Mountain Anchor

Winter is almost here!

2011-10-24T22:05:00.000-06:00

It's finally groppling and not hailing!

baby steps toward a real post... I enjoyed possibly the last rockclimb of the season with my friend Mel this past weekend. We went and car-camped down at Pipestone. I got on what the guidebook calls "the most sandbagged route", 'Pipeline', on the King formation - grudge match because it had humbled me previously. I'm pretty sure I got off route; I sort of ended up migrating back into the water streak, but it was fun.

The next day we hiked back to Roof Rock a little further up the valley and climbed 'Montana Road' a 5star classic 5.8. It didn't take me long to remember... Stars means scary, and Butte 5.8 kicks my butt. It was a unique experience, I placed all my smallest protection including 3 Ball-nuts, and I slung a couple chicken heads and horn. I probably whined a little more than I should have, but I think I worked through some things in my head. Yippee for real climbing... good to get in the right mindset for ice - pro ain't always where you want it or as good as you'd like. Climbing is good, talk to God on the way up and hopefully you won't have to on the fast way down... Cheers!

skiing

2011-05-11T22:19:00.000-06:00

got out with Loren (wandering climbing monk) skiing and looking at ice. It's tough times to do anything in the mountains, lots of opportunities to make bad decisions. Among the many good decisions we made was drinking beer for charity at the Red Lodge Brewery. Remember the children!

Saw one of the biggest cornices I've ever seen hanging off the side of Mt. Reargaurds(?) plateau edge, from the cooke/redlodge road. It must be hanging out 30ft from the edge - I'd like to see that thing rip!

I declare

2011-05-02T09:32:00.001-06:00

So, the news is out: so n' so is no more.

This hasn't changed my feelings, I've felt this way for a while when I hear people ranting in hate about so n' so that did such n' such to whomever, where-ever; that is I want to reject hate and I have a heaviness that people not rejoice over another souls death. Consider David not rejoicing over Sauls demise - but in fact mourning it (2nd Samuel chpt 1). Proverbs 12:28 says: In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death. (We're not totally there yet) and Proverbs 24:17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and dont let your heart be glad when he stumbles Or the Lord will see it and be displeased and turn His anger away from him.

Reconciling personal behavior and government actions is tricky. Romans 12 & 13 give some good guidance. God is in control.

fire and ice

2011-01-03T21:45:00.003-07:00

whilst leading an ice climb the other day in the wee hours of the morning (by headlight) I swung for another stick and the ice lit up with a glow as I struck a rock underneath...neato... now I'm packing for another trip to explore the farther reaches of places ice grows within daytrip distance from Bozeman town.

smiles

2010-10-21T20:51:00.005-06:00

Got out with Dylan and got on the first ice of the season last weekend. Gran Carambano was thin so we bypassed it and took the gully above all the way to the plateau. It was the "Froze to Death experience" in ideal conditions. Someday I'll have to do the link up. A couple pictures at http://montanaice.com/node/1399

Autumn Entry

2010-10-11T22:17:00.004-06:00

For those of you that don't know I've gone back to school, maybe more on that in a later entry. This blog is horribly behind and my climbing journal is too - but I've been doing a little. Last week I was finally able to lead Theoretically on Practice Rock clean. I might have done my last rock for the season, we'll see - it's been a nice mellow fall. It's the middle of October and its the first night that I've had to cover the tomatoes.

This past weekend Ron and I went camping/climbing and tried to knock off a few open projects and end the season with a bang. The pack got a little heavy because there is no water source so we loaded up on the way in. I over did it a bit... 3 gallons for 2 days, maybe half a gallon less next time. Other notable challenges include rats and more rats. Over the course of just this summer three different ropes got chewed on and had to be trimmed down in length, one on this last trip. Them rats also make it challenging to bear proof your food b/c they chew the cord and then dig in to your stash. Next time, unless I just sleep with my food and brave the possible consequence of any bears, I'm gonna take a steel cable - I ain't kidding.

Mostly it was a pretty humbling trip, we didn't "knock off" the big project I was gunning for. It was fun but I wasn't feeling too rad or hardcore. Energy levels weren't as high as normal and it didn't seem like I had my head in it. We started the climbing with a fun reachy job that goes up a very aesthetic line over a nice overlap. It was the first time I think I've ever done an obligatory heel hook. Next we tr'ed a "retardedly hard" 12? I was able to scratch through most of it but friction can be frustrating. Power to hang on and core tension/coordination to yet move - thats an interesting equilibrium. Wow, hmm - I'd like to take it up a couple of notches. Then we meandered over to a beautiful low angle crack and got up a ramp to the top of a "new" formation. Castle-eering at its finest - perfect rock up a cruiser 5.4 crack. Then not quite satisfied I rambled around on some 5.7ish rock that proved a little more intriguing to protect, trying to pick a line that had more challenge, but not too much lichen. Then off to camp! Sweet spot overhanging boulder...beautiful stars, elk bugling, coyotes howling, city lights in the distance, camp fire casting a nice glow...

Day two we opted for some rock that would catch morning sun the soonest. We went to another unknown/new formation and ooed and awed and pondered at the cleanest/easiest/best line to take. I was psyched to hog steal my share of the leads but after it was all said and done I was glad Ron had taken his turn - there was a heady section transitioning between crack systems with a bit of "what if" factor (and ball bearing gruss in a critical pocket). We played the same game on another nearby fin formation. I took my big green friend and did a 5.8 offwidth variation of an otherwise beautiful 5.6. Then we boogied back, grabbed camp and all our miscellany, and headed for one last quick evening project. Picking up on something Ron said I kept continuously referring to it as, before we even got there, the "Grand Finale". I was gung ho to send something hard but again Ron rightfully claimed his turn and after it was over I was exceedingly glad I hadn't gotten on the sharp end. It was quite a unique route - amazingly featured rock, long, steep, and with multiple crux's. I don't think there would have been a snowballs chance in hell that I could have onsighted it - even with coaching I almost botched the top. On the summit I really didn't get to hang out long but there was unique great big "bathtub" heucos. I was suprised at how exposed the whole climb felt, it was pretty constantly challenging and airy feeling. It was a sighs of relief kinda climb; glad to get to the top, glad to get back down. Another one to add to my list that I'm going to have to go back and lead.

