Ohiopyle Crags (Rock Climbing Part 9)

... pretty much marveled at the size of this wall when first laying eyes upon it years ago - nearly 100ft tall - massive per SWPA standards - was sure that there were routes all over it but, considering the severity of the steep, overhanging face, who's gonna' have the strength and stamina to hang out while fiddling with gear placements - and bolting back then was out of the question... could have at least tossed a top rope down to check out the conditions, but was too lazy and there was plenty of other stuff out there to keep us busy - besides, overhanging faces of that nature were usually in the realm of direct aid climbing... as well, was a long hike in from "civilization" - there was no improved Yough River Trail (YRT) at the time - was still an abandoned railroad with a surface of large gravel ballast... and besides, "... no ones gonna be able to lead that thing on conventional gear anyway!"... (enough excuses?)...

... so more recently, we get a call one day from Tim Anderson "... holy sh*t! Did you ever see the size of that wall along the Yough River Trail?!!" was Tim's comment upon first stumbling upon it... so as expected, he and his gal, 'Laura Hahn', wasted no time organizing some top rope reconnaissance and even lesser time in establishing what is arguably one of the finest sport climbing walls around...

... Tim, Laura and their crag climbing "wheels"...

... 'Schoolhouse Wall' - Laura for scale...

... reverse angle...

... some vertical perspective - Laura climbing...

... not a bad angle for photography as well...

... some old fart that pops up every once in a while...

... sequence of events - Laura spidering out the the exposed roof of 'Arachnophobia'...

... the area actually sports three walls - 'Maple Wall', 'Schoolhouse Wall' and 'Rivers End Wall' - each separated by short reaches of dense forest along maybe a quarter mile stretch - and each a short two minute hike from the adjacent 'YRT' after a 20 minute bike ride from the town of 'Ohiopyle' to the south or a (fast) 45 minute bike ride from the town of 'Connellsville' to the north...

... Tim and long time SWPA climbing icon 'Cal Swoager'...

... Cal still out "gettin' it" after all these years...

... watched him solo (= unroped) climb the 'Sloth' (an "old school" moderate - would probably be rated 2-3 grades harder 'nowdays) up at 'Derry High Rocks' once years ago - while dangling from the lip of that thing he imparted to us the best advice ever up to that point "... don't ever climb something unroped that you can't downclimb" - which he subsequently did - was even more impressed that he could downclimb it... 

... lots of "firepower" out this day - (L-R) Tim, 'Doug (Spyder) Praksti' and 'Jeremy Steck'...

... along with 'Carl Samples'...

... and 'Bob Rentka'...

... tough gals, too - Laura again...

... and 'Dana Steck'...

... Jeremy makin' a long clip...

... and a short but airy difficult traverse...

... Spyder pulling a series of lapping overhangs...

... and a final to top out (don't know why we like that 'lens flare', but we do - pretty cool how it's reflecting off the front and rear lens elements)...

... one final image...