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 "Climbing Man". Those who have encountered this strange being claim that he leaps from the forest without warning, usually naked, and in a high pitch screeches "Hey mister - you wanna' climb with me!?" Prior to each encounter witnesses claim to an odor similar to "burning fiber rope or burning dry grass and hay" 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

                                                        

Seemingly Snow

Made it out into the woods this past Sunday to take advantage of a few bouts of recent snowfall. Headed up to the standard trail. Appeared a winter wonderland...... appeared, if goin' skiing. A bit deceptive conditions, to say the least. Local temperatures have barely topped the high 20's (F) since the first of the month. All the snow that fell, say four to six inches, laid as totally dry, unconsolidated powder. Usually what you're lookin' for ya'd figure. Not so much this stuff. If it had had any moisture at all it would maybe have been an inch in depth. Zero structure. You could have probably had blowed the trails dry using a power leaf blower (as we had earlier noticed the neighbor using to clear his walks down to bare concrete). No consolidated base ta' boot. Gliding along ya' usually just plowed thru the stuff right down to the turf - constantly stumbling over choked gravel and rocks. Downhill was pretty rough, anticipating the hidden tripwire that ya' knew was commin'. An entertaining tumble or two - especially if dashing ahead. Was about ready to pick up the phone and call the groomer... or a taxi.

An at times borderline "It don't have to be fun to be fun" ordeal. Hey... still beat home confinement ducking a rainy winter day, as is the norm now'days. 

These guys didn't seem to mind...

... having seen countless days of better conditions, I sure did... must be gettin' old.

Rust Never Sleeps

We have an '06 Jeep Liberty (KJ) Renegade that we've owned for just about forever - 3.7L V6 - always has and still runs great. Has always been a decent off-road vehicle ta' boot, thanks in part to its short wheel base and four-wheel drive. If Jeep would have ditched the IFS uni-body and put a solid front axle and heavy spring and coil-over suspension on those things, á la Jeep CJ, that would have been one solid off-road machine. We beefed up the suspension somewhat a few years back while adding a 2.5" lift. Added a set of 29x10.5LT15 Interco Super Swampers. Looked pretty good. Wasn't gonna' go do any rock crawlin' or wadin' of three foot deep creeks, but good enough to get around the local trails we've been forever navigating. 

The past several years, however, we've pretty much relegated it to near beater status, thanks to severely corroded lower door panels along the bottom jamb of all four doors. And both side rocker panels matched the door panels. A common issue to just about every '02 thru '07 KJ we've observed still on the road. The good news is that we routinely see two to three still roaming the highways just about every time we're out and about.

Typical corrosion along the lower doors - pretty bad

Was due for state inspection, that in turn requiring some new tires, by the end of this past September. While given it a once-over, decided to crawl around underneath a bit to check out the condition of the "frame" and undercarriage. Other than those door panels and rockers, the framing and underbody was totally fine. 

"Ya' know - four replacement doors and two replacement rocker panels, and this thing is once again good to go." All we needed to tell ourself. We immediately checked out the local tire shop and again returned to Interco - this time ordering a set of more pavement friendly but still off-road capable TrXus STS radials - 29x10.5LT15's. As with the Swampers, we had to drop the wheel diameter from factory 16" to custom 15" so the 29x10.5's fit the (2.5" lift) wheel wells. We already had a set of 15" slotted ProComp steel wheels. After we had worn out the Swampers a few years back, in the interim we'd had returned to running regular street tires, albeit a slightly aggressive tread. 

After gettin' a new sticker, we searched the local salvage yards for four workable replacement doors. Our luck couldn't have been any better. Called one yard on a Monday morning and was told that they had by chance just received an '06 Liberty that prior Friday. Had yet to inventory it, but the guy on the phone said that other than one broken glass and one door in need of a new window regulator, body-wise all four doors were in good shape. We were settin' in his lot waitin' for 'em to open shop early the next morning. We found a set of replacement, slip-on rocker panels on-line. Ordered from a supplier, Body Shop Price, located in Connecticut. Pretty quick service - had 'em in two days. 

We repainted the lighter blue salvage doors. A local auto paint supplier mixed us a batch per the original factory paint code spec. Still, resulted a bit off color. Difficult to accurately match old, slightly sun bleached paint we figured. Like trying to match old brickwork. If we did it again we would have painted the doors after installing and feather-blended the spray into the adjacent body panels so as not so noticeable. Spraying an additional two coats probably wouldn't have hurt, either. No big deal - we're thinkin' about re-painting the entire vehicle come next spring time, anyway. 

Each source that we researched stated that all Jeep Liberty models '02 thru '07 were interchangeable component-wise. Conversely, trial and error found that we had to re-wire the two rear salvage doors using the original door wiring harness because of difference in the pigtail connector plugs.

When all possible, we prefer to build things for later ease of disassembly if eventually necessary. We considered welding in the replacement rockers. Bearing in mind that we would be splicing lap joints we decided against that idea as we couldn't figure a weldable sealant product - and the (unsealed) factory lap jointed door skins contributed to the door corrosion to begin with. We went with #8x9/16" self-tapping truss head screws and sealed the joint with a heavy coat of Through The Roof brand sealant. The (flat) truss heads gave us the adequate clearance to avoid raking the bottom door jambs when later opening/closing the doors. 

As a side note, we'd never had attempted to weld thin gauge sheet metal. And all the annoying "experts" within ear shot of us when discussing the issue immediately piped up as to the improbability of our success - "You'll burn holes right thru it!". We especially don't like to be told we can't do somethin' by the same people who we know can't do somethin'. We re-visited the salvage yard and picked up some scrap metal (coincidentally, and again by chance, replacement slip on rocker panels for a Jeep XJ) to attempt some test welds of our own. Those panels were identical 22 gauge as our installation. We saw-cut the test rockers length-wise. We then lap-jointed 'em maybe an inch overlap (no pre-drilling), clamped 'em tight, then stitch-welded 'em maybe every three inches of length. We ground those welds then repeated, staggering the process. Our welding procedure was flux-core wire feed set to the lowest amperage and wire speed capable of a small 120V Lincoln welder we own. Each looked great, no burn-through and with pretty decent penetration. To get really anal regarding the issue (as those guys), we'd bet 'em that if you cut a coupon and clamped it in a test jig, resulting failure would be ductile metal. 

TrXus STS radials and completed passenger side doors/rockers.

We decided to final gift the vehicle with a new set of custom fog lights - considering the we'd been running around for probably ten years with one busted factory lens. Don't know what's up with the skewed passenger side lamp in the image. Think that we may have accidentally jarred the adjustment washer when fighting the bumper for reinstall. F*k it - as difficult as it was fitting those lights and trimming and replacing the bumper, we ain't goin' back and correcting it. 

Still a bit rough overall paint-wise. As mentioned, may give it a new coat of paint come springtime (maybe not). All-in-all, was really just a patch job. To be done correctly, and if we'd have had the preference, the vehicle would have been put in a shop, stripped down, sand blasted/grinded/sanded/welded, then a complete re-painting. Ya' work within' your capabilities, however. As is there's still some corrosion lurking. If we get another two years out of the machine before it "rears its ugly head" (if at all), we'll consider the job well done.