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!

Inbound

A long month and ten days of work and travel, prepping for our Halloween Trail Daze and, this weekend, moving households, right in the middle of those event preparations.

In addition, Owlfeather Productions LLC is now a licensed business, new T-shirts and other goodies are in, and we've moved forward with starting a shuttle service for Reed's Creek, Smoke Hole, Dolly Sods and other local points of activity or interest, with service to Franklin, Seneca Rocks and Petersburg, WV.

Crazy whirlwind world, lots going on, but in the midst, I'd like to take a breath and say:

The new guides are inbound!  

We'll be starting to mail them out within the next two weeks or so, so watch your mailboxes, and watch this page for the announcement of where and when we will have the release event! 

 Thanks to you all for your support and patience- it's been great getting to meet some of you, "out and about", and I look forward to seeing more of you once you have the guides in hand. 

New route info, corrections and addendum items will be added to a " Guide Corrections and Updates" page on this site.

Have a great All Hallow's Eve, 

mg

Double Standard, Anyone?

The following is a post from the Mid-Atlantic Climbers' Coalition webpage, regarding access at the Catoctin Mountain Park, which was recently closed to bouldering:

“We are asking that climbers observe these restrictions to aid in our efforts. Demonstrating responsibility as a climbing community at this time will help make our case as we work to open up access in the future.”

How is it that these same principles of respect and responsibility do not seem to apply to the private property and crags of Franklin in WV, MACC?  You know, where you and your members have been climbing on private property without permission for years and where you continue to walk right past NEW, signed “No TRESPASSING” signs?

Double standard, anyone?

Was any portion of the recent Seneca Rocks Chilifest used to alert and inform climbers regarding this access issue?

How about Bridge (or, as I like to call it, "Let's all go shit in the woods at New River") Day?  Any round-table discussions there, between draining brews, updating your Facebook pages and slacklining, after spending your day trying to find parking and convincing yourself that you are actually observing LNT principles?

If so, there is no word of that on any of your websites.

If the Access Fund can't get the job done with the people it has in place, maybe it's time to replace those people with candidates who are both motivated and competent.

And maybe it's time for all those Access Fund members to start admitting that they really don't give a damn.

After all, they pay good money every year to be told what they should care about, and what isn't important.

Poison Fruit

Got to Franklin today to find three new, signed "NO Hunting or TRESPASSING" signs.

They haven't put up a new sign in the last decade, but after five years of no action from the AF/MACC- voila! Not only new signs, but signs with the name of a corporation, not a family, on them.  

Deja vu, anyone?

Congratulations, Access Fund and Mid-Atlantic Climbers Coalition- your policy of "don't ask, don't tell, don't stop climbing there but don't work on the trails" seems to be bearing the poison fruit I predicted.

You mothers must be very proud.... 

Start all the educational programs you want (with a company that makes its cams in China), partner with macho Jeep (the only car manufacturer that doesn't have a successful hybrid), do your best to spin control this... your people are pissing away more access than even you can buy, every hour of every day.

Thanks to all the Kickstarters

Wow, crazy month, but just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to each and every one of the people who helped us reach our goal on Kickstarter:

Robert Abramowitz

Jon Alexander

Kristin Anderson

Ex Pow-anpongkul

Ethan Atwood

Henry Barkhausen

Jeff Baxter

Ed Begoon

Gabi Benel

Don Blume

Nicholas Borror

Dallas Branum

Brian Bridges

John Burcham

John Burkhart

Adam Byrd

Tony Canike

Cedric Capiaux

Nathan Cauffman

David Ciesla

Tommy Cockerell

Tim Collins

Sarah Cook

Joe Coover

Dennis Coyle

Jackson Crane

Kirby Crider

Josh Davidson

Garth Dellinger

Chelsea Devening

Brandon Dorman

Andrew Dotson

Rick Dotson

Gary Dunn

Brian Dziekonsky

Chris Egress

Sherry Erickson

Ryan Eubank

Morgan Falls

Mike Farnsworth

Keith Fegler

Jeremy Fox

Ryan Fishel

Lucas Fisher

Mark Folsom

Curtis Gale-Dryer

James Garner

John Gathrite

Tom Georgevits

Jackson Goss

Gilbert Gray

Charles Green

Michael Greene

Peter Guyre

Stephen Haase

John Harman

Amy Hazam

Jeanette Helfrich

Michael and Liz Horlick

Eric Horst

John Huber

Alexander Hypes

Collin Jenkins

Stephanie Jesteadt

Adam Johnson

Andrew Johnson

Steve Jones

Jude Kalet

John Kelbel

James Kim

Jeff Koelemay

Takuto Lehr

George Lewis

Patrick Light

Anliko Lowman

Phil Lutz

Hung Ly

Connie Magee

Kristan Markey

Joshua McVeigh

Paul Meehan

David Mitchell

Aaron Moses

Ian Nathan

Ryan Nelling

Jennifer O’Brien

Mark O’Neal

Ted Plaase

David Raines

Eduardo Ramirez

Scott Ransom

Aaron Ray

David Riggs

Chris Riha

Milas Robertson

Danny Rowand

Regina Schulte-Ladbeck

Eric Seme

Corey Shaw

Lisa Shepherd

Thomas Shifflett

Kelly Shipp

Brian Skarda

Todd Sleeman

Doug Smith

Douglas D. Smith

Craig Spaulding

Ronnie Stadtfeld

Jerry Stankunas

Zachary Stone

Lisa Storey

Greg Sudlow

Paul Sullivan

Andrew Suter

Christopher Sweet

Donovan Sweet

Samuel Taggart

Matt Thomas

Joe Thompson

John Tung

David Turk

Voltaire Valle

Frank Velez

Corey Vezina

Johnathan Wachtel

Josiah Weeks

Rachel Wills

Sigmund Young

Sofia Zarfas

Lester Zook

In The Beginning

March 2nd, 2007: The Punishers begin construction of the current high-speed trail to replace the eroded otter slide everyone was using to reach the cliffs of Franklin. 

At that point, the crag had existed for just over 17 years, about as long as another popular idea, the Access Fund, which, despite the grassroots, working-class image sold to the public, was actually a spin-off of the American Alpine Club, an international organization with a vast web of contacts and resources.

After years of reading press releases and watching as work seemed to go on at every other crag in the nation, two local climbers who were not members of the club had finally had enough.  Tools were gathered, food stores and supplies laid in, and two guys who actually are working class folks took time off from their carpentry jobs, stocked up on PowRBars and gels, tuna and pasta, then gave up a month of weekends to build trail for a climbing community comprised, for the most part, of Access Fund members who apparently hadn't noticed or cared to acknowledge the need for action.

Working from Friday nights through Monday mornings for most of the month of March, we laid in rails, stacked stone, and did what two people could to shore up a game trail and address the impact of hundreds of feet. 

We often climbed at night, by headlamp, so we could work during the day, although Fisher could crank off a hard line or three and then build trail all day, coffee by his side, before grabbing a snack and a nap and sending again in the twilight.

Mike Fisher takes a break from building trail to enjoy a rare moment of daylight climbing on Potential Energy.

The Master, in his element.

B.P.- Before the arrival of the Punishers, this is what the trail to "Raised by Sasquatch" looked like.

The base of Castaways, possibly the most popular and obviously the most impacted climb at Franklin.  Despite three different groups covering the adjacent area with mulch, side rails, plants, even marking tape, climbers have reduced the belay area and trail to this state once again...

Although we built in steps and rails, mulched and planted, there is almost no sign of our efforts today.

We did what we could: built the trails, made friends with the landowners, supported the little store at the end of the road, put up quality routes and replaced substandard gear.

Now, the torch passes to the next generation.

But this is how it was, in the beginning.

Public and Private property on North Fork Mountain, in Germany Valley and in Smoke Hole Canyon

Courtesy of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy  and the hard-working researchers, trail builders and route setters here at the headquarters of PHAR/UP, the Potomac Highland Anchor Replacement/Upgrade Program:

North Fork/Smoke Hole/Germany Valley property boundary maps, absolutely free!

And, from MyTopo.com, more of the same.

Climb, hike, and camp like a responsible outdoor enthusiast, respect private property and always practice Leave No Trace; even if the latter is actually impossible here in the real world, the first two are fairly simple, even for rock climbers.

Thanks for helping us preserve access in the Highlands!

PHAR/UP is a not-for-profit idea, created out of 30+ years of experience at crags across America and a deep involvement with climbing development in the West Virginia Highlands region. No membership fees, no big corporate sponsors, just local climbers working hard every day to bring you better climbs, trails, and beta.

Self-publishing- Adventures in Literature

As most of you who regularly read this blog know, I have been putting together a guidebook to Smoke Hole Canyon, Reed's Creek, Franklin, and the surrounding region for about four years, now.

After many trials and a lot of help and advice from the good folks at KDaniels Publishing, I have decided to publish and distribute the guide on my own, with a local publisher, and without all the ad space that seems to fill so many guidebooks these days.

Turns out, it ain't cheap; after two decades of putting up routes and, in the process, donating several thousand dollars worth of hardware and equipment to the climbing community, it seems that it will cost about half again as much to tell the climbing community about the routes I put up.

That's life.

I'm putting together a Kickstarter project to generate the funds to simply print and distribute this guide, and intend to have it up and running soon.

Proceeds from the guide above and beyond the costs of publication and distribution will go directly toward organizing trail and clean-up days at Franklin, Reed's, and other crags in the region.  The book's sales will also support upgrade of substandard gear like un-welded cold shuts and allow us to replace twenty-year-old protection and anchor bolts, something I have been doing, primarily out of my own limited funds, for the last six years.

And, finally, the guide will fund development of new climbs, at new crags, for all of us, and for the next generation of climbers.

Stay tuned for further developments.  

(You can also email me wvmgray@gmail.com for more details or to donate to the project privately.)