Not much improvement...
Our local gauge for the season. Seven AM this morning. Smoothed out and filled in a bit. Remainder of the wall no improvement. We did see a set of boot prints in the snow leading up to the base of the route. We'll bet that we know who that was. Good work if anything was accomplished. High forties to low sixties temperatures forecast for all next week. Move on to spring...
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Was never much of an internet "surfer". Have never owned a smartphone. Have probably never ever have sent more than a total twenty-five words of text over our old flip-phone. In turn don't text message us. Won't even look at it. Naaa, we always answer and always return text messages by voice phone. Anyway, we're sure that the day is fast approaching when we will be forced into a smartphone.
Regardless, was bored and was browsing about on-line the other day and came across a few images of some western and central New York ice flows...
(Internet Image)
Don't have the photographer's name for credit. Thank's regardless. Recognize this route from way back in the late 80's. Lived and worked in Buffalo, NY for a few years and occasionally climbed with a local guy who worked at Eastern Mountain Sports in Buffalo. He knew all the spots. Got drug around to places such as Zoar Valley, Eighteen Mile Creek and Letchworth State Park as a few for instances. Places that we wouldn't even remember how to get to today. Northern PA as well. Remember one route along Eighteen Mile Creek that you could see from the I-90 overpass if heading west. Anyway, thought about this route a lot over the years. What a great climb. Always thought that it was located in Letchworth SP. Didn't have a name back then either, that we knew of. Is called Angel Falls. Actually located at south end of Canandaigua Lake, per the information that we found. We rapped in from the rim. All those WNY climbs are located off along some incised creek somewhere requiring rope access from the top. Is maybe 150ft length. This photo perspective makes it appear a bit more serious than actual. Is maybe low angled Grade II at the bottom half with the upper half, as it steepens in angle, Grade III to III+ when "in". Great fun none-the-less. Didn't know it at the time but a route of that length and of moderate difficulty is a bit of a rarity in this "neck-of-the-woods". There was another big and steep vertical climb not far away of Grade IV+,* featuring some large overhanging icicles, that started pretty much right in the creek. Although, may be wrong in our recollection of that.
*Back in the day, unless having an established grade that we were aware of, anything judged to be above our level of capability we just added a "+" to. Rock was 5.10+ for a long while as the old Seneca Rocks guide back then only went up to 5.11. Following that way of thinking amongst the majority it's no wonder that modern folks think that the harder of many old routes are sandbagged. Usually wasn't intentional.
(Internet Image)
We recognize this icefall as well. Don't recollect the location. Letchworth SP?
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Had to pick up a newer vehicle the other day. Toyota Tacoma. A bit more unnecessary electronics (our opinion) to eventually fail. But a great truck none-the-less.
We still miss a beater (or near beater):
'06 Jeep Liberty KJ. Replaced the doors and rocker panels about two years back. Still runs great. We see one or more of those on the road everyday still out and about. Old Jeeps are great vehicles
Rob Goodman's old ('90's?) Toyota 4-Runner
Goodman's old (87?) Toyota pickup (video still)
'96 Jeep Cherokee XJ Sport. 4.0L inline six - best engine ever made (our opinion). We were thinking of selling it at the time so shined it up and tossed a boat on the roof to catch the eye for this image.
Every time we sell something we always wind up wishing that we didn't
'Wild Bill' and his (late 80's?) Ford F-350. Crew cab. A snow storm this day. Shortly after this photo was taken he spun a complete 360º descending a steep backwoods mountain hill. Didn't put a scratch on the truck. He installed one of the first electrical power inverters in that thing for inflating rubber river boats back in the day.
Inflating an eight-man river raft. Bill and JJ. We bet he's still using the same inverter that he had previously installed in the F-350. Now in his still mobile beater RAM 1500
Three MTB's neatly arranged in back the XJ
Picked up a surplus Ford F-350 from work for heavy hauling. Eventually got fed up having to constantly ride the clutch climbing and traversing the steep and rocky backroads hereabouts, so sold it. That truck was frequently towing 4,000lb (actual) trailer loads while in service at work. We beefed up the suspension by adding extra leaf springs. Without a tow trailer, the truck, with factory bed, became a bit dangerous to drive. The rear suspension was stiff beyond belief. Was crossing a set of railroad tracks one day at maybe 40mph. Upon hitting the tracks, instead of flexing, the rear bounced and began skipping laterally. Like a basketball. Just missed hopping off the shoulder of the road and down an embankment. Probably rolling over in the process. We replaced the factory bed with the custom in-house-shop built solid steel bed as pictured. One-half inch steel plate. Had it weighed before-after at a nearby scrap yard truck scale. Total bed weight over 800lbs. When measured, it dropped those springs less than 1/4 inch. Rode perfect after that, though.
We lifted this unibody ('10?) Suzuki SX4 for something different. We became uncomfortable with the stresses we suspected being applied to the strut bolts imposed by the strut spacers combined with the stiff unibody frame. We decided to sell it so, as with the earlier XJ image, we shined it up then strapped an SUP to the roof to catch the eye. We eventually wound up trading it. Someone told us that whoever eventually purchased it wound up destroying it off roading. We felt bad about that. Was a nice car. Sure wasn't built for that abuse. Looks only. We wished that we would have taken it out to Vegas and sold it as we had thought about. Would have made a sharp lookin' buggy for hauling surfboards over the sandy beaches of Southern California
Tim Anderson's Subaru Baja
A typical winter weekend gathering of off roaders up on the ridge
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