So over the course of the weekend I got my share of rappelling off so-so chockstones and horns. If it was the last rock of the season it truly was a grand finale and yet a good transition to next season. There is still projects to train for, like what I call the most beautiful crack I've ever seen - awesome little finger pods. I just need to figure out 5.11 crack... so I can lead that second pitch (the picture below). Next year? I hope so!

newness

2010-07-22T13:51:00.002-06:00

Lots of climbing, I like it - most of the time. Been using the smallest ball-nut lots lately; I'm always psyched to get something bigger than that in, but its better than nothing. Maybe the highlight lately was the first pitch of "Orange crack" in Gallatin Canyon. Not super-duper hard, but I got flash pumped, that made things interesting - even with great ledgy rests I was wondering if I was going to pop. I was finally into it mentally by the fun, short off-width at the top. Also some new granite routes down by the Fishes tail.

New music on my playlist... I'm bummed that Kris Kristofferson's "Pilgrims progress" seems to have disappeared, but there is plenty to replace it I guess. One of these days I'll have to pony-up and buy the music on the playlist, maybe then I'll be able to just make it part of the blog instead of having a pop-up. Anyone ever done that?

clue dart

2010-06-25T16:31:00.004-06:00

While I was up in Great Falls recently I decided to consolidate the old foundation stones laying around in the pasture. It's my best impression of a sheepherders monument, they scatter the landscape near my parents house... I have no sheep, so maybe it's just something to remember the year by - to tell my grandkids about - Ohh yeah... Well that was the year I...

Met Dylan Hertz and tried to climb Pilot Peak. (He succeeded the next week)

Later we climbed the Tower of Innocence, a spectacular climb; not the biggest thing around but the rock is great and the setting is wonderful, 8 good pitches! Maybe it'll be the year I lead the hard ones, but for now I'm content!

(doing the tick itch)

Soooo after one of the best rock climbs I've ever done I went and did the dumbest thing I've done lately... ahh the spice of life. Natural Bridge is a place where the Main Fork of the Boulder River pours out of a cave and into a big pool. From the pool, when the water is low, the river flows under large rocks at the tail end of the pool (right behind me in the picture) and the river emerges further downstream. There is an interesting longer 5.9 route that goes up the wall that is guarded by cliffs, this big pool, and the river. We rappelled in, Dylan mentioned something about the ropes getting wet... I said "well I hope not" and didn't give it much thought except that I wouldn't want to lead on the wet end. It looked like I could reach the rocks at the base of the climb so I launched off.

But what I failed to consider I realized in a few moments when I was on a freehanging rappel dangling over the river with one of the ropes riding the current and pulling me downstream away from where I wanted to be touching down. Thankfully I was able to reach the rocks with my toe and pull myself in to shore. I suppose I had the equipment to haul my butt back up that rope, but it wouldn't have been fun. It was way more pucker factor than I was bargaining for. We pulled the ropes and then I tried leading the climb but just didn't have the head for it. "Eek sharp limestone - don't want to fall" was all I could think of. I spent a good bit beating myself up over it too. It seemed pretty foolish to have committed us to climbing out. I think it would have been suicidal to have tried to swim... maybe all this is just a flashback of fear from the swim in the Clarks Fork - the day I decided breathing is cool.

I'm going back.

FOW

2010-05-11T09:02:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow the Fog of War, hope I dance right up it and don't test those pins I fixed! I'm psyched! Double psyched because my good friend is coming back from the Middle-East like 6 months earlier than I expected.

water

2010-05-11T08:27:00.002-06:00

whaaa! One of the housemates was up early this morning washing clothes and (obliviously) let the world within earshot know she is alive. What enthusiasm! I turned the heat on in the bathroom to warm it up, then had a couple of cups of morning brew. But in the meantime the city scammed me of my shower - someone shut off the water. Both houses are down, so probably its a city thing not just an undercover 'hey you didn't pay your water bill' thing.

So then I'm sitting at my computer and reading a financial analysts article about him "blasting" Warren Buffet. So it seems Buffet upon his death is giving 31B$ to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Casey is atheistic and I think he can't wrap his mind around this sort of love. He makes some good points about how screwed up things are in America but I think his Band-Aid logic is screwed up about why you shouldn't be charitable.

That brings to mind another something that I read the other day in one of his newsletters that hit me kind of hard (since I've been not working):

Dear Johnston:
Your request for eighty dollars, I do not think it best to comply with now. At the various times when I have helped you a little, you have said to me, "We can get along very well now," but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler. I doubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day's work, in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly wasting time, is the whole difficulty; and it is vastly important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should break this habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it easier than they can get out after they are in.

You are now in need of some ready money; and what I propose is, that you shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody who will give you money for it. Let father and your boys take charge of things at home--prepare for a crop, and make the crop; and you go to work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that you can get. And to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise you that for every dollar you will, between this and the first of next May, get for your own labor either in money or in your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your work. In this, I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines, in California, but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can get close to home, in Coles County. Now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next year you will be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your place in Heaven very cheaply, for I am sure you can with the offer I make you get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months' work. You say if I furnish you the money you will deed me the land, and if you don't pay the money back, you will deliver possession—Nonsense! If you can't now live with the land, how will you then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not now mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eight times eighty dollars to you.
Affectionately your brother,

A. LINCOLN.

So anyway I started reading about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the things they support. I was immediately grabbed by the support of small farmers. So I Googled the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, that led me to this:

http://povertynewsblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/in-under-developed-world-water-source.html

And already in the time it has taken me to type this our water is back on and I can go to the bathroom and flush the toilet and take a shower and drink clean water. Pretty nice this civilization - I'm thankful because it's certainly not an entitelment for being born.

crazy

2010-04-22T02:11:00.003-06:00

Feats of endurance always impress me. I heard on Radiolab podcast about a bit of the craziness that the RAAM athletes deal with trying to Race Across America. This article looks into a champions mind - disturbing and interesting. The strengthengine blog is a new source of motivation to train.

http://blog.strengthengine.com/that-which-does-not-kill-me-makes-me-stranger-3

Tangents

2010-04-16T17:10:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I "gardened" behind the Morgan Cemetary, cleaning out a dirty crack that may or may not be worth actually climbing on lead. Iffy limestone seems to add to the to pucker factor. I've been on the hunt for a name...

