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sgarlick
climber
North Conway, NH
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 19, 2009 - 11:30am PT
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Hi climbers!
I've read a few posts on this forum about the geology of different climbing areas. Perhaps some of you might be interested in my book that just came out this spring: "Flakes, Jugs & Splitters: A Rock Climber's Guide to Geology" published by Falcon. (Here's the link to the book on Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/qq34nm )
Promotions aside, any other rock nerds out there? Discovered anything cool about your local crag?
Sarah
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couchmaster
climber
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Jun 19, 2009 - 11:36am PT
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Good stuff Sarah! Igneous ROCKS!
Gothic rock pinnacle. Some sort of Basalt based welded tuft.
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Jun 19, 2009 - 11:39am PT
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Geology is the only reason why I went to school.
The geology around So Cal is absolutely the best. I'm all about looking (I've got quite a good selection at home)for the rare earth's out in the desert. The local area that I climb at is (ancient Volcanic with lots of crystals here and there) pretty good too.
nice thread!
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sgarlick
climber
North Conway, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 19, 2009 - 11:52am PT
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Cool photo. That rock looks wild!
I remember hearing about a pitch at a cragging area somewhere out west (Colorado maybe?) where the key foothold is a trilobite fossil. I'd like to see that...
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Jun 19, 2009 - 11:56am PT
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Hi, Sarah.
I bought your your book off the shelf in Lone Pine a couple of weeks ago and was going to write a little "check this out" post here about it.
I'm really enjoying it.
I've tried to learn about the geology of the places where I climb in the past and have found it a struggle. Most geology books are for afficianados and so full of jargon that I spend so much time in the glossary that I forget what was being said about this peice of vocab or that.
Your book gives relatively brief answers to climbing-relavent questions with plenty of eye candy for the wandering mind of a dilatante like me!
In addition to my curiousity about how the features that we use to climb formed, I bought your book as a little word tour of climbing rock. The pictures and rock descriptions are better than many topo books for getting a sense of what it might be like to climb some of these places.
Best of luck with book sales!
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Jun 19, 2009 - 12:02pm PT
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thanks for the thread, Sarah. I just ordered your book from Amazon, can't wait to read it! A stimulating way of discussing geology!
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Eric McAuliffe
Trad climber
Alpine County, CA
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Jun 19, 2009 - 12:07pm PT
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couchmaster-where is that tower located? The formation looks alot like the Meherten formation here in the sierra, and in Bear Valley we have a TON of that CRAP all over. Really pretty, but just garbage. Our stuff is volcanic lahar. A really hot mudslide that came from NV and picked up all kinds of andesite and other volcanic rocks which make up the conglomeration.
E
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Jun 19, 2009 - 12:08pm PT
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Really enjoy your book as well! Fun chatting with you at OR in SLC too.
Just picked up, "Etched in Stone: The Geology of City of Rocks National Reserve and Castle Rocks State Park, Idaho." By long time climber Kevin Pogue.
There's a climbing area in Montana that is, we think, andesite. Kind of a cool color rock. Have always wanted to do a new route there and call it, "andesite for sore eyes"...yuck yuck...
Fun stuff...
-Brian in SLC
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jun 19, 2009 - 12:09pm PT
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Yes, thanks for the thread! I too ordered your book and it looks like a great gift item for several friends as well.Congratulations on such a creative idea for a book!
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jun 19, 2009 - 12:25pm PT
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I'm reading Walter Alvarez's The Mountains of Saint Francis. Very readable mix of geology and history. He's best known for his mass extirpation theory, popularly explained in T-Rex and the Crater of Doom.
I gather that Walter has also been an enthusiastic peak bagger.
We still need a good intellectual history of geology and alpinism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries: de Saussure, Agassiz, Forbes, Tyndall, etc.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Jun 19, 2009 - 12:28pm PT
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"I date rocks for a living"
Geez, I thought I've had some rough dates!
OK, I'll go to the car, but with my copy of your book Sarah.
It looks very good!
Having embarassed myself on a number of continents my shame
has often been ameliorated by the interesting rock which precipitated the horror. "Mousetrap" in Wales stands out after 30 years as the most interesting; still not sure what holds it all together.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Jun 19, 2009 - 12:45pm PT
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As far geology is concerned, I'm the igneous one (my Old Man was a biology major, so I know all about the bugs that live under the rocks, but not so much about how the rocks came to be)
Your book should be fascinating!
Common tourist knowledge says these are igneous intrusions:
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sgarlick
climber
North Conway, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 19, 2009 - 01:09pm PT
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Some of you might be interested in one of the references I used when researching the book: "Landforms and Geology of Granite Terrains" by Romani and Twidale (http://tinyurl.com/mpqldv ). It's pretty technical, but explains a lot of the features you see in places like Joshua Tree and Vedauwoo.
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TwistedCrank
climber
Ideeho-dee-do-dah-day
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Jun 19, 2009 - 01:10pm PT
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Thank you Sarah Garlick!
Your book is a welcome contribution to the genre. I picked it up when I first saw it at B&N.
I used climbing as an excuse to get a geology degree. Three of them in fact. I don't do geology anymore which is nice because I can ponder the origin of a specific crag, flake or hold without having to get uptight about writing a paper.
Me thinks western Colorado wins hands down for variety of geology to climb on. Proterozoic weirdness in the Black Canyon, welded tuff and conglomerate sport routes, glaciated peaks with grand vistas, 1000's of feet of red conglomerate, Wingate and Entrada towers and splitters, and virtually every local crag is unique.
Almost the same thing could be said about southwest Montana.
Or western Washington.
Or northern New Mexico.
Yosemite and the Sierra? Pff... Just boring old glaciated granitoids. 1000's of feet of it. Yawn.
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Dick_Lugar
Trad climber
Indiana (the other Mideast)
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Jun 19, 2009 - 01:13pm PT
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Wait...let me get this straight. I went to school, took on gobs of student loan debt to get a degree in geology so I could have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the rocks I climbed on, and instead, I could have just spent $25 on this book?!!!
I feel stoooopid now!
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Jun 19, 2009 - 01:15pm PT
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I only paid $17.
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Eric McAuliffe
Trad climber
Alpine County, CA
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Jun 19, 2009 - 01:33pm PT
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California is SUPER complex! I took a Cali geology course at Sierra Collage from Dick Hilton. HE made some very interesting breakthroughs in the understanding of the Great Valley, which is very interesting, but thos Sutter buttes, thats the REAL unsolved mystery of California.
E
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jun 19, 2009 - 01:48pm PT
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Thanks for posting this. I've just ordered it (Amazon)
Got an off-topic question for you though: One day back in the stone age I ran into a couple of guys in the Bugaboos, and wound up doing a climb with them there, and exchanged a couple of postcards afterwards. Both really nice guys and one of them was named Jim Garlick. Any relation?
btw this was around twenty-five years ago and he was not a young man then. If he's still alive, he'd likely be pushing 80 now. I think he was from Oregon.
D
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Jun 19, 2009 - 02:06pm PT
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Dingus,
From the Lassen park brochure:
yur gonna...
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sgarlick
climber
North Conway, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 19, 2009 - 02:42pm PT
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Ahh... the joys of California geology. I did my Master's research in the Klamaths--not great climbing (at least in my field area), but fascinating rocks and gorgeous, gorgeous country.
Ghost: Nope, not related to Jim Garlick, at least as far as I know. It's not that common a name here in the US, but is surprisingly so in Australia and New Zealand.
Cheers!
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