SWPA ice conditions

I spent a couple hours this AM checking Laurel Highlands ice conditions for you icehounds.I've got somegreat news... Conditions are still sweet! Read on.

Ohiopyle State Park Lower Meadow Run is looking good and has survived the couple warm days. Plenty of ice to be climbed this weekend. Get on it while it lasts. Here are the lines as walking in on the approach trail.

Season Finale area looking good and climbable.

Hemlock L & R both very nice

Main Flow on the left is fat and the mixed lines are in perfect condition for sends

Didn't check the Upper Meadow Ampitheater on the parking side, but I'm guessing its in good shape too!

Cucumber FallsMore for novelty. Even when formed, the 12' of climbing after the cone isn't worth doing and quite dangerous.Here's what it looks like today. Not this season!

HIGH VOLUME WATER...

Irishtown is looking a lot better than it did last week when we were there. Its fat and blue ready to be screwed.This is the best its looked in years.

Mouth of Madness WI4+looking good. Top might be a little thin. Take your shorties!

Newer tomixed?This climbis for you! The Prow WI3+, M4 We did it last week, great fun. Topout left. Sling the bent tree in the middle (seemed to work well). Take a few small TCU's for the rock between ice. Great Turf shots at the top.

Looking out of the mine opening at the back side of Mouth of Madness, PA's version of the Mica Mine. Its possible to climb upsidedown for hundreds of yards. (Yo! Will Gadd where are you?)

Here's another shot of the futuristic roof 40' upfrom the aliens on the floor!

Melting Mount Rushmore inice aliens... Am I reaching on this one? Its MY blog...

The other areas in SWPA...

Beast WallThe Beast WI5+/6appears to be "in" Monsta WI5+/6looking a little"dicey". The right var. looking safer. left looking more balls out! (to me at least) Could build a little more by the weekend. I'd love to try Monsta!

Looking up the lines Monsta topout in upper left corner, The Beast on the right.



Right WallFrom Left to Right, G-Gully WI4+, Final Obligation WI5, The Awakening WI5, Unamed/Graded Torretti line, World of Pain WI5+, Called on Account of Security WI4R All routesin reasonable condition after the warm.

Infinite AreaShot from far away, sorry for the quality. The left line is The Infinite WI5 looking incredible. The SICK-le WI6 M5/6appears to have a fracture at the lip. Way too scary for me! I saw it come crashing down(extremely close up) once. That was more than enough! I'll wait...again

Well thats my photo report on the areas I visited. Hope it helps in your planning. This may be our last weekend in the area, so get on it while its fat. If you have any questions, please get in touch. If you have conditions reports, photosyou think are rad.Anythingyou'd like to share, getit to me. I'dbe happy to post it up for others to see. Thanks and hope to see you out there! -Tim

Ice season '10/11 begins

The warm months have come and gone.I've spent most of the year running countless miles, mostly on the scenic 75+ mile Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail. I ran all over and all distances. Some of the miles were inracesbut most were runfor the freedom it provides and theincredible wildernessexperiences. It was the first year I spentdoing nothing but running.It seemed strange not spending every spare moment seeking out my vertical fix,to make a long boring story short, it turned out to be anecessary break and made my hunger for winter climbing season greater. Here we are on the verge of winter and I couldn't be more excited.

TodayLaura and Idecided to kick off thewinter climbing season andheaded to Ohiopyle State Parkto clear the cobwebs and get a quick refresher onhow to use ice tools.We spent a few hours taking a thrashing on the standard routes in very lean conditons. Seems there isn't much water flowing which in turn isn't prouducing much ice. There is no ice to be had at the start of Season Finale, while the Main flow, Hemlock and the others are slowly building and coming into shape. This weekend will only provide slim mixed pickings for those itching to get out. By next weekend, there should be climbable ice for all along Meadow Run.We were going to check Upper Meadow, but got distracted and completely forgot.Random photosofour day.

Lauracrossing the bridge for the first time of the season

Myself below the iceless start to Season Finale

Laura on Anger Management

After Ohiopyle, we drove to Irishtown to see what we could find. Here's the photo report.

Main flow still very thin

Dynamite M6 looks about ready

The Prow coming in nicely

One of this years projects???

O'Yeah I forgot to metion we checked out some ice yesterday as well. I know we're not as lucky as most of the state and don't have much good ice climbing, but this is what we've got so far. I guess it'll have to do. The temperature at the parking area was 16°, less the ten degree differenceto the bottom which made it about 6° above there yesterday and it sure felt like it. The wind was rippingwhich should help to improve things a bit.

