Just a day ago Ava and I made the summer pilgrimage to Flagstaff to be reunited with my husband and baby boy. I'm here doing my first of four clinical internships for Physical Therapy school. Being that I am back on my old familiar turf I chose to take my shoes and stroll down the Priest Draw. The area that I have spent countless hours of my life "hanging" out in. (Just love the pun for me. I know its cheeseball.)
It was 9:30 am and the first person I saw was a woman with a baby on her back walking in the new morning air. I started at the White wall, which in my head I call the refrigerator. I ended up trying this insanely hard little problem sort of mid wall with tiny greasy crimps. (Fess up people, who's done that thing. It's stinking hard.)
After flailing I decided to do a nature hike:
Nature's Folly.
I saw this little guy three separate times. I can tell cause he had this weird little stubby tail and sort of red eyes.
Anyway, I was really surprised to see several bikers. By 11 am I had seen more hikers/bikers than climbers. It was strange. It was also graduation last night so I assume everyone was hung over.
I was on my way to Mars Roof when I crossed through what I call the "For the kids" corridor. (a great boulder for kids) and my reminiscing mind was interrupted by this:
This roof used to look like this:
It always reminds me of a cresting wave frozen in the desert by time. I mean, I've done Anorexic naked and barefoot (alone thankfully). The first v8 I ever did was Carnivore and I got the FFA of it. This boulder is my right of passage and to see it charred and my favorite sitting spot trundled and obliterated was enough to bring me to tears. Assholes.
So I have two questions.
Firstly, can we clean the soot off without damaging the rock?
Secondly, how do we take back the draw?
Something has to change because I have heard that this is not the first fire under the anorexic roof. All I can think of is booby traps. But then I may get a climber and not a red neck...assholes.
I saw similar soot underneath the roof last fall and when I mentioned it on my blog someone anonymously accused me of being a hypocrite. "You put chalk on the rock, how is this any different?"
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the picture you have looks MUCH worse than when I saw it and I'm sad to see that this has continued to happen. It's a great roof. Anorexic was my first real project.
Carrie,
ReplyDeleteI am truly heartbroken to see this. Anorexic was my first hard (er) boulder problem and Carnivore was soon to follow. This atrocity is not ok by any standard, no matter who is using the area.
I hope that the Flag community can rally and restore this classic beauty! I will make a trip out there in a couple weeks when I am in the area to do some scrubbing!
yea it happened last fall, but this time it is was way worse. Last fall my friend dave posted on mountain project about it, but it didn't do much.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteplease try with water and a brush and if it's too greasy use
ReplyDeletesome soap and rinse with water, it should work and doesn't
damage the rock at all
I really hope someone takes the energy to do that work,I would
like to help out but I'm living on the other side of our planet,
was there some eleven years ago and hope to make it back someday.
After cleaning ask people with a public notice to build their fire a little bit further, thanks all
Please let me know what happens
best regards Alex
I forgot: a nylon brush is perfect, a wire one would damage
ReplyDeletethe rock
Alex