Perfect Storm (A Brief Review of SWPA Ice Craft) Part II, aka: "Last of The Buffalos"

 "Few people are as passionate or as dedicated to rock, ice and mixed climbing 

as Tim Anderson... he continues to develop new areas and pioneer new routes

at existing crags... the climbing community is very fortunate to have such a strong

climber with such a powerful drive to develop modern routes for all of us to enjoy."

                                                

                                                            - Rob (Griz) Ginieczki, 'Ice Climbing Pennsylvania' (2006)

Quite of an accolade , and from the esteemed "Griz" himself. We'll add:

"If Tim ain't out climbin', or at least involved, ain't nothin' happenin'."

List of Modern Laurel Highlands Ice: 2002 - Present

Secret Cliffs II, Grade 4+ - 6

Secret Cliffs, Grade 4 -5

Confluence, Grade 4 - 5

Plus many, many new routes added to earlier era walls and flows along with introduction of mixed lines and dry tooling, that, knowing Tim and a few of his cohorts, probably grade up to the M10 level of difficulty.

Boy, until setting down to compile this information we had never really thought about it, but just to summarize for the sake of brevity, "That f*k'n Tim put up a lot of impressive sh*t!"

Cover art for a photo book that we began in 2010. Got a few pages into it but then abandoned the project. Never went back to finishing it.

Viewing southeast along the approximate 1,500LF expanse of Grade 4+ to Grade 6 continuous, steep, vertical ice forming the Secret Cliffs II. The northeast striking wall return off in the distance offers very difficult mixed climbing potential.

Lean conditions viewing along the central and right walls.

The awe-inspiring 'Beast Wall'

Viewing up the Grade 6 'Beast' ("Griz" Ginieczki climbing) - we're gonna' go on record to comment that, "This is the largest concentration of hard single-pitch ice routes in the eastern USA"; a bit of paraphrased homage to Vermont's Lake Willoughby's claim to the "hardest multi-pitch" moniker.

Two video clip screenshot extractions - Tim on the imposing, free hanging 'Sick-le'

The 'Beast Wall' in lean conditions (Dr. Bob Coblenz climbing)

'Central-Right Wall' in big conditions (Laura Anderson climbing)

'Beast Wall' in thin, mixed conditions (Tim climbing)

Climbers adding scale to the 'Beast Wall' (Tom Kopler foreground)

An airy spot high on the 'Beast' in good conditions (Tim climbing)

Two new, seldom formed routes at the 'Gun Club' (top: Tim climbing; bottom unidentified)

Video clip extractions - mixed dry tooling at the Meadow Run Amphitheater, Ohiopyle SP (Tim climbing)

Meadow Run Amphitheater (Laura Anderson climbing)

Our loyal scribe at Buzzard (Krahlak) Falls in superb, fat, plastic blue ice conditions - need a thousand feet of this stuff!

A fat 'Irishtown/Mouth of Madness' (Tim Climbing)

Video clip extraction - mixed 'Gun Club/Internet Connection' (Tim climbing)

(Tim Anderson Images)

Always the innovator - Tim and Laura on some SWPA alpine they found

Looks high, windy and cold... we wanna' go!

Overlooking the vast Allegheny Plateau from high in PA's "Twilight Zone"

We came across this old Geologic Map of Fayette County years back. It was annotated with all the old, mostly abandoned mines and quarries of record. We highlighted the mine/quarry markers in blue for clarity. We further annotated the marker bed Loyalhanna Limestone crop lines in red. The Loyalhanna Limestone mines are usually location of steep ice flows as well as karst cave formation. An added bonus - the Mauch Chunk sandstone formation sits directly atop the limestone. The Mauch Chunk formation where exposed, be it walls or breakdown boulders, forms the majority of climbable rock in the Highlands. We further annotated the map with a few locations of the climbing areas discussed herein for ease of navigating the map features..... you're welcome.

Finally, more unexplained phenomena from SWPA's "Goblin Universe" - the odd and mysterious "Wild Climbing Man". Those who have encountered this strange being claim that he leaps from the forest from nearby rock outcrops without warning, usually naked, and in a high pitch screeches "Hey mister - you wanna' climb with me!?" He then swiftly scampers spider-like up the rock face and disappears. Prior to each encounter witnesses claim to an odor similar to "burning fiber rope or burning dry grass and hay", some say "ganja", minutes before his appearance. 

