Eternal Sunshine

Simon Moore, setting out on "Internal Dialogue", a Mike Gray original. To the right, Phee Lafroy gets ready for some top-rope fun on a Ryan Lee Eubank moderate, "A Roll of the Dice", with Lori Wilkins on belay.

Great day out with my beautiful wife and some hard-climbing youngsters.

Pheobes and Lori get in one last order from Dr. Taco.

Simon ends the day on "Fire on the Mountain", as twilight falls over the crag.

Two Weeks in the Life of a Working Class Ronin: a visual tour

It begins here; the slow light of dawn, creeping in through the cold, prying sleep out of your eyes and bringing the need for coffee.

Our mailing division, in temporary quarters while we moved, again.  Miss Cindy, in motion.

Consulting with the Skipper...

This kind of fine craftsmanship with caulk (to cover up the fact that you don't know how to build either a sill or a louver) later inspired the Skipper to the delusion that he was a carpenter and woodworker.

That delusion led him to strap a piece of bookshelf bracketing to either side of the truss, connect it with a turnbuckle, and pronounce that a "center brace".

Proof that Iowans did in fact interbreed with tumbleweeds,
and that a month of painstaking effort by two craftsmen to create a thing of lasting beauty can be undone in a matter of minutes by a clueless hack with a screw gun, a pair of sheet metal cutters, and an IQ of 84.

An example of the Skipper's fine sawyer work.  Note the ripped end grain of the beam above, the one that has no pegs in it. Real professional grade work, there.

Because our clueless leader could not find one of the most common bases on the market, Mike Fisher enjoys placing four pads with 16 screws on each beam.
Way to speed production, Skippy.
Brilliant. 

"Right... ahhh... since you are the carpenters, why shouldn't you clean up the roofer's mess and move the masonry supplies out of the mud to get the crane into place?"

"Whaddaya mean they had two weeks to clean the area... you're here, aren't ya?"

"Look, I brought you almost five dollars worth of crap from McD's as a bribe... like you would a dog you were training."

What do you mean you won't do it cheerfully for a bone tossed your way?  Geesh... workers nowadays aren't thankful enough for their jobs!"

Did someone say "bone"?

Despite the worst efforts of far too many stupid people, the finished product, in place, courtesy of the Punishers.

Belated Congratualtions

After 21 days of effort over the course of three months, Mike Farnsworth finally sent his 5.13+ project at Smoke Hole Canyon's Darkside Wall on the weekend of November 8th, 2014. He called the route Cartography of Spirit.

The line, a second variation ending to The Lightness, climbs the center of the wall, working heel hooks, smears and micro-edges through a series of desperate throws between underclings and marginal side-pulls, past several roofs. 

Farnsworth, who has more than one hideous crankfest to his credit, called it "the best and hardest line I've ever done in my life".

Rumor has it that Matt Behrens is geared up for the second ascent.

Farnsworth, Behrens and a handful of other hard climbers from across the East Coast have all taken shots and and falls on the other suspected 13+ in the area, Reed Creek's Cold Day in Hell. That line was bolted by Ryan Eubank in the winter of 2009.  The crux, a long, no-feet reach between a three-finger hole and a mono never went free, and Eubank  installed ring anchors at mid-height to create the three-bolt 5.12 Napoleon Complex from the bottom of the project.

To date, there has been no first ascent of Cold Day in Hell.

The Renovator, trying to decide whether being able to feel his fingers would be a good or bad thing, on an early TR attempt of Cold Day in Hell.

Along with the Weather

Tomorrow, along with the inclement weather that will cloud most of the eastern seaboard, some of you should receive what we hope will be a ray of sunshine...

Thanks to the diligent efforts of our hard-working mailing department at Owlfeather Productions, the next batch of guides and T-shirts went out on Monday morning, as soon as the post office opened in Petersburg, West Virginia.

Soon, a new generation of explorers will be shredding the crags of Smoke Hole and Reed's Creek, like these folks;

Corey McKenzie above the bouldery start of Reaching Conclusions, Reed's Creek

The Usual Suspects, aka, the Adrenaline Crew.


...the big one on the left end hugged me...

Cindy warming up on Second Rule, with John Riedel 

Michael Fisher, rollin' coal through the first ascent of his steep, technical line La Machina, Reed's Creek

Look for them in the mail beginning tomorrow!