A few months ago, John reached out and asked if we could carve Seneca Rocks. He'd climbed it for decades. Brought his three young daughters to the summit when they were small. He knew every crack, every line, every place to find a hold on the rough quartzite.

John and his family at the South Summit. Photo courtesy of John.

But the Seneca Rocks John climbed doesn't exist anymore.

For most of his climbing life, there was a tower of stone rising between the East and West faces of the crag, a feature climbers called the Gendarme. On October 22, 1987, it collapsed. After that day, the rock was never the same.

Seneca Rocks in 1985. Photo: Earl Pappas.

On top of the Gendarme, before it fell. Photo courtesy of John.

When John reached out, we had a choice. Carve Seneca Rocks as it looks today, or carve it the way John remembered it.

The reference photos of each face, and the mockups we built from them.

So we did something we'd never done before. We carved the East face into one side of a single block of stone, and the West face into the other, with the Gendarme rising between. The piece is about 3 inches thick, a true two-sided sculpture.

Two-sided pieces aren't something we usually make. Most of our sculptures are carved on one face. But depending on the mountain and the stone, we can do it.

In the workshop, before finishing.

When it came time to engrave the brass plaque, John didn't list his climbs. He didn't add his name, or the dates, or the elevation. He chose just a few words: "SENECA ROCKS, pre OCT 22, 1987"

The sculpture arrived at John's home in Virginia in March. He wrote back the next day.

"It arrived and I LOVE IT. I have been able to pick out several routes that I used to climb! When you come in my front door, it is the first thing you see."

Earlier, before we started carving, John had written something else that stuck with us:

"I am too old and out-of-shape to climb anymore. With this sculpture, I can relive some of my past climbs from 30 to 40 years ago."

That's why we make these.

Want Your Own?

If there's a mountain that means something to you, we'd love to carve it in stone. Find yours in our collection, or we can commission a custom piece from any reference photo. Add a brass plaque with a name, date, or any message you want. And if your mountain has two sides worth keeping, ask us about a two-sided piece.

👉 Shop the Seneca Rocks Sculpture →
👉 Commission Your Own Sculpture →

Ben