The Third Seneca Summit -- A Leadership Skills Development and Networking Event for Women Trad Climbers, July 27-29, 2012

The third summit was the best one yet! A couple of factors contributed to the success of the event. Sunshine, sunshine, sunshine! Need I say more?! After last year's experience, the dry and warm weekend played a big part in making this event fun. We were also fortunate to have much more seasoned leaders. Of the 40 or so women who came, one third was comfortable leading multi-pitch and taking at least one less experienced woman under her wings.

The co-organizers of the third summit were the same as for the second one: Jeanette Helfrich, Colleen Louw, Diane Kearns, and myself. In past years most of the attendees were also members of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club Mountaineering Section (PATC-MS), or the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh (ECP). This year, a number of women were not affiliated with either club, and the group came from a much wider geographical area, including Washington D.C., MD, PA, VA, WV, OH, NH, and KY. Given the feedback of the attendees of the 2nd Summit, this year's event was aimed to be held in August. Given the many conflicts that occur on any given summer weekend, the organizers finally settled on the last weekend in July. Too bad that Colleen could not make it in the end due to a conflict with professional commitment. We also retained the $25 registration fee, to cover expenses for the group campsite, breakfasts, and an invited presenter. Again, attendees of the 2nd summit had felt this contribution was acceptable. In addition, the organizers once again secured monetary and in-kind support from the ECP and PATC-MS, The Gendarme, which is Diane Kearn's gear shop and climbing school business, and from RESLscience, my own publishing business.

The goal of Seneca Summit is to develop the leadership skills of women trad climbers, and to serve as a networking event for women who lead, or want to begin to lead traditional rock climbs.

Saturday morning started at 8 am with group breakfast and introductions. Each attendee also briefly spoke about her climbing ability, and her goals for the weekend. Diane then helped sort people into groups.

The most experienced women formed into trad-climbing teams and headed out to climb multi pitch.

Next was a group of experienced seconds who wanted to do their first trad lead. I took them on the original first pitch of Ecstasy Junior. All four women accomplished leading this climb on trad! We also worked on other lead climbing skills such as gear placement, anchor building, and rapelling.

Another group of climbers headed over to the South End to toprope, mock lead, and possibly lead. Jeanette was helped by Ana Gelabert in setting up topropes on Totem, Blood on the Tracks, Candy Corner, and Ye Gods. This group also practiced gear placement, anchor building, and belaying the leader.

The fourth group was led by Diane and went over to the East Face of the North Peak to practice setting up topropes. Climbers in this group also toproped Isadora's Run, and Streptococcus.

Climbers were supposed to return by 5:30 pm for yoga with guest presenter Erin Larsen. But owing to the wonderful weather conditions, teams were slow to trickle back to The Gendarme. Erin showed great flexibility :) in keeping the class going first on the lawn behind The Gendarme, and then inside The Gendarme's new indoor teaching facility.

Around 7:30 pm, potluck dishes started appearing. And what a feast it was! Wonderful salads of leaves and grains, tortellini, fried sausages, cheeses galore, rosemary bread, green beans, cherries, pineapples, cake and more. Some passers-by even wanted to pay if we let them partake or let them take away some of our glorious food!

Once it turned dark, the slide shows began. Jeanette kicked us off with a few photos about the history of women climbing at Seneca. She mentioned that Jan Conn (of the Conn's routes at Seneca) is expected to visit later this year. She also showed pictures of Gina Hoag and Maura Kistler leading at Seneca. After that, she shared a few photos of her climbing trip to Utah. Judith Scanlon and I were up next. We showed slides from out trip to the Tetons last September. Our goal was to be inspirational, showing that there is a lot you can do even if you do not have much mountaineering experience, if you set yourselves good goals and train for them. Finally, Diane shared from her treasure vault of climbing and skiing pictures from all over the world.

I left the party at about 11:30 pm. There was still a small group eagerly talking and laughing late into the night under the moon and stars.

Sunday morning began early, at 7 am, with a yoga and stretching session led by Erin. Climbers trickled back to the Gendarme porch around 8 am for breakfast. Next up, I was to give a physics presentation. Given that the weather was so very good, I suggested that multi-pitch teams, and especially, climbers who would have to depart Seneca Rocks early, should go climbing!

At around 8:30 am, I talked about the physics of climbing movement. Diane had asked me to keep the equations to a minimum this year. So I focused on free-body diagrams and a discussion of the forces acting on a climber.

By 9:30 am, the remaining attendees formed into climbing teams. Several of the experienced lead climbers were willing to take 2, even 3, other women on multi-pitch adventures. I saw some of the other teams throughout my day -- I seconded Lindsay Hastings on her first mutli-pitch lead of Old Ladies' Route -- and they were all smiles!

I was very sad to leave Seneca Rocks at 6 pm, while there was still daylight left to climb.

I hope everyone made it back down and home safely. See you again next year!

