Keep On The Sunnyside

Late winter days are like county fairs, sometimes they just seem like the same old Ferris wheel. Then you find a deep fried Oreo, and it's spectacular!

During one of the less interesting recent rainy hikes I was checking ice conditions on the shady side of the mountain and happened upon this extremely precarious car sized boulder. My strong desire to climb any boulder I happen upon was overcome by my desire to live and I didn't even touch the haphazard block.




This time of the year is perfect for one of the Heritage hikes we lead to some of the many historically significant sites in the park. We saw this tea pot near the site of the older of two churches which once graced the Old Rag Community before the land became part of the park.




Although the old Highland Baptist Church is very hard to find someone did not want the message to be forgotten. So here it is, the godly graffiti marking the site of the old church, C W and R W apparently wanted it to be a little easier to find.




On a recent rappelling adventure the north side of the mountain looked like this.




Which is why we chose to rappel off the sunny south side of the mountain.
What a beautiful day and a great adventure.
I think we found the deep fried Oreos!

Tree Climbers Anonymous

This one goes out to the tree climbers. This is the post for those who don't want to climb ice, why would you? Ice-climbing requires expensive and pointy equipment, plus, ice is always cold. Tree climbing is a sport for all seasons, and the gear you need you were mostly born with. First tree ascents are plentiful! And if it's not a first it is almost always taller for the second ascent! So here's to the tree climbers, get out there and grab life by the limbs. Enjoy your view from the top but don't forget about your roots.



You never have to travel far for a good tree climb, but if you want to, the option is there!
(photo Jesse Von Fange)



An enticing tree along the side of the Skyline drive in SNP.



Tree ice climbing? = dumb
Normal tree climbing = fun!


This people-huggin hippie tree loves you tree climbers too.

Winter Color and Grey

The cold tree ghost looks out from the grey enshrouding the Bolen cemetery, off of the Little Devil Stairs loop.



Rock art formed long ago by Jasper(red rock) intrusions in the Greenstone Basalt (I think that's what is going on). There are a number of these beautiful formations near the base of the Jeremys Run trail.



The next few are of the greens of winter as seen from a number of park locations.









The Fountain, a stunning, deadly, and unclimbed pillar that is about one foot wide, hollow in the center, and may quite possibly be the fountain of youth.




Another interesting ice formation, but this one is on a smaller scale.




One of the nice big ice falls at White Oak Canyon.

Old Rag Iceman

This is the Old Rag Iceman who waits near the top of the mountain, he's a little cold and not very sociable but he's seen a lot, and is definitely worth a visit.




A whole different type of iceman hanging in the blue room at a local climbing area.




An Icewoman. Don't worry there's a helmet under that cool hat.




The rare but native species, the Ice-Jellyfish. Unlike other invertebrates, they walk on their tentacles!

New Year's Ice

The Skyline drive is open! So for now the access is good if you want to see this roadside ice or any of the other drive accessible high peaks and ice formations. Get out there, while it's open.




Ice formations never cease to amaze if you take the time to get out and look at them.




Some more great Shenandoah ice plastered to one of the parks rock walls.




Although it was awfully warm for it, we rang in the new year with some ice skating on the pond at my place. There was a lot of melted water on top of the ice and those who fell paid a price with a cold leg but we correctly figured if this gigantic bear tested the ice didn't break through, we probably wouldn't either.

Flowers for Followers

Decided to put up some more ice flower pics since it seems like people really like them. I agree, they are awesome and I wanted to put up more in the first place.








So there they are, a few more flowers for the blog followers. Happy Valentine's Day, I mean Merry Christmas!
Wintergreen

Ice Flowers!

I've seen a lot of ice. From Alaska to Utah, Maine to Montana. We are ice climbers. I've seen a lot of ice, I've never seen ice like this.



Many times I've seen where the ice come up from the ground in long thin hairlike strands which crunch underfoot, they are cool... but not that cool. The ones we saw today were like works of art direct from the master designer. Here's a tiny sampling of the thousands we saw.








Not to take the mystery out of the majestic but here's how it might work, if you want to know read on. It happens when the air is cold but the ground is not yet frozen. Water is trapped in the stem of a plant or on the ground at a plants base. As the water freezes it expands, and burst out of the sides of the plant through long thin seams. From there it wraps into the exquisite petal/flower shapes, and as usual, we gawk in awe of the natural world!

Family Traditions

A decent portion of my extended family poses atop Bearfence mountain on our annual day after Thanksgiving hike. We didn't see another hiker out on this beautiful but brisk day. In fact, the park always seems deserted on what they call Black Friday. I've heard otherwise, but we never seem to see a crowd.



On the way up the trail I like to call Mini Old Rag, the fam did the real Old Rag a few years ago on our post-Thanksgiving hike.



The girls




An Allegheny Stonecrop Turns pink before going dormant for the winter.




This small falls is far off trail in SNP and situated just above a large waterfall outside the park boundry. There are many off trail and sometimes just outside of the park waterfalls we have explored and although many are unispiring there are also some awe-inspiring falls to be found. I am coming very close to a personal goal of seeing them all, and if you are ever up for some off trail navigation (bushwhacking adventure) we can show you some amazing and rarely seen Shenandoah natural wonders!



The uppermost section of a three-tier waterfall just outside the park, makes you wish the park service had been able to extend the boundary just a little lower!




A large back-country boulder perfect for climbing, situated on the flanks of Mt. Marshall




A patch of grass atop Big Devil Stairs enjoys an unobstructed view and awaits the winter ice.

Fresh Ice

Some of the first ice of season the crystallized on the puddle at Little Stony Man cliffs before a fantastic day of rock climbing and rappelling.




After some long carries and a spectacular helicopter rescue we have reached the end of the 2010 ORMS (Old Rag Mountain Steward)season. It was a great season and we think that the Stewards helped the Park Service a lot, learned a lot along the way and deserved a spectacular finish to the season. To that end we did our best to provide and on Sunday the Stewards who were available climbed the western slabs to the summit of Old Rag. The picture above and below were taken somewhere in the 400' of roped climbing.


Cleaning the gear, Thanks Ben




A Turkey Vulture drys his wings in the sun.



A great sunset from Black Rock in Md, seen on a great Leave No Trace trainer weekend.