Today I actually gardened; preparing the planter boxes and planting a few rows of peas. Then I was praying about what direction to take - you know with my life kinda thoughts... Somehow or other I got looking into Yellowstone and thinking that I should go climb the Silvercord instead of heading into the Beartooths for another trip up into the Froze to Death cirque. I started looking for directions to the climb and pretty soon I was looking at where the term silver cord is mentioned in the Bible. I read a funny article in a magazine called Geez that put Solomons cynisism into perspective. Supposedly a literal modern day langauge translation instead of reading: "vanity, vanity, like striving after the wind" would read something more like "that's pointless - like trying to catch a fart in the wind" . There is LOTS of great wisdom in that there book, just remember Ecclesiastes is written by the wisest man in history - he is just lacking the vision of what to do because his relationship with his Creator has gotten skewed because of getting too tied in with too many women and their gods.

So then I'm trying to find the Jethro Tull song "The Silver Cord". No success with the song but I saw an advertisement for an online game called "The Fog of War". Cool name... google it.... no songs by that name, but it turns out there was an Oscar winning movie. It had an interesting interactive little promo site, so I continued the tangent. There I found a link to Lesson Plans. I now have homework to do and I suggest you do it too, because it poses the important questions and makes one really think. If you think we should or shouldn't be involved in a war, you've got to be able to express why. The movie is a documentary/interview with former US Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. It was inspired by McNamara's book:

Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century

The 20th century was the bloodiest in world history, and it is a moral imperative for humanity not to repeat the mistakes that made those hundred years so numbingly violent.

I think the human race needs to think more about killing, about conflict.
Is that what we want in this 21st Century?

Empower yourselves and others and change your world!

...I think I found a name for the climb.

great scott! It's time to pack and get to bed if I'm getting up at 3Am for Silvercord!

IOUSA

2010-04-10T22:32:00.003-06:00

Re: I.O.U.S.A. - Solutions: I tried to record it on CNN, I think they were playing the small version - it's hard to tell with all the commercials and my recording cut me off early. So I don't think I saw all of it, but enough that I got the jist of it. What they are onto IS going in the right direction. The CNN show and the movie clip was a multipartisan/nonpartisan effort to present a responsible wakeup call.
http://www.pgpf.org/getinvolved/citizens-guide/

What is all this mumbo jumbo economics talk on my "Mountain" blog... well due to the economic downturn one of my childhood skihills shut down this past year, http://www.skitetonpass.com/ or rather it's currently for sale and we'll see what becomes of it. It's kind of a mini Bridger...

But great Scott, it's back to the future... Tomorrow I'm hoping to avoid the road construction and skin up Showdown and hopefully ski the "Glory Hole".

More randomness

2010-04-10T16:47:00.003-06:00

I was chewing the other day... mulling over the economy. I'm not totally anti Obama. I give him big props for his crazy boldness to take the country in the direction he feels it should be taken; however I am a little concerned that he and numbers of elected officials that are not listening to their constituents.

Here in MT the Attorney General has refused to join the states trying to stand up against the strong arm of the Federal Government pushing the new Health Care Bill over on us; one source said there was a 70:1 ratio for the complaint vs support calls that came in to his office... and there were multiple hundreds. The AG's undertone seems to be "we know what's best for you, and your gonna get it whether you want it or not!" He is a publicly elected official and he is not even interested in public comments: http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/dont_expect_montana_to_join_lawsuit_challenging_health_care_reform/16781/
It's that kind of bunk that stirs up hate and discontent... Like, so what good is this "democracy" if democratic process is ignored? Some are still bold about speaking their minds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=G44NCvNDLfc

The other day I sent out a mass email the body was basically this: "I swore an oath to protect the US against all enemies foriegn AND DOMESTIC (itself?), I want others to be aware of our nations challenging situation - if we don't don't lighten the debt load it's gonna sink us. We need people brave enought to do something about it. Stay positive and look for solutions!" And I informed people of [ I.O.U.S.A.: Solutions ] - google it or something... No I'm not part of any rebellion or anything like that... I just think we should all be as proactive as possible to help our country and our countrymen. Am I running for office? (sigh) time for a run...

Free Speech

2010-04-09T15:03:00.002-06:00

http://www.naturalnews.com/028546_Jesse_Ventura_conspiracy_theory.html

There is a link on the page to an MP3 of an interview, I'm gonna have to check it (and the TV show) out! Part of the article body below

"Ron Paul, by the way, is another such person who shares this approach to telling the truth. Can you imagine how different our country would be right now if these two guys held the offices of the President and Vice President? The Fed would be running scared, and Big Pharma would be trying every trick in the book to silence them both. "

Super hyper link

2010-04-09T13:11:00.007-06:00

Ok, so I'm trying to blog my rants and thoughts instead of posting them as Facebook status updates. Maybe I need to start two more blogs, one for my faith life and one for economic/political. But really it all kinda braids together into who I am.

Check out this picture:

from http://www.thenewmystics.com/

also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWzgK1LMWzc&feature=player_embedded

I don't pretend to understand it all but I know that the "freaks" are doing it more like Jesus instructed than the people that label themselves as "christians" and try to explain away the miraculous as demonic or something that was only for a certain dispensation, as far as I'm concerned their explaining away the Christ out of Christianity. Whatever, He's not dead - He's the same yesterday, today, and forever!

So back to that picture. Don't get me wrong, I am for what thenewmystics is about; but that painting of Thomas poking at Jesus - that ain't what scripture records. I was reading the gospel of John chapter 20 earlier in the week (recommended homework after Easter service), I got to that part about Thomas and it says:

24But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

25So the other disciples were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."

26After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."

27Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing."

28Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"

29Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

That struck me kinda hard when I read that. Thomas said he wouldn't believe unless he stuck his hand inside the wound that the spear had made...

But it never happened - read between the lines and into the thoughts of Thomas and it maybe like "No, no, really I'm ok, you're here - I believe now." Next it flat out says "Thomas answered and said...", not "after probing around a bit to make sure He wasn't a fake" - Thomas got called out and he was in awe. It is so like God, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart, to "read our mail", He knows and cares - He will confront us on things, and it may be uncomfortable, but I think He just wants us to believe and think right.

Maybe it's just the way John wrote but it reminded me alot of His dealings with Nathanael in chapter 1.

Enchanted by the Enchantments

2010-04-03T14:54:00.002-06:00

I went through a TOTAL IT UP class with Wycliffe and got a good taste of translation and linguistics. Please pray that I use Gods favor wisely to bless others.

It was Spring Break for Jon and I needed an excuse to get his wedding gift to him so we planned a ski trip... I met a very interesting character right outside Belgrade I think it was, he needed to get to Bellingham - so I had company to keep me awake all the way to Seattle. Life had dealt this dude some hard cards, but it was amazing the stories he told about encounters in his life he had with the supernatural and prophetic. God bless him with a big catch of fish this summer! It was interesting to hear his stories about life in Fairbanks, it sounds expensive.

