Sunday, July 20, 2014

"...'el es muy Hombre!..."

... the publication 'Steel Nation Magazine' in this current month's issue ran a feature story on our buddy - strength and fitness expert, trainer and coach 'Sean Zagorce' ("Z-Man")...

... 'Steel Nation Magazine' - http://steelnationmagazine.com/...

... here's the first half of the complete article by contributing writer and MMA journalist, 'Jim Aujay' - jim@steelnationmagazine.com...

... and the rest of the article - pretty nice write-up... good work...

... as well as 'strong men' and 'fighters', he also does a good job "churning out" the muscle and fitness gals - posing here with some of his "work"...

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Rattlesnake Rocks (Rock Climbing Part 7)

... began climbing here in the mid '80's after coming across this place while "exploring the ridge"...

... is a relatively long sandstone rock outcrop exposed along the south and west flanks of a small ridge line just west of the 'Morgan Run' stream valley... added 'Kraylick (Buzzard) Rocks' to the above location map as a marker as most everyone knows where that's located... see 'Lost Fiesta Cavern' for information on that place...

... here's an old "route map" from around year 2000 - as mentioned in an earlier post, started to map a lot of this stuff back then, but eventually lost interest - those are the routes up to that point in time - quite a few routes have been added since then... no route names or ratings - most stuff moderate to hard (5.6 to 5.11) - potential for much harder by todays standards - the majority of the wall is short, mostly 20' to 30', with the 'Overlook Wall' being maybe 50' - the overhanging 'Red Rock Wall' has some pretty good stuff...

... don't have many photos (and even fewer "good ones") of this place for all the time spent there - this is rapping the west face of the 'Overlook Wall' above - nuthin' goes up there on purpose - is polluted with 'Timber Rattlers' which nest in many of the horizontal cracks and small ledges...

... here's a 'Yellow Phase' (B/W photo) - that's his head photo center...

... early morning photo of another 'Yellow Phase' - is following a 'Black Phase' (tail/rattle just disappearing over the rock edge) back to "cover" after our sudden appearance disturbed them this day - this was also immediately after we startled the 'Red Tail Hawk' that was ready to attack as mentioned in a previous post...

... otherwise, the climbing is pretty good - here's Rob Goodman makin' his way up the south face of the 'Overlook Wall' (routes 30 or 31) - too steep and featureless on this side for the snakes - or so you'd think - was following up this wall one day and a small black and gray 'racer' zoomed out of a small crack I had just stuck my hand in and flew across the wall into the brush - scared the "livin' sh*t" out of me...

... this is pretty typical of the climbing on the rest of the wall - mostly steep and "crimpy"...

... placed no bolts obviously, mostly top-roped - however, a few cracks take gear and you can fiddle around and get some decent, albeit small, placements on a few face climbs...

... as always, if you got the "strength and stamina" to hang out to get 'em in...

... was "on-line" a while back reading some posts on one of the many "climbing forums" and there was a whole topic on "RP's" - mainly, no one (now'days) knew what the hell they were (!!??)... the "small pro master" in action above...

... this is 'Rob Hyatt' on one of the routes 3 thru 6...

... 'Elvis Presley' used to climb here - here's a "sighting" (rapping the 'Overlook' via a 'Sticht Plate' - "...what the f*k is that??") ...

... some trial maintenance -  we had this place pretty "user friendly"...

... including a great campsite - however, we're in no way condoning such "activity", which is "unlawful" on 'PA Gamelands' - plus, now'days we bet that there is at least ten "endangered species" in that little 12'x12' plot of land out of the millions of acres of PA forest...

... oh well, said that we didn't have a whole mess of photos... found two more before parting ways...

... some fun four-wheeling into the place (back in the day - gated now) - especially when the creek is running two feet higher - used to be able to drive up a rough trail to within' 100' from the rocks...

... and an old dog cooling off after a day of fun...