Reflections, thoughts, and food for thought:

The spreadsheet continues to be very helpful. But this year, worried about overflowing the group campsite, which allows 40 people and 10 cars, only, we closed registration a few days before the event started. In hindsight I think that was not a good idea given that people (notoriously) tend to make their decisions at the very last minute. Maybe next year we could leave it open but tell anyone that if the group campsite fills they need to go to the walk in sites (and pay for it?).

The bathroom issue in town came up again. Maybe we could budget for renting a portapotty for the next event?

We should check weather history at Seneca and depending on that, possibly stick with the end of July or early August weekend, which seemed to work well.

We seem to have settled into a good format for the event. Now we need to keep it going into 2013! As before, the Friends of Seneca account will hold over any surplus monies that this event may have generated. So we ma have some money in the pot to play with in 2013 -- to make the Summit even bigger and better.

Yeah to attracting more leaders this time! You made all the difference in the world. Rather than networking networking, we got some good climbing networking going!

Congratulations to the new leaders! For the first time, we actually accomplished one of my personal goals for the Seneca Summits, expressed in the above mission statement, which is, to get more women to take the sharp end on trad. I know my co-organizers share in my belief that self reliance and independence are critical in the mountains. We had several attendees do their first ever single- or multi-pitch trad lead at this year's event. That is so satisfactorily!

A "Thank You" to our Sponsors:

The Gendarme/Seneca Rocks Climbing School
Homepage: http://www.seneca-rocks.com/
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Gendarme/25831503899

Potomac Appalachian Trail Club Mountaineering Section
Homepage: http://www.potomacmountainclub.org/
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/PotomacMountainClub

Explorers Club of Pittsburgh
Homepage: http://www.pittecp.org/
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/42705455822/

RESLscience
Homepage: http://reslscience.webs.com/
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/ResLscience

History: 

Link to the first Seneca Summit: http://leadershiprocks.blogspot.com/2011/04/2nd-seneca-summit-leadership-skills.html
Link to the second Seneca Summit: http://leadershiprocks.blogspot.com/2011/04/2nd-seneca-summit-leadership-skills.html

Friends of Seneca Finish the Lower Slabs Project

The Lower Slabs Project, for which planning began in August 2009, finally got finished on October 8, 2011. Volunteers, including ECPers Toni Price, Phil Sidel, Sam Taggart, Felipe Trevizan, and myself, were instrumental in doing the work, which involved re-constructing 600 feet of climber-access trail to the Lower Slabs, and building a steep switchback trail leading from “Scuttle” up to “Discrepancy” and a landing across from “Discrepancy.” 

The project, which was slated to complete in 2010, was delayed due to personnel departures in the USFS. Both, the Director of the Discovery Center, and the Ranger helping us with the work, left Seneca Rocks for new assignments. The closure of the North Peak Hiking Trail further impacted the completion of the Lower Slabs work. 

 

Friends of Seneca at work at the bottom of the "stairmaster," with, from left to right, Toni Price, the author, and "John Squared."

It is all the more pleasing to now report that the project is done! I personally worked all three volunteer weekends in 2010 after going through the crew-leader training in March 2010. With the final work day in 2011, I have eight days of manual labor invested in this trail. Not bad for an academic :-). 

So please, when next you head over to the Lower Slabs, stay on the trail to avoid new erosion in this area. Or else!!!


Another set of stairs leading to “Seldom Seen” might be beneficial to manage the area, but that is a project for another year. Friends of Seneca used the final work day in 2011 to reinforce the setting of a large rock at the base of the “stairmaster” near the start of “Ecstasy” which basically holds the wooden stairs in place. We also slightly re-routed the approach to the turn. Check it out!

History 

Details about the original Lower Slabs Project design can be found here.

Support Friends of Seneca!  

Buy a Seneca Rocks 2012 Calendar.

The 4th of July Club Mixer

Second Seneca Summit, A Leadership Skills Development and Networking Event for Women Trad Climbers, April 15-17, 2011

We did it! We actually pulled of the 2^nd Seneca Summit. And the turnout was as good as for the First Seneca Summit. Over 20 women from WV, PA, VA, MD, and the Washington DC area came in spite of a weather forecast that called for 100% rain on Saturday. While the organizers went with the flow, or should I say flood, to provide an expanded lecture program under a rain-laden tent, the clinics-turned-talks became valuable learning experiences thanks to the active participation of the interesting and knowledgeable women present.

The goal of Seneca Summit is to develop the leadership skills of women trad climbers, and to serve as a networking event for women who lead, or want to begin to lead traditional rock climbs.

Seneca Summit is the brain child of Diane Kearns, mountaineer, rock climber and co-owner of “The Gendarme” and “Seneca Rocks Climbing School.” After being the lead organizer of the inaugural Seneca Summit, she hoped we could keep the event going and get different women to take over the organization in future years. And so it happened that Colleen Louw became the driving force behind the 2^nd Seneca Summit. She was helped by Jeanette Helfrich, who, like Colleen, is a member of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, and by Diane and myself.

All Friday I was wondering if anyone but us organizers would show up for the event. I mean when do the weather people ever commit to a 100% chance of anything? And for Saturday the 16^th of April 2011 they promised rain, thunderstorm, lightning, and gale-force winds.