So Jon and I headed out near Leavenworth, a quaint and quirky resort town (with GREAT granite). Believe it or don't it was my longest winter camping trip, and it was perhaps my most nights in a tent in a row too... only 3, but its a start. We (I) sallied out on the commitment to do the bigger routes, there is some great objectives out there but I was not feeling the energy - it may have had something to do with my choice of food... see notes below.

As an overview we trekked in the first afternoon, the next day we skied both sides of Dragontail as it put on some fresh for us. The next day we went back up the East side and up to the summit and then lounged the rest of the afternoon. The next morning we had cold feet about leaving – literally, so after a leisurely time of drying things in the sun we headed out. Not super great skiing out, but interesting… I was going fast and crashed on the flats – as my face was grinding through the corn I was thinking that I should have been wearing a helmet. Maybe next time. Back out in Leavenworth we resupplied with food and energy-drinks and hit the CastleRock crag for a couple pitches. Sunday after a bit of cluelessness in Seattle (lost) we watched Jon's wife ride in a Collegiate bike race. After going to church with them that evening I went to my cousins on the other side of the metro... I arrived late. Strangely I got lost in the same place as I did the last time... Anway here are some pictures.

Super light tent & I didn't bring too much extra junk. But still our packs were half our body weight...

Camp - before we built a wall... should camped in a sheltered location but because of the view this pre-packed camp site was too much to pass up. We suffered a very windy night the second night.

Balance Rock, as seen from camp at Colchuck lake; a 5.12 classic to come back for!

Dragon Tail Peak from camp. Triple Couloirs, that we coulda-shoulda-woulda done, goes right up the middle.

On the way up Asgard Pass on the East side of Dragon Tail Peak. We also skied the Col. on the West.

Prusik Peak, the reason I packed too much climbing stuff (that we never used).

Interesting snow/rime ice in Washington.

On top of DragonTail Peak, Mt. Rainier on the horizon.

Some of the best turns of my life on the backside of Dragontail... No picture of the 45 degree ice that made me chicken out further down below the pass. Finally toward the end of the run the Carl Douglas tunes in my brain kicked on and I was zipping around looking for rocks to jump off... I was trying to dance the Kung-Fu.

Food notes to self (or others):

I tried not to over think the food situation, in retrospect I should have given it a little more thought. Powdered potatoes get old real quick. CousCous, sausage, cheese - yummy.
No breakfast = No energy + cold hands and feet
palatable food gets eaten, icky stuff doesn't. GU is good.
A double BOMB borrito... maybe not the smartest way to start the trip.
melting snow for water and meals we nearly ran out of fuel: 3 nights, 2 full days and a 1/2 day on each side in &out. Whisperlite is painfully fiddly. 1 med & 1 small bottle of fuel.

Gear notes:

I need to practice sleeping on my back otherwise a Ridge-rest is too hard-core for me.
a second stove would be awesome.
full width skin and crampons for Cascade touring!

California Ice

2010-04-03T12:24:00.005-06:00

For Real! A good trip! My cv-axle on my car is on the fritz. I'm remembering the road I travelled - the scenic route (lost) to get to Roscoe - and I'm not feeling too bad that after 80K Olin miles I need to replace them... Good Subie. At least it didn't break on the way out to Seattle... more on that trip in a bit.

Need to get going earlier, and move quicker and more efficiently, still didn't get it to the top, but the headwall pitch was my stoutest lead to date probably. I don't know about Echo's pitches (the first 200' or so) but I felt like it was WI 5, techy and brittle... made me pucker just following.

Good fun... followed by a lot of down climbing and a bunch of rappelling... I think I need to go back after all this snow settles out and do it again and just enjoy it with out having to down climb all that WI2, you can tell we're a ways up off the valley floor... I think we did at least 8 little rappells.

Bridgette getting to the top of the headwall!

Echo on the first pitch.

Palisade Falls

2010-04-03T12:07:00.003-06:00

A friend lost her job.... Climbing opportunity!!

2/26
B-Rad, Dana and I got out on a bluebird day and I finally got to lead Palisade and FINISH IT! It was super nice that it was warm enough to keep the fun factor high (so warm in fact I got mud on my rope to wash off). I had a tool pop on me, that got the heart rate up a bit... Glad my other one was still planted solid. Kudos to Dana for taking some good pictures! And to Brad for showing me how to do with out creating the sew-it-up rope drag... And now Dana already has a new job - Congrats!

Catch up.

2010-04-03T11:38:00.004-06:00

3/20 I got out with Echo Oak and climbed Silver Falls by Red Lodge. It was the strangest sandbag in a while. It looked sOO Fat and ramped out that I commented that it looked like WI 3; well it was still in 4+ conditions. The brittle and insecure virgin chandeliers made things challenging, even with good leashless tools it was still a knuck basher, the icicles looked like they had formed with an upward whisp - so they were daggers pointing at your hand every swing unless you cleared em' off. Echo wanted the lead, it was hers to take since I got the last one on California Ice (Wait I gotta post about that (oh yeah and Palisade too..)). I'm not sure if those posts were in the right order, but anyway. Yeah for getting out with Echo, she led a good stout lead again. Then I led and we simuled up some gully ice steps and then she did another difficult step with big brittle dinner plates and I followed it with a nice sticky pitch that wandered up into the trees. Amazingly we got off without getting the rope caught in the trees.

New Rope!

More tick marks for the beauty industry worker.

Dreams, dead or alive.

2010-03-12T11:19:00.005-07:00

An overly wordy first post attempt failed, so here is attempt number two - the short version.

Here is Steamboat...

Haystack Butte as viewed from the summit of Steamboat.

The approach/climb involved a bit of bushwacking, scrambling up scree slopes, and eventually quite alot of post-holing. I am a little ashamed to admit it but I found myself wishing for snowshoes a time or two. I found myself wallowing and trying to swim on top a time or two but even with the breakable crust it really wasn't too bad. I'm sure my knees would be much less happy with me now if I had used them. From the top the views of the prarie to the east and the mountains all around are quite fabulous. Good podcasts from ibethel.org kept me distracted from the suffering, such good teaching, relevant information, and news of amazing things that are happening in the world; I love it!

Caribou Peak:

Expecting some suffering, I posted some quotes on Facebook by Emil Zatopek before I took off on the trip, one of which was: "Men, today we die a little". As it were the only things today to die were my dreams.

