Tim wrote:This is pretty disappointing. This is the rock just east and a little below the summit. At first I thought it was taggers but what kind of tagger would climb all the way up to Iron to mess up a rock? But the lettering looks Korean.
Ok. My Korean co-worker says it is Chinese.
He's unclear on the overall meaning of it but broke it down for me.
far left: "I was here"
left part of middle: "west side"
right part of middle: "year of the cow"
character above the 4: "each"
character(s) above the 08: "river"
lower middle: "7 scholars"
Sounds like graffiti to me. I'll ask my Chinese co-workers for further clarification.
HikeUp wrote:I'll ask my Chinese co-workers for further clarification.
One of the co-workers who doesn't know shorthand pretty much can't make any sense of it - gibberish. Kind of indicates it is shorthand or "slang".
disclaimer: i have no clue as to the veracity of these interpretations.
Crikey, how the chinese get by is beyond me.
The guy from Hong Kong thinks it is talking about the "sacrifices of the many brave soldiers". This is a less literal translation of the individual characters - more slangy or colloquial. Also, since it is hard to read, a missing slash or an slightly different slash can change the meaning.
You know, when I was college I use to work at Disneyland as a ride operator. My dream was to work the Indy ride just so that I could wear the Indy getup, especially the fedora. Instead, I got stuck handing out stupid yellow 3D glasses in Tomorrowland. I guess this makes up for it. Maybe I should get a fedora for hiking 8)
HikeUp, thanks for looking into the graffiti. Maybe the next person who goes up Big Iron can bring along a can of light colored spray paint and paint it out.
One last attempt at translating the graffiti. This must be funny to see some gringo trying to understand chinese graffiti.
The overall meaning of the message is unclear because the first character(s) is not legible. Another guy here at the office says it might be something along the lines of "I'll sacrifice anything to accomplish my ambitions"
I was here on the west side of the river with seven scholars in anticipation of the Year of the Cow. We sacrificed many brave soldiers in order to accomplish my ambitions.
Iron Mountain is on the west side of the river. 2009 is the Year of the Cow. Only scholars are stupid enough to climb Iron Mountain. Most expeditions on Iron involve the loss of some soldiers.
Not to say this is correct, but whats wrong with applying a removal acid? Would it mess up the ecosystem or harm someone? I think a lot of areas are not worthwhile since it will be next day new graffiti, but for some I think it would be quite effective.
Tim, nice pictures and great report other than the illness. Cannot wait to go do this hike/climb. Started to do it in the early spring but it was too hot for my Lucy Girl Dog and did not want her to struggle, to much to do to keep safe myself.
Hope you feel much better on the next one.
Hope we don't run into any more critters at night.
AW wrote:Not to say this is correct, but whats wrong with applying a removal acid? Would it mess up the ecosystem or harm someone? I think a lot of areas are not worthwhile since it will be next day new graffiti, but for some I think it would be quite effective.
In those next day new graffiti areas a cougarmagic camera might come in handy!