Friday evening Judith Scanlon and I rolled into group campsite D and were excited to see a bunch of tents up. A group of women was sitting around a picnic table talking about climbing with a couple of climbing books out. While we were introducing ourselves, car after car pulled in! Colleen told every new arrival that the campground manager had put out extra stakes in front of his camper for people to borrow, in anticipation of a stormy night. And a stormy and rainy night it was, indeed. One tent fly took off and flew into a tree!

Saturday morning the group assembled for a free breakfast in front of The Gendarme under the cover of their gazebo tent. While the 1^st Seneca Summit had been free of charge, this time we asked for a registration fee of $25, and encouraged the participants to pay up inside of the store at some point during the weekend. Also for the first time, there was a reporter present. She was doing stories about girlfriend weekends in WV, and we were going to be featured in the series.

After Colleen took us through a round of introductions, we went straight to the main event, our guest speaker Jessa Goebel. Jessa owns her own company, “ClimbFit;” and she was going to improvise a lecture on training under the tent rather than the training clinic she was originally going to teach on real rock. The audience was captivated. Everyone shared their goals and aspirations for the 2011 climbing season, and from this, Jessa collected the topics on which she focused her discussion. After about an hour and a half, we took a brief break; then we returned for a second session. Jessa gave many general as well as very specific tips, in response to questions from the audience. I am sure that many of us will find her tips and insights helpful once we adapt them to and integrate them into our personal gym climbing routines. They are designed to help us improve our endurance, power endurance, and power.

After the lunch break, I was back in the program with a physics presentation. This time I spoke about “The Physics of Falling.” I had brought a flip chart with a bunch of notes and drawings. Owing to the humidity it had become slightly damp and heavy, yet still the wind tried to carry it away! Judith kindly assisted me by holding the poster board in place and flipping the charts. When I started talking I had to really speak up to be heard over the sounds of the rain pounding on the tent! We went though force, work, energy, momentum, and impulse, and how they act when climbers fall off a cliff or mountain. We then discussed what conclusions can be derived for surviving falls from the physics concepts. As part of my presentation I read the first chapter, “A Perfect Fall,” from Lynn Hill’s book “Climbing Free.” She vividly describes the circumstances of her fall and that jibed well with several of the physics points I was trying to drive home. I was kind of nervous since I don’t usually do readings and English is not my first language. I think it went well though; the audience applauded when I was finished.

Next up was Diane, who improvised giving her clinic on building gear anchors using a barbeque grill. The grill actually lend itself quite well to taking chocks and hexes. During Diane’s presentation, thunder and lightning arrived and it also began to pour in earnest. Thankfully, The Gendarmes let us move some of their displays to provide shelter for all of us in the store. And Diane resumed her lecture inside, with Linda Blakeley assisting.

After such a full day of listening to presentations and discussing details of personal goals, climbing training, falling physics, and anchor building, some of the group became noticeably exhausted in the late afternoon. We took a break for drinks and started cooking dinner.

The potluck dinner, held outside under the tent, was once again a highlight of the gathering! Good food and good conversation is simply the best way to spend a rainy evening. This time there was even a tablecloth on the table that became the designated buffet. Vivid discussion continued with the day’s presenters, and in groups that spontaneously formed and reformed.

After dinner, we returned to the inside of The Gendarme for a slideshow about the climbing history of female climbers by Jeanette Helfrich. Of course, Jan Conn, who, with husband Herb Conn, was one of the climbing pioneers of Seneca Rocks, featured prominently in the presentation. In the spirit of continuing to write our climbing history, Jeanette also included pictures from the 1^st Seneca Summit. Also, to prepare a site off of forest service lands where Seneca Rocks Climbing School would have held clinics had the weather cooperated, Diane, Colleen, Jeanette, and I had spent March 19 cleaning up a privately owned cliff on the site of the Harman’s North Fork Cottages. Jeanette's show had photo documentation of that outing as well. Maybe we even did some first ascents there! Jeanette also showed many pictures of the female members of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh climbing at Seneca Rocks, in the US, and around the world.

The party broke up after Diane arranged the climbing teams for Sunday. The weather forecast promised climbing weather, that is, no rain, hurray! However, we had to brace ourselves for wind with gusts up to 45 mph.

Sunday morning started with breakfast in front of The Gendarme. Due to the rainstorm of the previous day, which resulted in quite some flooding that included the low bridge over the North Fork, downtown Seneca Rocks, some of our tents, and because of the howling wind, some participants decided to depart and made their farewells.

Then the climbing teams headed out. My group went to the East Face, expecting sunshine and less wind. But we had some change of plans en route to Worrell’s Thicket, the intended climb for Erin, our new leader. Alas there was a waterfall at the bottom of the route, and a group of six occupied its start. A climber on the stairs told us a class was in progress. There were already teams on Skyline as well. And more parties were ahead of us and behind us on the trail. Also people with backpacks, hikers or climbers, were hanging out in the woods. In short, there was quite the crowd! And the wind was much stronger than we expected.