My original plan was to ski Caribou Peak. Unfortunately trail access to the Falls creek trail is private land and is now all fenced off. I guess there is negotiations in process to work out easments and whatnot. If you know this peak or would ever like to do it from the Dearborn side instead of having to go in from farther away please let the Forest Service know. The number for the Rocky Mountain Ranger District in Choteau is 406-466-5341.

Dream #2 to whither for the season happened when I discovered the non existance of the ice climb of my dreams. I think it just fell down in the hot weather we had. Time to keep training for next year... That's probably a good thing, it actually made me think of more wisdom from Emil that I recently read: "You can't climb up to the second floor without a ladder. When you set your aim too high and don't fulfill it, then your enthusiasm turns to bitterness. Try for a goal that's reasonable, and then gradually raise it." So I'll focus on getting solid on WI5, that would be a good ladder toward that dream.

The Bears Teeth

2010-02-26T11:53:00.011-07:00

I was fortunate enough to make the aquaintance of Rusty Willis during the Cody Ice Fest; a living legend in my mind. He is someone that my friend Loren speaks highly of and draws inspiration from so I was stoked to get to be a part of his class. I knew last season they made an attempt with Stan Price to climb the Bears Tooth that ended a bit too abruptly and left them all with a deeper sense of respect for snowpack instablilities. Despite that experience they were soon recovered from their bumps and bruises and committed to go back. I want to say psyched, but that instills the wrong vibe. Cautiously hoping to find a safe and feasible and perhaps challenging way to accomplish a truly grand goal and REALLY willing to suffer to see it happen - that would be the tone.

So anyway I told Rusty I'd love to come along as a sherpa if they made a future attempt. I wanted to get a little closer to the game in the bigger mountains. The opportunity came quicker than I had imagined it would. I was even invited to climb. Loren and I packed up and headed down to meet Rusty. I did what I could to contribute to the cause, I even packed along lots of olive oil for calories, but when "go time" came I bowed out, not wanting to slow them down with the bothersome logistics of a group of 3... nor did I want to epic as a result. While they were climbing I explored around a good bit, took a ton of pictures and got to climb up and down some good steep snow gullies, I set foot on the Beartooth Glacier and I got my first experience sitting on a double corniced knife edge ridge - exciting stuff. I found a notch on the backside that looked reasonably safe that intersected their route to the "Tooth" and climbed up to give them an extra liter of water, thinking that they would need it if they were crazy enough to continue, thankfully they were not and the handoff was never made. They did a probable first ascent of the mini-tooth via a good bit of challenging alpine climbing in weather that would be considered relatively nice by Beartooth winter standards... but still not nice really, by most standards.

Skip this paragraph if you don't want to be bothered by spiritual thought.
The word dukkha has been introduced into my vocabulary... it is linked to Buddhist thought, but as an adjective describing emotion it means suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, discomfort, anguish, stress, misery, and frustration (Wikipedia). I struggled with this idea and the clash in my mind to not embrace suffering. I don't know if I've got all my thoughts and philosophies totally refined to the point of being able to articulate them. But this is what it boils down to: Dukkha is one of the Buddhist "Four Pillars of Truth", the whole point of which is to lead one to the fouth pillar - the eightfold path of right doings ie. righteousness - which accordingly should lead to the cessation of suffering. While I don't embrace Buddhism, the issue is the same: we suffer because... that's the deep part. Christ was prophesied to be the savior of a sinful (and thus suffering) people. He was described by the prophet Isaiah as being despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief... it is written there is none righteous... no way to the Father (God, heaven, and true enduring cessation of suffering) except through Jesus - by accepting his perfect work that thereby makes us righteous. It's challenging to understand why pain and suffering still happen, but I think alot of it has to do with God wanting to build and test our character. James wrote: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds". I was thinking during the trip that if I'm going to use the word dukkha I wanted to integrate another word too. I like the word jihad. It of course is Islam in origin, but in the general sense if not adopting the radical murderous side of things it too is a word that means to pursue righteousness... struggling to better ones self and/or society. So I hope it doesn't sound too "Team America"; Olin says: "dukkha jihad like Jesus".

Rusty posted a video that captures the bliss and success of the trip...
http://rustywillisclimbing.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post.html

I wanted to make sure to post some pictures of the "trials of various kinds".

Some quality "tree skiing":

Can you find Rusty in this picture? He's bundled and belaying. The "Bears Tooth" is the prominent spire.

More dukkha; the wind moving the snow around:

And an invitation (plea) for sponsorship: a picture depicting the "survival skiing" that we endured on the trip out, heavy packs and Silvretta's an easy descent does not make. Rusty and I may not have skiied as smoothly as Loren in Rusty's video, but we survived so I claim that we are deserving of sponsorship. The rocks (boulders) and trees were the thickest I have ever trudged through, thankfully we found a better way out than in, but still... dukkha. It took a while for me to figure out what all the bruises were from - then it dawned on me: "oh yeah, I fell down ...times" (thanks Jim!) Faceshots!

Cheers! Eye Candy for next time: The mini-tooth is on the right.

fun

2010-01-20T21:38:00.004-07:00

2010-01-18T19:07:00.003-07:00

FRA? "Full Contact", IV,WI2/3, 250'. 1/15/10.

Because its there and I couldn't leave well enough alone, I stripped down everything I didn't need (including the camera) and went solo. I'm glad I went light, the approach was full value as stupid as that sounds. From below the climb it looks alot like "Contact Falls"; there is ice pouring off rocks in all sorts of strange ways with many variations. I climbed from the lowest point of ice up to the trees on ice pretty much the whole way. It was really pretty good ice. More challenging variations are possible.

Named for the slightly rediculous approach, the proximity to Contact mountain, and the swimming I had to do to get from the top of the climb to the descent gully.

Cheers,

Olin Erickson

getting there

2009-12-04T20:32:00.005-07:00

Ice season is warming up! The weekend wasn't everything I had intended, but it turned out ok. And I think I'm finally beginning to recover from it - that's welcomed.

Determined not to ditch my friend Page, I left at Odark30 to get down to Boz and rendezvous for a quick trip up Hyalite. We got a quick try at the Sceptre which got us both pretty wet. Then it was down to the .... where Ron and I found a nice campground. Out of the wind, nice warm temps, burbling brook nearby. Couldn't ask for more. But I didn't sleep well; too much caffeine, achy back, anticipation? At 1am we got up and chowed, broke camp, and by 1:45 we were on the t- t- trail, wait... well we were bushwacking away toward never never land. I said "Are you sure this is legal?" hmm well we did due justice to checking out the drainage that should have been 'da bomb', but it wasn't. It was hideously steep and thick with downfall from windstorms. More snow and colder temps would have let us perhaps walk up the creek where the going looked good but we came to the realization that our sneek attack was failing so we turned around again. Back to the car by 5:15 with 2 hours to kill till daylight to see if the .... was in shape. We decided the stoke was gone and headed back for some French toast and a nap. Good choice. We spent some time looking at pictures to keep the dream alive.