Left End 12/7/10 SW Pennsylvania



Overview of the Cliffs



Laura my ice princesswas pleasantly surprised



A happy ice climbing couple. Hope to see you this season!



Veterans in the Family

Grandpa - Rolland Victor Phend - WWI

1917-1919

saw duty in France, was gassed

photo taken in June 1983





Dad - Jack William Wiseman - WWII

1943 - 1946

saw duty in the Pacific arena with the 511th





Brother - Charles Douglas Wiseman

1964-1968

Hospital Corpsman, served with the Marines at Camp Lejeune







Brother - Jack Lynn Wiseman

1969-1973

Hospital Corpsman, served with the Marines in San Diego







me - Becky Wiseman

1969-1979

Photographers Mate, numerous duty stations




You can read more about the military service of ancestors and others in my family in this post from ...

Weekend Game Cam

Lots of coming and going in the woods...


Pair of bobcats! I've noticed that at least one of the local bobcats is sort of sway-backed... I think that's her in the foreground.


Nice coyote! Almost as if he were posing.


Racoons are still the most common visitor. I didn't realize that their hands were hairless like that, but it makes sense.


I'm not sure if he's heavier than the previous one, or just fluffed up in the cold.


Click the picture for extra eeriness!


Hubby moved the camera, hoping to catch a beaver or otter on this path down to the pond. No luck, but we did get this picture of a Great Blue Heron. (Nice, but the camera is more focused on the background.)

He's moving it again today, in quest of otters.

Shadow Horse

Oh, Dear. I think I brushed Sunny until he was only a shadow of himself. (Sorry about the manure. It's where the hair went to on the wind.)

Impressions of Zion

There are many trails at Zion that take you into some interesting places... The Emerald Pools (Lower, Middle, and Upper), which weren't green (at least they weren't when I was there). This waterfall is cascading into the Lower Emerald Pool and soaking anyone who dares walk beneath it, though this young man doesn't seem to mind getting all wet.

Weeping Rock - so porous that water seeps through it and a variety of plants grow on its walls.

Along the river were many trees with oddly shaped roots. This one wasn't too far from my campsite.

On the eastern side of the park, through a tunnel (a marvel of engineering completed in 1930) is Checkerboard Mesa.

And the eastern side is also where you might see Bighorn Sheep. I was lucky and saw several on this day. (I wasn't very close, these were taken with the 7x zoom magnification.)


Of course, spring flowers were in bloom. Not covering massive areas (as in California) but quite a few scattered here and there, and in the most unusual places. Like on the side of a canyon wall or in the crevice of a rock.


There was only one thing (and lots of that one thing) that even slightly marred my stay at Zion National Park. Worms. Though technically I guess they were caterpillars. They were creepy, crawly things. Lots of them. And they really liked my red tent. I mean, really. Every morning and every night and whenever I'd notice them, I'd pick them off the outside of the tent, 10 or 15 at a time.

The afternoon of the day before I left, I took the tent down. First I picked them off of the outside and from under the “skirt” along the bottom. Some were harder to remove because they had started creating their little cocoon. Once I had them all off, I started folding up the tent, but I kept seeing them as I closed up the poles. At first I thought the wind was blowing them off the trees, but I didn't see any flying through the air! Then I realized they were inside the “loops” where the support poles go. Oh, yuck. And some of them had also started making their little cocoons. It took forever (about two hours) to get them out and I'm not positive that I got them all. I haven't put the tent up since I left Zion but I have visions of little critters (Caterpillars? Moths?) coming at me when I do finally open it up again!

Even with that, my stay at Zion was incredible. The weather was perfect most of the time. Sunshine. Warm but not too warm for comfortable hiking. Nights and mornings were on the chilly side but nothing extreme and it warmed up nicely when the sun came up. The wind was strong several days but mostly just a light breeze. Near perfect conditions. Great hikes. Nice camping neighbors. Marvelous scenery. 'Nuff said.

Death Valley :: Mesquite Sand Dunes

Located in central Death Valley near Stovepipe Wells, the Mesquite Sand Dunes are surrounded on all sides by mountains, they are essentially captive within a 14 square mile valley. The highest dune rises to a height of about 100 feet. The wind and shifting sands alters the scene daily. These photographs were taken over several days at different times of the day.


For perspective, there are people walking on the dune on the right side of this photo.