Outer space alien? Inter-dimensional being? Inner earth denizen? Or hoax? You be the judge!

And lastly, we'll speak for all....

Thanks Tim!!

Perfect Storm (A Brief Review of SWPA Ice Craft) Part I

                  "Sports are just like most other human activities. They go through times that, when

                    we look back on them, seem to have been usually lively or dynamic, just as they

                                      go through times when it seems little is happening."   

                                                                               - 'The Bear Hunters Century' (Paul Scullery, 1988) 

... to which we add "especially if the sport is as singularly dependent to optimal weather conditions as climbing frozen waterfalls,"

Been quite a few years since we've experienced cooperative weather conditions conducive to the efforts of a few local folks pursuit of the fun of more often than not enduring near frozen fingers and toes and occasional self inflicted fear and dread while dangling high above implacably hard ground secured to a hulking, unpredictable sheer wall of ice by nothing more than the tempered steel points of two potentially body piercing pickaxe and a few foot spikes, themselves potentially limb breaking, body flipping (or both) in the event of a fall; the ice protection is sparse, spread out and unpredictable; the golden rule of ascent being "the lead climber must not fall!"

Maybe ten years.

So, ventured out to the 'Gun Club Wall' a few days back to check out the current ice conditions. Temperatures hereabouts have not breached the high 20's (Fº) as yet this new year, piquing curiosity. Still, didn't expect much considering the "flash freeze" and dry, near desiccated ground consequential to consecutive months of drought weather pattern and low relative humidity.

The extended dry period prompted this mid-summer warning posted to the club's facebook page

Gun Club, 24Jan25 (or, 24 days -32ºF)

Our expectations were somewhat correct. The main flow not lookin' bad, with an added opportunity about for a mixed line or two. Using this as a visual measure augmented with past experience, we're bettin' that proximal walls with sufficient channel flow; e.g., Layton Falls, Buzzard (Krahlak) Falls, were maybe "in"; possibly "fat". This also considers ice buildup we've observed along the waterfall of a local nearby creek as well.

Gun Club Wall 2014, when it all comes together. 

Alternating cycles of freeze/thaw (cold nights/moderate days), sufficient seeping groundwater, adequate snow precipitation, moderate relative humidity.

Gun Club Wall early 2000's

Then if lucky ya' get the super elevated conditions (abundant precipitation and groundwater, cycling freeze/thaw, moderate to high humidity). Maybe once every fifty years. We'd been climbing there for around twenty years prior to that season. If we'd have had no knowledge, or had not been there ourselves, and ya' sprung this image on us, we'd have had no idea where this was.

Used ta' be that touching upon the notion of climbing ice, or "mountain climbing" in general, within the Laurel Highlands region, and specifically the 'Chestnut Ridge' of SWPA, was looked upon the same as if ya' mentioned encounters such as Bigfoot, UFO's, Thunderbirds and such phenomena frequently reported, always unsubstantiated, throughout the forests of the "Pennsylvania Twilight Zone"... "Ya' need to go out west to Colorado for that stuff!" was always the comment, even from seasoned climbers that we knew. 

Well, we knew that stuff was out there - and some pretty spectacular 'ta boot (through the help of a few bygone quarry operations). We'd seen it. And had photographic evidence...

Early encounters, '80's - '90's:

(For historical purposes, note that blue highlights, i.e. '00, indicate first year that we, or others we know of, have climbed on these frozen formations.)

Layton Falls '82 - a large portion of the upper falls collapsed, precipitated by that large pothole, shortly after taking this photo - and after having been ascended a few times this day. Just missing us. Our introduction to ice climbing.

Layton Falls late 80's. 

Meadow Run, Ohiopyle SP '82 - some now archaic gear. High tech at the time.