I got back to Boze for some delish dinner at the Lockie household, had a nice warm bed, and got to play pranks on the Beckster. After a good breakfast and church I even got to go climbing again, because Ron needed an excuse to get my gaiter back to me. The velcro had stuck to his shell and so we nabbed a couple sweet afternoon climbs before the following week of cold weather and crazy buzy work descended upon us. Sticks were good in nice, mostly plastic ice, and we both got in a good lead - on a variation of Hangover that neither of us had done before. Besides the dinnerplate that almost pulled Ron off (and decapitated me) it was a very pleasant outing.

Well tomorrow has enough worries of its own eh?

2009-11-23T19:52:00.005-07:00

Picture of Das Eis Ice with Luke and Aubrin back in '05?

I guess I am actually getting this Thanksgiving weekend figured out, but the December Bellingham trip is getting challenging. I'm pressing forward determined that I have made a good decision I am not going to back out of - its just wierd the way sometimes you make plans and then (literally) all heaven or hell breaks loose to redirect you or keep you from your blessing... OH for just a closer walk with God to discern the difference!

This weekend I started up an ice climb that turned into a bit of debacle. Winter was coming down the gully and pelting me in the face so I put on my goggles. I went up, put a screw in and climbed back down with a neckfull of gropply snow. With hood up I tried again. It seemed like a monumental effort to concentrate and make progress with a concert of winter hammering on my helmet. I got to the "commitment point" and noticed that my crampons (on new boots) seemed strangely loose. I'm suprised they never fell off... And my goggles fogged up. That pretty much sealed it - I bailed. I put in another screw at the high-point and we top-roped that bit of it a couple times. My friend went up and the spindrift stopped while he climbed. I got re-stoked, then when I got on it, with crampons tightened and thinking about going for the top again, winter resumed its vengance. The toproping was fun but then getting off I had ice anchor challenges... thankfully I finished and was packing up by time I got the headlight out! Good silly fun all in all. Good lessons learned, good training.

The Bozeman Trail

2009-08-20T21:42:00.003-06:00

Back to the big rock again. We succeeded on a couple more interesting limey climbs. This time I wore old desert camo cotton pants! Who cares right? Well last time I wore something synthetic, R.B. wore his thin denim. No burrs stuck to him, yet I was carpeted with them, like someone designed those seeds to spread. Good pants were a major happy factor - or at least a big annoyance not to be bothered by.

Ron started up to the cliff while I got water from the creek. I misguided myself up a harder approach. Bummer. I got back on route and then the bowling for Olin began. Big rock crashing my way - I couldn't see it. Thankfully it wasn't close and it missed. Yeah life! Ron got the ropes set and scoped out the route on rappell. Perpetual rockfall, one very large gutterball. Yikes. He found that the new addition to our rack indeed worked like it was specifically made for the situation. Black Tricam happiness. The route would have a much more distinctive flair without it.

It was a long belay session while Ron toproped but I had a decently comfortable belay cave with beautiful scenery. I had a mini tantrum making tapegloves, but once finally on the climb I was glad that I had made them. The lead took a long time, partly because Ron was almost completely blinded by the sun and couldn't see the next move. It was a great pitch, Ron had all the pro he needed. He used his slings well and there was very minimal rope drag. Much happiness. I'm listening to IZ now and it reminds me of my first climb up the formation when we were above a rainbow - how often does that happen? Good feelings. I had a good lunch of a roast beef sammy and fresh garden peas. When I climbed I got all the gear to come out easily enough, the tricam was a little reachy for a pint size like me and I think I had to use an alternative stance from where it was placed from. It was a way cool climb on mostly good quality rock. The rock was steep and very featured yet there was good crack for jams and protection and dished ledges and other features for foot placements. Pretty awesome as far as limestone climbing goes and all natural gear. I was going to assign points and compare all the plusses and minus's but I don't think there would be any point; it was a stellar climb. We got the ropes pulled without incident - sweet. Then we went to the nearby climb called "Touch The Clouds" - named after a great Lakota indian chief.

I tried for the redpoint of TTC's first pitch. On the day of TTC's FA I had to hang on some of the draws. This time I got the 2nd bolt clipped and was trying to get on up to the third when I decided I was too pumped and it was not going to be pretty, I didn't want to ruin a good day so I went back over into the corner and continued up to the top... another new gear climb variation that avoids the flashpump. Pretty good climbing, just a minor tree snag to get around.

Catastrophic success

2009-08-18T23:41:00.004-06:00

I had a blast but you didn't miss out on too much today... or maybe you did. At the base of the formation we saw a cow moose with twins, kinda cool. We did the new 'Catastrophic' variation up that meets up with another bigger line we had previously done. I can't tell you how frickin awesome it is to bolt on lead. --- Because I haven't done it! --- From what I can tell, it looks like its pretty cumbersome. Probably like aid climbing - you really have to get a system down and practice it.

What I can tell you is that my dream of onsight freeclimbing some limestone came true today. I volunteered for the first pitch because I thought I didn't have a clue where the second pitch was supposed to finish. It was all natural gear in a corner crack system with unknown stuff, probably ledges, for a belay. I decided I'd haul up the drill if I needed it. I didn't, it was sweet 5.7 with a dance around a death block that I said would be catastrophic if it came off, frickin monster, I'm glad it stayed put. Then Ron led with the drill, carrying it. It looked heavy, like it was turning 5.6 into 5.9+ b/c of the extra weight. He placed a bolt to avoid some pretty broken rock and cut the pitch off to regroup at the base of another steep section. Given the variability of the quality of the rock it took me a while to psych up for the next pitch. Our two options were: 1. going up left via a steep but pretty clean looking line that goes past another large block/flake that would probably take out the belayer if dislodged or 2. going up a slightly less clean and more challenging way with questionable protection, only partly attractive because its angle eased off sooner, unfortunately it looked like broken nastiness. I decided to go for it and I chose option 1. I thought there would be no way for me to succeed with the weight of the drill in tow so I left it behind again, thinking I could get gear in close to my point of commitment for the block. It turned out well. It was 5.8ish and sorta heady moving up by the block and trying to get past it without reefing on it - all the while wondering if there was going to be any good protection above. It worked fine with only slight cleaning required. You pop out on this ridge and romp on 5.4 to join up with the other route. Once you join it you can clip a bolt and pull a move of 5.8 and your at the chains. They all lived happilly ever after... until they got the ropes snarled trying to rappell, and ohh what a place to do it. I threw a lasso around a tree... special.

