Schist Storm

One of the major letdowns of getting into climbing while living in Philadelphia is the total lack of good outdoor routes and bouldering areas in and around the city. On the other hand, there are good bouldering areas that range from 1.5-4 hours away, such as Haycock Mountain in Nockamixon State Park, PA; Mt. Gretna, PA; and the newly re-opened Governer's Stable, PA. But, like I said, in and around the city...you're sort of left making the best of a bunch of random sharp, wet boulders along the Wissahickon Creek, of which I refer to as The Schist Storm.

First of all, if you try to look anything up online about the bouldering at Wissahickon, you'll come across two different areas. One area is called Forbidden Drive, which refers to the bike path that runs along the creek. The other is an area called Livsey Rock, which is off of Livsey Drive in Northeast Philadelphia, about 10-12 minutes off of Roosevelt Boulevard.

On Forbidden Drive, the bouldering experience is strange. For one thing, you're climbing directly on the bike path. You put your pads on the path, and half of the responsibility of your spotter is to watch for cyclists approaching who are either a) new to the path and not expecting to see people climbing and possibly falling into them or b) aggressive and irritated about the climbing and looking to plow you down. As for the climbs themselves, they sort of range between sharp slightly overhung problems with lots of traverses or, further down the path, some alright high slab to play around on. I've also heard there's even more, but I have yet to actually find it. On the bike path, you're actually bouldering on these rock faces that look like they appeared either due to erosion (the ground on the other side of the path continues to drop down towards the creek) or cutting that took place when the path was made. The rock here is usually pretty wet; these aren't freestanding boulders, but sort of a series of rock walls with grassy tops where, further up the hill still, sit some houses. Hence the runoff and wet rock.

I've climbed at Forbidden Drive once or twice. It's a great place to meet other climbers, and if you catch one or two locals, they'll show you the decent problems. I haven't fallen in love with anything here, but being that it's close to the creek and in the woods sorta, it's a nice place to escape the city on a nice day. I've also heard rumours of the cats at Fairmount Park allowing climbers to bolt and/or set up permanent anchors on a taller rock face that you'll see as you enter Forbidden Drive. It's a pretty flat wall, but it looks chock full of slopers. It may be the city's best outdoor pump fest yet.

Livsey Rock has a nickname that my friend Bryce clued me into, "Livsey Let-Down". I think the nickname was born partially because the area consists of only two boulders. One is the taller rock called "Livsey Rock", which is somewhere between 30-35 feet with anchors set up on top for top rope. The climbs range anywhere from 5.8-5.10, and maybe with some variations you could find a 5.11a or something.

One of my first rope climbing experiences was on the aforementioned rock, and, like Forbidden Drive, there's a few feet of flat ground below the rock and then a pretty steep drop off to the creek. So it's funny, you don't really want to drop anything off the top off the rock while you're setting up your anchoring system because it falls way, way down, far from where you are. The group of dudes that I went there with, who, within the climbing community have been dubbed "The Boy Band", thought their brand new rope was set up properly to the anchors and they got ready to drop the rope down to the belayers on the ground below; someone yelled "Rope!" and they tossed it over the ledge, and over it went, not attached to anything and down it flew, down the drop off, towards the creek, and it took like 15 minutes to get it back up to the rock again. Meanwhile, the Boy Band took turns blaming each other for the mistake, like "Dude, why would you chuck the rope off the side like that?! God!"

And, the top roping is sort of boring. And the rock is really cold in January, like most rock is.

A little ways down the drop off below Livsey Rock, the ground flattens out as you get closer to the creek, and there's a decent sized boulder with a short steep roof where you can find 4-5 problems, most of which are variations of one obvious line. Those problems seem to range from V4-V2, and they start on this hold

When I was there, I saw a few chalk marks off to the right of this problem on some thin but cool-looking holds, and after sitting under the roof on those thin holds, the problem looked like it was somewhere at V7 maybe. But who knows, I'm not great at rating outdoor climbs without trying them, and I couldn't even get off the ground on this one. There are also some problems along the creek-facing side of the boulder as well, mostly on slopers and jugs, mostly warm-ups. I had checked out this boulder after the unfufilling afternoon of top roping last year, and I came back this winter to see what the problems felt like after a little more climbing experience under my belt.

Livsey was a great place to go this winter on one of those weird, unsettling global-warming summer days in February. I skipped out of work early and called my good friend Carmella and, while these problems are in no way epic, it was great to just rent a car for the afternoon, drive 20 minutes through the city to Fairmount Park and climb outside by the creek in the sunshine for a few hours until the sun went down. Here are some shots of the great Livsey Variation (unofficial name, I have no idea what any of the problems here are called or rated)

Carmella tearing it up

Me feelin the summer winter day

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And yes, I find the name "Schist Storm" appropriate when referring to the entire Wissahickon climbing area/experience. For one, most of the problems are only as fun as you will them to be. If you're looking for something 3-star, or something like Mandala, then you're S.O.L.

Also, the rock is something specific to this area of Philadelphia. It's referred to as "Wissahickon Schist" and nearly all of the stone houses in the surrounding neighborhoods are built from it (I went to a wedding last fall in Germantown in a stone house made from this schist, and damn, it was a freaking beautiful place). At the risk of sounding like I'm plagarizing a scientific article because I know very little about all things geological (but I'm hoping to learn more) the Friends of the Wissahickon site describes the rock as such

Wissahickon schist and quartzite are metamorphic rocks formed from sedimentary deposits of mud and sand that at one time were washed off very ancient continents into a shallow sea. These sedimentary deposits were compressed into shale and sandstone. During the long periods of mountain building, the shale and sandstone were slowly transformed into the schist and quartzite we find today. In some places, the compression and heat were extreme enough to fuse the schist with emerging igneous rocks into hard- banded gneiss.(http://www.fow.org/geo.php)

The article goes on to state that the schist is full of small minerals and crystals which give the rock a varied surface, but it also can do a number on your fingers and hands depending on which boulder you get on. Also, something unique about the schist is the way the rock forms, as described further down in the same article

One of the most fascinating aspects of Wissahickon geology is the wide variety in rock form and substance that can be seen within a short distance. Some rocks have been folded as though they were made of putty while others have been cracked into huge blocks during long periods of compression. A few feet away from rocks that can be scratched with a fingernail can be found rocky ledges so hard they can barely be marked with a steel nail. Weathering may leave one exposure smooth and rounded while nearby the rocks may be towering and flat,craggy or rough. One can't help but wonder about the tumultuous forces within the earth's crust producing this great variety.

Yes, "one can't help but wonder". If you are, however, interested in reading more about the subject of Wissahickon Schist and the features there, Sarah West has an essay available online called "Gems of the Wissahickon".

Seriously, though, I'll take it. I'd boulder again at Livsey when the mood strikes. The area is good for one of those days when you wanna climb, but you also kind of just feel like hanging out outside somewhere and you don't want to get too serious about life.

As for right now, though, I'm feeling pretty serious about life, and I'm waiting for my friend Bryce to pick me up for a trip to the Gunks. I'm really excited. I have to say, while I don't like saying bad things about the city I'm living in, it's really nice to get to somewhere with real rock formations.