Erin and another member of our team split to pursue a different climb. Judith and I reconsidered what to do, and we felt given the situation, it might be preferable to join Diane's and Harini Ayer's groups who had gone to the Lower Slabs. We headed over there and met Colleen’s team who was just hiking up themselves. Surprisingly, there was much less wind on the West Face. We came up to the Lower Slabs just as Harini was leading Scuttle, 5.7. You go, Harini! Another team had set up a toprope on Discrepancy, a Seneca ultra classic 5.8. Diane walked along the slabs with us to help us find other climbs. I decided that I would give R2D2, a 5.5, a go. While be were climbing our first set of routes, Diane would head back down to The Gendarme because we needed more ropes to set up climbs.

I quite liked R2D2. It had trees and bushes en route, my kind of thing. It is reasonably long and varied and tops out not too far from the tree atop Scuttle, which I used as my anchor. But there was no good way to set this climb up as a toprope, at least that I could see. When I used the radio to call down to Judith – it was so windy that without radios we could not communicate – Judith told me that the others had left to assist in the rescue of a climber who had taken a fall on the East Face. I am so glad she waited telling me until after I finished leading.

What a scare! Memories of Amy’s death on the East Face rushed back into my mind. And then I heard the sirens, and saw the ambulance taking off to Petersburg. Next a yellow fire truck pulled into the parking area below the Discovery Center, sirens howling. What was that all about? I was unnerved, and so was Judith. Still, she found the inner strength to second the route and came up to me with the gear. Some kind fate had directed us away from climbing on the East Face that day, yet our friends were over there, and we did not know who had fallen, and how bad the fallen climber, whoever she or he might be, was injured. We were both quite shaken.

We walked off the cliff on the ramp near Scuttle. Unprepared to get on a rope again soon, we opted for lunch break. Then Judith started to build anchors for practice, and two other women who had remained at the Slabs joined us. We tried out and discussed some of the techniques we had learned from Diane the day before.

Finally, Diane returned, and gave us news of the accident. The team was climbing Wolery, 5.6, PG, on the North Peak. The leader’s first and only piece, a #1 cam placed about 20 ft up, blew, and he decked. Although he seemed fine, because he had fallen on his back, his team mates did not want to move him. After enough climbers arrived, they were able to carry the injured climber up to the summit in a litter. He was then transported off the North Peak using a four wheeler which the local rescue squad had brought in on the horse trail, and put in the waiting ambulance. Diane was looking quite exhausted as she came down from the adrenaline rush of the rescue. A few days later we learned the good news that the climber was doing well and had not broken his back.

Judith and I resumed climbing, but on toprope, only. The afternoon was sunny and had finally warmed up in spite of the high wind. But gravity was high as our hearts were heavy.

All teams returned safely to The Gendarme in the late afternoon; and we got a chance to say our good-byes to our many new friends before we headed home.

Reflections, thoughts, and food for thought:

The turnout was great in spite of the storm! There seems to be a real need for Seneca Summits, and we should feel encouraged to continue.

The $25 registration fee was OK with the participants.

PATC and ECP each sponsored the event with a $100 contribution to defer expenses. If any money is left after paying for expenses, as it seems there might be, it will go toward the next Seneca Summit.

The gazebo tent saved the day, although it had a hard time staying up with this amount of rain and wind. Is there another location we can use in heavy rain? The Discovery Center? Or a better outdoor location that is bigger than the cave?

We might consider renting a portapotty for future events. With the flooding in town, there were some sewer problems…

Once again, I wonder how many new leaders actually took the sharp end during the Seneca Summit, or did start leading after the event. New leaders – your feedback?

Who was there who also was at the 2010 event; and did you find yourself leading more last fall?

There was a sense that August was a better time than April to hold the event.

The weekend was definitely a success on the networking front!

Let’s hope there will be a 3^rd Seneca Summit in 2012!

Inaugural Seneca Summit, A Leadership Skills Development and Networking Event for Women Trad Climbers, August 13-15, 2010

I can’t believe I never blogged about the first Seneca Summit! I was so convinced that I had. Yet when I looked for my notes and for lessons learned, nothing came up. I guess I posted my photos on facebook, and then left it at that. So now, with the 2^nd Seneca Summit almost upon us, it seems high time for me to jut down my reflections on last year’s event.

The 1^st Seneca Summit took place August 13-15, 2010. It was attended by 20+ women from areas with driving distance of Seneca Rocks: WV, PA, VA, MD, and the Washington DC area.

The goal of Seneca Summit is to develop the leadership skills of women trad climbers, and to serve as a networking event for women who lead, or want to begin to lead traditional rock climbs.

Seneca Summit is the brain child of Diane Kearns, rock climber and co-owner of “The Gendarme” and “Seneca Rocks Climbing School.” Seneca Rocks is a traditional climbing area, meaning the lead climber places removable protection such as chocks or cams which the second, the climber who follows the leader on the route, then removes from the rock. You quite rarely see all women climbing teams climbing trad, or female-male teams in which the woman leads. Diane wanted to do something about developing more women as trad leaders, and to get them to climb in all-women teams because the dynamics is different from mixed-sex teams. For the inaugural summit Diane simply picked a date and reserved a group campsite, then asked some other women who climb at Seneca Rocks for their thoughts and to help get the word out to other women climbers. She and I exchanged many emails and tossed around ideas for the program and schedule of events.

