '400 Horsepower Nostalgia')...

... another street rod - just back from a 'time trial run'...

... rear engine 'rail dragster' and some "rubber"...

... Chevy Camaro SS - guess'n '69...

... another 'rail dragster'... engine (??)...

... 50's Chevy 'Bel Air' wagon -  very cool, but not crazy about the "low profile pimp tires"...

... '40's 'Willys' (?)...

... Whoa!! - '65 - '67 Chevy Chevelle SS - 396...

... sayin' '57 Chevy - beautiful paint...

... '30's - '40's Roadster (??) - very cool...

... and another....

... best of the best - gorgeous '40's - '50's(?) Chevy Pick-up...

... with (apparent) high-rise/dual quad intake!!... small block??...

... gonna' end it here for now (keep it short)... been out of this stuff for over thirty years... visited the track last year with slightly ailing (at the time) 'buddy Matt' and was "pleasantly surprised" - never expected to see nuthin's changed!...