... 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!!...
Ivan Jirak started the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh, not Ed Coll. Coll tried for years to take credit for it, to no final avail. It still exists, claiming Ivan as its founder.
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