Here is what went on that first summit, to the best of my recollection:

FRIDAY:

Met in front of the Gendarme in the evening for a slide show about the history of climbing at Seneca by Diane Kearns. 

SATURDAY:

Met in front of the Gendarme for breakfast.

Shoe demo by Elaina Arenz-Smith, owner of “New River Mountain Guides.”

“Climb with a Local.” This was something we copied from an AAC Craggin Classic. Seneca frequent climbers paired up with women who did not know Seneca or who did not feel ready to lead, and enjoyed a day of climbing.

A group led by Elaina practiced falling at the Slower Slabs.

Returned to the Gendarme in the evening for a potluck dinner.

Slide show by Diane Kearns about her trip to Greenland.

My story:

I was excited by the large turnout of women on Saturday morning, and about the professional feel that the shoe demo lend to the event.

The “Climb with a Local” was my suggestion. I was a little disappointed that most participants opted to toprope and practice falling as a group, rather than to go multi-pitch climbing together and trying to lead. As for my team…it started to rain while we were in the second pitch of the “Old Ladies” route, a 4-pitch climb I’ve done so many times that I thought I’d be OK climbing it in the rain. Still, it was “interesting” for me to, for the first time, lead the third pitch when it was wet. Melanie, the least smallest of my team members, started to get uncomfortably cold after we were rained on heavily for about 15 minutes in the second belay. Monica and I were concerned about keeping her warm; and we wrapped her up neck to toe during the rain. All went well! We got to summit and watched the clouds waft by below us; and we rapped down safely and in time for dinner.

At dinner, the toprope/falling crowd reported that they had had an awesome afternoon despite of some excitement. Tina, a climber from Pittsburgh, twisted her ankle during a practice fall. She remained in good spirits and hobbled about for the rest of the event.

The potluck happened to be an all vegetarian dinner! And even I, who am a carnivore, liked the food it was that flavorful. Luckily, I had brought leeks with capers, so my dish fit with the vegetarian theme. There were many men sniffing around that evening, attracted by the wonderful food smells coming from the tent in front of the Gendarme if not by the sounds of women laughing.

After dinner and Diane’s inspiring slide show, a bunch of us went across the street to dance to the music of a live band.

Too bad the stargazing I was prepared to offer that night, and for which I had brought two transportable telescope from Pitt’s department of physics and astronomy with me, was clouded out.

All in all, what a great and eventful day!

SUNDAY:

Met in front of the Gendarme for breakfast.

Lecture/clinic on “The Physics of Placing Pro” by me.

The program then called for multi-pitch climbing. But the weather forecast turned outright nasty. Rather than going climbing, we all went to the cave for some impromptu skills practices and to toprope. Diane and Elaina freely shared from their vast stores of knowledge on topics of climbing movement and self rescue.

The group slowly broke up in the afternoon as participants thought about their driving times back home.

My story:

Having the physics discussion in the relaxed atmosphere of Sunday breakfast seemed to work well. I had given some thought to how to make my physics presentation work without a blackboard or projector. To better explain some of the concepts, I held up paper sheets on which I had printed diagrams and the rope equation. And there was some show and tell with real gear. 

I got a chance to learn more about flagging from the strong and elegant Elaina Arenz-Smith. She gave me valuable suggestions for practicing my movements in the gym. But I was bummed that the storm never hit Seneca Rocks and I kept thinking that I’d have loved for us to be multi-pitch climbing, instead.

On the way home, the car of one of the Pittsburgh groups broke down between Seneca Rocks and Elkins. We all pulled over to help move their gear into other cars and figured out new car pools. Luckily the tow truck did not take long to show up.

Reflections, thoughts, and food for thought:

We were noticed. Seneca Rocks had never before seen such a large number of women ascending the rocks and partying in town!

Everything at the 1^st Seneca Summit was offered free of charge! The women who came were merely asked to pitch in some money to defer the cost of the group campsite.

Many participants were interested in clinics. Perhaps this was in part due to the bad weather, although it seemed to me that some women had a penchant for taking classes rather than for experimenting and learning on their own.

Owing to the nature of the forest service’s permit for guiding at Seneca Rocks, it was not possible for Seneca Rocks Climbing School to offer clinics on the rock itself. A nearby cliff outside of forest service lands might be the way to go for group clinics.

While not asking for registration and a fee made things easy administratively, and while we did break even on the first Summit, it might nevertheless be appropriate in the future to ask the participants to pay a small fee to cover event expenses.

There was an overwhelming amount of positive feedback that we should have another Seneca Summit in 2011, and possibly turning this into an annual event.

Diane hoped that we would be able to keep the organization simple so we would not get burned out on this first event. This would keep us motivated to organize it again. And maybe we would start a grass roots effort, whereby different women would lead the programming and assume the organizational responsibilities every year.

As they say...and the rest is history. The Second Seneca Summit just went down last weekend!

