Saturday, September 21, 2019

King Kemehameha

... took a hike earlier today to check out a recently completed old growth timbering operation - was curious to see what negative impact, if any, it imposed regarding access to an old rock climbing destination of ours...

... once dense woods...

... we know actions as such infuriate the majority, but in reality it's a healthy function for regeneration of the forest habitat; beneficial to all plant and animal alike, right down to the smallest insect... no different than pruning your petunias...

... nature will adapt - seeds will take root and sprout, seedling will give way to sapling, mighty oaks will again rule the roost... our only beef is with the inevitable greenbriar thickets due next spring on this southwest-facing mountainside - but even they have purpose; protecting the young sprouts and saplings from intrusive gnawing critters and varmints...

 ...further explanation is well beyond the scope of our writing, however... go get yourself a GOOD book on the subject...

... we'll adapt just fine as well... hot damn - new ski trails!!...

... so what about impact on the rocks?... actually, made it a bit easier to access...

... while there we captured a few images of this badass crack, 'King Kemehemeha', situated on the 'Kemehameha Wall' of the 'Uberman' boulder... we gave up on this thing a long time ago, but not without trying... about 20ft in height (see grass whip in photo for scale) and overhangs the entire length at least 6ft...

... staying directly within the crack, we'd managed over many (top rope) attempts to sequence the moves (or at least hang from 'em), so we know the holds are there (digit to knuckle-width jams), but linking the thing together in one push is a whole different animal (definitely for us)... we'd had a few local "high performance" climbers give it a shot - they each bailed onto some face holds right of the crack located about 3/4 height... to be honest their crack technique was a bit lacking (first off ya' gotta' tape up), but we'll give 'em credit; heinous mid-Atlantic crack climbs are few and far between - none-the-less all very strong clip-up sport climbers... "why the f*k would ya' wanna' climb a f*k'd up crack when ya' got perfectly good face holds!!"... ha!... c'mon guys - cracks are to climbing what a perfect barrel is to surfing...

... the one guy we know we felt strong enough to work this thing out was a strict "traditional" climber who in no way was gonna' hang and rehearse moves, and insisted on lowering to the ground after each failed attempt - no bailing on any face holds either... it was ground up or not at all... gotta' give 'em a lot of respect for that, but man, that was triplin' the endurance factor for us...

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... hey - the entire time we been typin' this we've been listening to the 'Cars'... forgot how good those guys were... what the f*k happened to modern music...

(You Tube video)

... RIP Ocasek...

... used to share rides back/forth to school with a guy - this was the only 8-track tape he had and his radio didn't work - so we listened to this non stop (when he drove) for two semesters... also, the heater didn't work in his old VW bug so we froze all winter - comes summer and he decided to fix the heater - problem was, now he couldn't adjust or shut it off - so we traveled all spring/summer with heat blasting out the rocker panel located floor vents...

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