Buzzard (Krahlak) Ice Falls '84

Buzzard Ice Falls early '90's. Standard rack for the (Grade IV) vertical stuff pictured herein. A few Black Diamond SS chromoly screws and quickdraw runners pictured.  All these areas are pretty short lengthwise; <80ft. Heck of an improvement over the earlier (Type 4340?) steel Chouinard screws, along with a couple cheap Russian titanium screws we owned. And you could set and place 'em with one hand. The crux of the climbing using the old steel screws, commonly more so than the actual climbing itself, was hanging and getting the screws to bite, needing both hands free, then cranking them into the ice. 

We seldom placed more than 2-3 screws. Other than the pump factor, vertical, thick, plastic ice seldom feels (at the easiest) more difficult than 5.8 rock climbing. Usually liked to get a screw near the top, though. Steep top outs with tools and crampons always felt two grades harder and quite often scary when the ice doesn't form all the way or falls short of the face, with the top frozen turf or rock.

Still wish that we had that now vintage 'NFL Films' cap. Was given to us by a retired NFL films cinematographer we had come to know. He'd worked most of the 60's and '70's NFL seasons and was full of tales. Flipped a river boat once and lost it. 

Meadow Run. Testing out a budget tool set. 'Sabres' we think they were called, manufactured by Forrest Mountaineering. Bought 'em as a spare set for use whenever we could coerce a non-ice climbing friend along. More ice routes than climbers back then. Not their 'Lifetime' brand tools. Fixed hammer/adze heads (although, recall a roller pin fastener - never saw replacement heads in their catalog, though). If ya' broke 'em they were done. Unless swung dead on they skipped, bounced and vibrated like crazy. Scary stuff - don't flame out with these in hand. Their lifetime tools and Mjollnir hammer were ok, though. Still, all that stuff was susceptible to breaking. First time we observed "modern" dry tooling which involved liebacking and torquing pick tips in thin cracks, successfully without breaking of coarse, we were bitin' our nails. We'd broken earlier picks just levering them, overdriven, out of plastic ice. Breaking a pick was our biggest dread if on lead. Never passed up an opportunity to hook a tool. No excuses, though -  a crusty, old time '50's-'60's era river runner once harrumphed, while lookin' over our flashy new Dagger WW canoe "Hey - if you can really paddle you can navigate a ten foot wood 2x12 down the river!". We still believe 'em.

'Sliding Board' at 'Victoria Flats Ice Falls', Ohiopyle SP '87.

There's a few pretty good Grade 2/2+ gullies flanking the Yough River gorge. Over 200ft length and a bit of a wilderness experience. Used to be able to drive to the base of 'em before the Yough River Bike Trail was built.

Ice "bouldering" along the upper wall at 'Irishtown' '84.

Ice bouldering the small flows along the old 'P&LE' mine on a warm day, '84

Although dated much later, we're including these two images as they illustrate optimum conditions. Both areas were climbed back in the '80's.

Top: 'Irishtown' and 'Mouth of Madness' '84 (photo: early 2000's)

Bottom: 'Rod and Gun Club' '84 (photo: early 2000's)

List of significant Laurel Highlands ice, 1980 - 2000

Rod and Gun Club, Grades III - IV

Irishtown, Grades III - IV

Buzzard (Krahlak) Falls, Grade IV

Layton Falls, Grade III - IV

Meadow Run, Grade III - IV

Darlington Quarry, Grade III - IV

Victoria Flats, Grade 2 - 2+

P&LE Mine, Ice Bouldering

We'd hung up the tools at the beginning of the current millennia. Shortly thereafter we became acquainted with a highly motivated and (as ourself) wonderfully irreverent fellow named Tim Anderson. Quite a bit younger, Tim was out lookin' to climb everything. At the time climbing in general was experiencing a bit of an overall transformation: popularity, ethics and gear innovation. Tim was on top of it all. We acquainted 'em with a few areas he wasn't aware of as to unburden 'em with much of the search and error that we experienced throughout the earlier years. Photography was goin' thru a bit of overall transformation as well: conversion as an overall digital medium including simplistic video editing systems. After little consideration, we figured "Well, we'll stick by for a few more years to follow this guy around to see what he's up to. An opportunity to experiment with some digital photography as well -  Sounds like fun!"... more on that in Part II...

'Stinky', lookin' a bit haggard after a long day