End of Season at Seneca

Shooting Star

Living without reason

Climbing every season

Adding knowledge to the tomes

Photons dancing on my screen

Galaxies from another time

On my mind

But then

Outside, sunlight, trees and rocks,

Leading, focus, inner peace,

Skills no higher purpose served,

Friendship and companionship

Climbing every season

Living is the reason

Physics for Climbers: Chapter 1

Placing Pro Clinic Fundraiser

Participants of our Escape the Belay Clinic Fundraiser for the Mike Brown Expedition Grant fund of the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh expressed a strong preference that we teach a clinic on placing pro. Sam Taggart and I had initially said this would not be possible since our weekly club outing’s climbing location, McConnells Mills State Park, is not a trad climbing crag. But after a bit of scouting around in the two weeks after our first clinic, we did discover some areas just upstream of Sunshine Wall with a couple of cracks that take a variety of pro.

The clinic we offered on July 13, 2010 had three parts. The first part was a lecture / discussion session about the physics of placing pro. I started it by asking the participants to take a close look at a couple of nuts and cams of various sizes and to tell us what their strength rating is in units of kilo Newton (kN).

This led us to the first talking point, “Will this piece of gear hold me?” I asked everyone to calculate their weight, due to their mass and the gravitational acceleration on Earth, in kN. The answers unanimously were numbers below 1kN, around ¾ of a kN or so. This was well below the rating of even the smallest nut we looked at (4kN). We inferred this means that you can clip directly to even the smallest piece and it will not break under the load of your weight. The next situation we considered was having a rope clipped to the piece, and the climber sitting on the piece with the belay on. This introduced the pulley effect, which doubles the force at the piece. The resulting force was still only between 1 and 2kN, well below the rating of the smallest piece of gear that I carry (but potentially above what someone else has on their rack). The conclusion we drew was that most of the pieces would be OK to hangdog on or be lowered off of with a rope. The third scenario involved falling on the piece. We first discussed why we lead climb on a dynamic rope, and how it is the stretching of the rope which cushions our impact. In response to a question I digressed a bit into of how hard it is to say whether a certain fall will kill you or not, since it depends very much on which part of your body is impacted, and on the properties of the object that you hit. To assess falling on a piece of gear, I next introduced the equation for impact force and read off some examples of the forces for varying fall factors. (I also assumed as given a UIAA standard rope that allows for a 12kN impact force for a climber weighting 80kg). This exercise demonstrated that even small fall factors can generate forces on a piece that exceed its strength rating. We discussed the implications of the fall factor on strategies for how to space out our gear after we leave the belay, and along a route.

The second talking point I had prepared was, “Will the gear hold in the rock?” I spoke a little bit about contact forces, friction, and how the load of a piece is distributed to the rock that it is sitting in. Most importantly, using a simple demonstration, we saw that when we insert a piece into rock and expect it to stay there, the rocks must have the ability to push back onto the piece without breaking. This has implications for the macro- and micro-structure of the rock that should be considered in making a gear placement.

Finally, to segue into the practical aspect of the clinic, I introduced the acronym ROCS for assessing gear placements, and what kind of gear is best placed in what kind of rock geometry (V-shaped constrictions, pods, horizontals, etc).

The second part of the clinic was “U place pro.” Everyone swarmed out with either their own racks, or mini-racks we had assembled from our gear. The cracks Sam and I had found were concentrated in two separate areas, so half the class went to the first and the other half to the second one. I asked everyone to place as many nuts and cams as possible, and to make sure to place both, nuts and cams. Some people worked alone, others worked in teams of two, and there was immediately a lot of discussion about rock quality, features, and what piece should be tried.

The last part of the clinic was the critique. For this, Sam walked around and looked at and tugged on each and every piece, told us if he would take a fall on that piece, and invited discussion about the placement and its potential
improvements from all the participants. After we had looked at all the placements, there was actually enough time to have a second round of placing pro. Participants swapped areas and we repeated the placing and critiquing steps. Sam ended up having to use a flashlight to evaluate the placements; it was quickly getting dark on this overcast summer evening.

The group decamped to the Log Cabin, where Sam and I fielded additional questions over dinner. With seven participants, this clinic raised $35 for the Mike Brown Expedition Grant fund. And it was a lot of fun, as always, to talk with a group of enthusiastic climbers about the topic we all love.

Escape the Belay Clinic Fundraiser

The new Mike Brown Expedition Grant fund of the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh will enable a few explorers every year to have the adventure of their dreams. At the June general meeting of the club, it was hotly debated how additional monies should be raised to sustain the expedition grant in future years. One of the ideas that was mentioned was to teach clinics for donations.

At our next climbing outing to the Mills, Sam Taggart and I were discussing how much we both love teaching. That evening I just happened to be practicing to escape the belay, while Sam offered to play my injured climber. The idea was born: we thought that we could put together an "escape the belay" clinic as a fundraiser. If successful, we would come up with a few other topics throughout the summer, and with the money raised, we could help beef up our new expedition fund.