Death march enjoyed by self

2009-08-16T01:14:00.003-06:00

On Aug.10th I went on a nice hike up to a nice secret place; 30 mile round trip overnighter in 27 hours. Most of the way out my feet hurt more than they have in a long time, but I just had to smile through the pain, it was worth it. The trail on the way up was loaded with berries so thick you could smell them. But better yet, the mountain was the coolest thing I'd seen all summer. There was water drizzling all around, waterfalls misting off of lofty cliffs. I'm so excited for it to freeze up. I really think and hope that it's gonna be excellent ice climbing. It should be an awesome trip when it happens... except for the approach which can't be made any shorter than about ten miles, thats part of the glorious challenge. Can't wait to get the film developed. Maybe I'll post a picture of the misty coolness.

Summer Flies

2009-08-03T18:03:00.005-06:00

It all goes so fast. Well I haven't even kept up on the climbing journal but I'm in Great Falls now for a couple weeks so hopefully a bit of reflection AND training. I hope to tie up and file alot of loose ends and old notes, I'd like to throw away a bunch of stuff - declutter the mind. Since the last post we went back once or twice more, I don't remember - three times to the general area I think. The previous comment about there not being enough time held true both times in the remote part. I have the feeling more could be done but it would be an epic day, with the 2hr hike on each side of the day I think it would be easy to get carried away.

Lest I forget I must mention the good adventures and exploration other places. My last climb with Dan (till I can visit him in CA) was up the Mutt and Jeff route on the Wedge by Dillon - super climb in a cool location. Then there was a spontaneous trip to Mt. Tweedy in the Pioneers with Jon Toner - we got abuzz with electricity on the 4th of July (praise God not struck). There was a quick trip up into the Cowen cirque with friends and XA students. Trying to make use of days off last week I went with friends into the Beartooths and was thoroughly impressed that the weatherman was right about the chance of rain. Not wanting to findout about the forecast for snow we didn't even spend the night. We just took our pictures and hightailed it home... After a stop at the RedLodge taphouse. The next day I went climbing up behind Morgan Cemetary and was reminded how heady some of the climbing is and why it was that I named a certain route "Desperado". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsLylyEoLDo&feature=related The weather was threatening among other excuses so we didn't get as much done as I hoped. The following day was coolish temps so I went back and finished bolting a project that has been a while in the making - something I'd like to call "Epitaph" if I can ever get it climbed - good training motivation.

Jon in the meadow.

The rock of Mt. Tweedy - you can see the N. ridge we climbed, but not the summit proper, nor did my feet tread upon it. Oh, and on the hike out I got good and lost. I'll try not to seperate from a partner again...

Jon being silly.

So to rewind somewhere into history: the next trip (#2 or was it 3?) to the "undisclosed" area was to just TR "Titanic"a project of !%#'s I decided not even to try that but to jump on this unclimbed, nasty, awkward, traversing offwidth. It almost went, I'll go back - hopefully more triumphantly next time. Deciding to try another new line I did a new unlikely looking 5.9+ that turned out to be excellent. That pitch was to get to the top of the formation so I could get the gear out that I lowered off of on the other climb. I've got to go back and get the redpoint on that too b/c I used a spot of aid. After all my thrashing that day even my torso was doing the sewing machine shake.
One of those trips we went back in and climbed this cool tower - "Snoopy":

It is rather imposing but upon further inspection we found a weakness on the backside, a challenging 5.9 with somewhat dubious gear that goes up a short steep section and then heads up the summit slab - there is a 5.6 ramp at one just one small spot that isn't overhanging. After that we went to the other rock via the backside sneaky cave and I got to lead the traversing chimney. It was alot more fun to lead than to follow. We both rapelled the project route and did a bit of cleaning and surveying. It got awfully dark and we tenatively pulled the ropes hoping not to create too much static. Then we hunkered down while it rained and nature put on a sound show.

Trip #4 we went back and I climbed to the top of Snoopy up a good challenging off width that met up with the other route near the top. (Note: Two weeks of scabs prove it's unwise to climb off width in a tank top.) That was just to "warm-up". Then we went and tried the project PS 18:34. I got up the first pitch! Not 5.9, it was probably the hardest thing I've led on gear to date, probably mid to hard 5.10. It seemed techy and thin to get up underneath the "death block", the dagger that is broken off and wedged in the crack. Once I got to it I was able to use it for good hand jams, it was pretty sketchy to climb around, but it didn't budge at all. The rest was great 5.8 to 5.9 climbing, a wonderful "full value" pitch. So far, so good, but when !%# started leading P2 we realized that he was too fatigued from his recently successful efforts at redpointing Titanic. He downclimbed and we wisely backed off. It was still plenty exciting rappelling on two hex's, but we got away without leaving any nesting material for the local pack-rats.

It seems like the story goes... "They all went home and went to work the next day..." but I want to write a chapter "They climbed all fall and lived happily ever after." It might happen. It could happen, by golly - I think it will! With the joy of my Salvation I'll take whatever comes and make the most of today. God lead me into your plans for me. Amen.

Ramblings about rock.

2009-06-15T21:06:00.004-06:00

The ideas picture (use your imagination) has a red trace of one of the first things I want to do: get up that big Chimney. Its just kind of a must do 5.7/8?. Last fall I led a gardening, rope drag monster of a 5.8+ pitch that took us to a hidden hole in the wall that we could have walked up around the backside to. From there ?#$ led a weird pitch that involved traversing, then down climbing into the chimney and then traversing about 20? feet unprotected across the top of this chimney, with like 50' of air under your heels. Somehow he did this while keeping the backpack with drill in tow off his harness. While following I kept thinking if I fall I'm gonna get stuck and not be able to get out. We found out last week that the entrance ramp is guarded by crumbly and/or wet rock. I proposed stacking rocks to make a ladder up onto the ramp, but it was decided to be a silly notion. So probably the best way would be to traverse in around from the sunny side on good rock. The chimney is (mostly?) perfect forearm length - really secure body chimneying and it has a crack that should take gear that pops out right at our anchors for the project I'm calling ps18:34.