We finalized our lesson plan over the weekend, sent it out with an invitation and a suggested donation of $5 per person on the listserve on Monday, and stood ready to teach the clinic yesterday evening (6/29/10). We had no idea how many people would show... We ended up with a satisfyingly sizable crowd!

The scenario we adopted was the following: You and your climbing partner are top roping. You are belaying off of your harness, and you are anchored in. Imagine your climber’s foot gets stuck in a crack, and s/he can neither climb up, nor be lowered down. What do you do? You need to “escape the belay” to provide assistance or to call for help.

 


 
To start off the clinic, Sam and I partnered up for a demonstration of the entire procedure. In the interest of the limited amount of time available, I had suggested to do a simplified version which involved the Mule hitch with and Overhand tie off (MO) as the only new knot participants would have to master. Both the belay rope and the Prussik sling would be clipped back into the anchor with a locker. Sam preferred and demonstrated a more advanced scenario, in which the belay rope and the Prussik cord were attached to the lockers with the Munter-Mule-Overhand (MMO) knot. After the demonstration, participants used strands of rope to practice their MOs. Then it was time for everybody to partner up and run through the complete procedure. There was a buzz of excitement in the air when people were being tied off, even just a few feet off the deck. Some participants practiced my simple version, some moved on to work with Sam on the advanced version. The clinic only stopped when it became too dark to carry on.

The good news: 11 participants raised $55 for the Mike Brown Expedition Grant fund. 

Thank you everybody for participating, for donating money, and for making this such a fun and educational evening. Suggestions for future clinics included: learning to lead, placing pro, more rescue material. We will give that some thought. Say tuned to your ECP listserve for the announcement of our next clinic.

I've Been Working on the Trailroad

People have different reactions when I tell them about the project to improve the climber access trail to the Lower Slabs at Seneca Rocks in which I got involved last year as a crew leader. Most are very supportive and say this is a good thing. Some climbers feel that an improved trail will make the Lower Slabs more popular resulting in increased crowds of topropers who might get in the way of lead climbers, and they feel that is not a good thing.

The trail is designed specifically for climbers to access the Lower Slabs area in a safer and more environmentally friendly manner.

Environmentally friendly
* Climbers have made several trails to the Lower Slabs over time, cutting across from the hiking trail that leads to the observation deck over to the Lower Slabs crag in many different ways, regardless of the ground features and the vegetation. Water running down, rather than across these social trails causes erosion of the hill side. The new trail is designed to help manage erosion.
* The terrain below Scuttle and Discrepancy is extremely steep, with a hill slope of 80%, and has sparse vegetation. With every climber scrambling up to these climbs, the ground below the climbs is eroded away further. New switchbacks leading up from Scuttle to Discrepancy will help stabilize this area. A staging area across the base from Discrepancy will allow climbers not engaged in climbing to prepare gear and rest, out of the way of climbers currently on the face; this will further lessen the disturbance of the steep hill slope, and increase safety.

Safer
* The new trail has better footing than the old trails. Should we ever have to carry out an injured climber from the Lower Slabs area; the better footing on the trail will help us get our injured friend down more quickly.
* Part of the work on the new trail entails eliminating all the other social trails that have been established in this area over time. The discontinued trails are being camouflaged with brush cuttings, leaf litter, and other materials so that they blend in with the surrounding landscape. Having just one clearly identifiable access trail will help any emergency personnel to find the Lower Slabs area more quickly should we ever need to call them for help to evacuate an injured climber. These are just two important ways in which the new trail will improve climber safety.

How I got involved. I believe these efforts will ultimately benefit climbers at Seneca Rocks, and so I got involved in the project in October 2009, during the end-of-season Chili Cook-Off. Diane Kearns, co-owner of the Gendarme, and Ken Dzaack, of Canaan Valley Institute, a contractor hired by Friends of Seneca to design the new trail, presented the project to the climbing community. The idea is that while Friends of Seneca paid to have the trail design done, it is up to climber volunteers to implement the project and build the actual trail. To facilitate this process, Ken Dzaack briefed a small number of volunteer crew leaders early in the spring of 2010. The crew leaders will then explain the project and help an increasing number of volunteers during three trail work weekends to build the new trail and discontinue the social trails.

I signed up right away to be trained as a crew leader. I was excited by the prospect of becoming more involved with a climbing area that has given me so much pleasure and pain. I was also lured by the prospect of learning a new, manual skill. Being an academic, I do very little work with my hands other than typing on the computer keyboard; I thought it might be good for me to try my hand at trail construction instead.

The crew leader training took place on March 21, 2010. It was an amazingly beautiful early-season day at Seneca. Twelve of us, climbers and non-climbers, locals and people from hundreds of miles away, came together to learn about the project. The morning was very cold, and we crammed into the Gendarme with coffee and cinnamon rolls provided by Diane, for an about 2 hour briefing by Ken Dzaack on the fundamentals of trail building, which included a vocabulary sheet and the infamous “forest service typicals,” drawings of US Forest Service recommended trail profiles, as well as a good dose of “Ken’s rules.” After that, we followed Ken and Jeff “the Forest Service guy” to the parking lot at the start of the north face trail, to pick up the tools which the Forest Service is providing for the project. I thought a hammer is a hammer is a hammer…not. Who knew that there are at least six different types of hammer?! After picking out a tool, we had to practice our “tailgate talk.” This is the briefing that the crew leader gives to the crew about the goals and safety concerns of the day’s work, and includes such nifty terms as the “blood circle.” Ken and Jeff then led us up to the start of the climber access trail. We first walked it together, to gain an overview of the entire project and understand what kind of work we should do where.

After that, we broke into three teams, and went to work. It took me all day to build an about one foot high and one foot wide piece of a retaining wall, made out of stones I found along the trail, with Ken and Arthur Kearns supervising and correcting me on and off. I got so involved in my project that the day seemed to end all too soon. The crew leaders returned to the Gendarme for libations, and a Mexican dinner cooked by Diane. It had become clear that each of us has different experience and skill with manual labor. For my part, I could not see myself directing the work needed for building the switchbacks or the landing. But I thought I might be able to work with other volunteers on the more gentle slopes of the 500 feet of trail before you get to Scuttle.

Since we got our crew leader training done on Saturday we did not need to work on Sunday which had been set aside as a rain day. On Sunday then I actually got to climb! With no crowds, Mark “Indy” Kochte and I headed for Skyline Traverse. I had long since wanted to lead the “scary” pitch 2 of the route, but there is almost always a long line for this route on weekends. That Sunday, I finally got her done!

April 10 & 11 was the first trail work weekend with volunteers. My crew included two fellow ECPers, Toni Price and Phil Sidel, plus Phil Hodge, a climber friend from Baltimore. Once again we were blessed with a sunny weekend. But it was still very cold, especially over night.

Toni, Phil and I shared a ride to Seneca on Friday, and arrived early enough to have daylight left. Toni and I headed up to the Lower Slabs because I wanted to review the design document and figure out which stations we should work on, and which tools we would need to take for those jobs. Of course we also took a rope and some webbing, and set up a toprope on Scuttle. It had been 44F downtown Seneca when we headed up for the Lower Slabs. As the afternoon progressed, it seemed to grow steadily colder, and the wind picked up. Nevertheless, Toni and I got a couple of burns in on Scuttle, before we decamped for food and warmth, joining up with Phil for our first Front Porch pizza of the season. It was too frosty to sit on the porch itself; we actually grabbed the table next to the restaurant’s only heater.

Saturday started with hot coffee and banana bread at the Gendarme. Three crews of volunteers were formed, and we headed to the parking lot for the tailgate talks and to pick up our tools from the Forest Service. The day was very beautiful. Redbuds were bursting into bloom all around us, and our spirits were high. Toni Price carried a saw, to remove a small tree in the section of trail we were going to work on, and promptly went to work with it as soon as we arrived at our station. Phil Sidel spent three hours with the sledge hammer, turning big rocks into little rocks for filler material. This earned him a new nickname; we now call him “The Crusher.” Remember that when you next see him! Phil Hodge and I tried to build a step down, using rocks and the filler. I say tried because although we got it done on Saturday, Jeff the Forest Service guy tore it down on Sunday, showing us how we had ignored some important trail building fundamentals.

Trail work is not without danger. Toni and Phil Hodge were moving a large rock into place late that afternoon, when they slipped and got their fingers wedged in. Phil’s looked bad right away, like his thumb would turn into a balloon in no time. He headed down to town to ice it. Not far behind him, we spent Saturday evening in front of the Gendarme. The day had warmed up nicely and we were able to decompress and exchange trail stories over well-earned beers. Diane came through once again with a Cajun dinner for all.

Sunday morning, after loading up on coffee and coffee cake at the Gendarme, we headed up to the Lower Slabs once again. Phil’s finger, thankfully, was not too swollen or bruised to keep him from joining us. We continued to build a set of retaining walls, and consulted with Jeff on a difficult section of the trail for which Ken’s design calls for the addition of four steps. Once again the day flew by all too quickly. A sweaty, exhausted, and happy crew returned to the Front Porch for a final joint meal before heading off into different directions.

Reflections. Working on the trail has been a humbling experience for me. It turned out to be a lot harder to build a sustainable trail of all natural materials than I would have thought. I feel good though; I have learned a lot, and I get much joy from imagining that our retaining walls will still be there a hundred years from now. Well, at least I hope they’ll still be there when I return for more trail work in July. The camaraderie of the volunteers was so worth the sweat and aches and bruises, and the hard work felt really good for the soul.

Please, consider volunteering. There are two more trail work weekends coming up, set for July 10 & 11, and September 25 & 26. Please, come and join us. If you cannot do the trail work weekends, there will be opportunities to give to Friends of Seneca during the Cinco the Mayo Party in May and the end of season Chili Cook-Off in October. Another way to help is to purchase the Seneca Rocks 2011 calendar. I have made a wall calendar from my photographs of Seneca Rocks to help raise funds for Friends of Seneca. Calendars make great birthday presents and Holiday gifts. I will have some on hand at future ECP general meetings, and you can also purchase them on the internet.