I dont know that the picture really does it justice, the top pitch is very foreshortened. I think the first pitch will be full value 5.9. I'll be needing extra credit to get up past the belay and through the fingery section. It gets reeeaaally thin but has the occassional pod that opens up that makes it climbable/protectable - aidable anyway. Then it opens up into hands for 15m and then fists/bigfists for 15+m. There isn't much for feet, just smears. I imagine that it is going to be super pumpy! I'm excited to try it! There is ramp at the bottom and we were just able to get down to the high side with 2 60's.

We are wanting to give it a brush and check out the pro. I don't know that we are going to toprope it... I know its not the adventurous ground up style but what can I say, its harder than anything I've ever done. I'd like to have the gear I need and not too much that I don't. There is SOOO many possibilities that these pictures don't show. It is almost just a tease to go back to this place without camping. On a one day deal there just isn't enough time or energy to climb more than about 2 pitches.

Accountability

2009-05-27T14:52:00.002-06:00

First drafted back in May, I still agree, more gear is not always needed but sometimes the right stuff sure is nice, as one of these posts mentions with the black tricam.

I'm a little aggitated today, recent gear purchases perhaps? I always hate parting with my hard earned money and want to spend it wisely. As I was laying in bed I was thinking and remembering that having more gear doesn't mean having more adventure, strangely it is often the other way around. So this is my confession time. I bought the new little black size tricam from NLTC, oh yeah and a screaming deal on some new ice climbing gloves - I tend to milk gloves for all they are worth, my other pairs are getting frazzled. Warmth and waterproofness are worth some change. From Barrel Mountaineering I bought a pair of LaSportiva Katana's. I've tried on shoes, shoes, and more shoes. I like comfy, but comfy won't get you up the hard climbs - but I draw the line on pain at a certain level. Nothing else seems to fit my foot, and I'm stoked to have a velcro pair. I heard that the velco buckles don't agree with crack climbing too well so thats when I got compulsive. I got a pair of Barracuda's too, Sportivas crack version on the same last as the Katana. They discontinued both now... why? I like their fit so much more I find myself reaching for them anytime I can. Adventure mountaineering climbs still call for a comfier shoe I guess. Cheerio.

2009-02-16T18:42:00.003-07:00

Valentines day proved to be one to remember, it was the first time I have actually had a date for that day. I hesitate a little to bring up love on this blog ... I love you ...... (and won't soon forget you. Yup no more love life blogging) They say it's better to have loved and lost... but I don't know about that

For any interested, here's a link to the "Spray" section of the local ice climbing website where I recently ranted a bit.

http://montanaice.com/node/954

Good training for ninjas aka Plan B

2009-02-11T13:03:00.004-07:00

Almost a Montana classic! Bizzare on the order of "Cottonmouth" this grade 4, WI3+ flow comes pouring out from a collection of boulders with low angle gullies on either side of the climb - odd that the water doesn't go down the gullies. Short but sweet and wide the climb is only about 150' long, unfortunately this climb is more about the approach than the climb.

Exercising our best ninja stealth, map reading, and our ability to beat ourselves stupid, my friends(*) and I snowshoed over a plateau and down the other side to get to this nice little ice climb. A direct approach was tried previously on skis with little success. After 5 hours of effort and making it only roughly three miles through a carpet of a forest, to the base of the gully that the climb is in, we had to call it day. I would disclose the location but I want to go back for more practice on the direct approach with snowshoes. This climb has a neighbors and one is wider than it is long... and hopefully it's longer than this climb was.

*names withheld to protect the secrecy of the ninjas.

You know

2009-02-06T18:10:00.003-07:00

You know your in Montana when... or is it you know your a redneck when...
Well I miss having a shed or garage etc., anyway the other day I wanted to use my bike and found that it was completely frozen to the ground. I locked them up many moons ago and neglected them. I tried to dig one out and buried the metal of the shovel into the almost new tire. rrr. It took ten pitchers of water to thaw the tires from the icy snowpack. Now we'll have a skating rink. All are invited.

I went to do some recon and got suprised (stuck). In this photo from last year I actually knew the conditions were bad and got some speed and rammed it trying to make it through. Dumb.

I'm learning snow crusts can be deceptive and fickle; its hard to tell how deep the snow is too.

Today while driving a little too fast approaching a spot that didn't look to bad I started thinking " I could get stuck here" and bam! I was! Neat!?

I had been wondering if I'd have to dig a snowcave on that recon trip, I didn't think it would be under my car. After digging out, a nice old guy helped with the finishing touches and pulled me out (and almost into the rocks, yikes). While still contemplating whether or not to snowshoe another vehicle came along and tried to give that drift the 'what for' in different spot. The results were the same. Bam. I helped the kid out - lots more digging. The old guy was right, call it a day and go home. I parked and enjoyed the scenery (Haystack Butte) and meditated on God making His ministers "flaming fire". Psalm 104:4 and Hebrews 1:7

Suppertime, yeah for moms' cooking!

Get your slog on

2009-02-02T17:58:00.002-07:00

Stardate: 31 Jan, 2009. More slogging. The infamous Montana Gazetteer lies again. R.B. convinced me to get out and try for some unrecorded ice climbs, he mentioned how much ice there was and so he didn't have to twist too hard. When we got to the "trail head" we even saw a great shield of WI3ish ice that is probably 250' long and 300' wide. Good encouragement when that's not even the drainage that the bulk of the ice is in. I looked at a satellite photo on google maps and had some heads up that the trees were pretty thick, but I was still hopeful.

Supposedly the map showed a road up our desired drainage. I got excited that we might actually be able to ski in up a logging road up to the tree line and then hike windblown ridges to avoid avy danger. I wore my ski boots, I was stoked for a comfortable approach and a full day of climbing. As it turned out there was only a quarter mile of meadow that had been logged. We spent most of the day thrashing in the trees and floundering in the snow and only a little bit of time even looking at ice. It was thick, about the stupidest bushwhacking I've done in a while or ever. It was bad but not too bad, we just kept telling ourselves that it would get better and hoping that the other would cry uncle. We pushed hard for five hours and only made it about three miles. At about 3.5hrs I think uncle was called but because I didn't think I would ever ever ever want to come back that way again I wanted to keep pushing and get a better look at the climbs; secretly I was still hoping to actually get something climbed. Nope. We made it up into the bowl where the climbs are but no go on getting anything done. It was after 1pm and would have taken another hour and half? to get to the base of anything... I think its good that R.B. has a better reality of what will happen if you charge ahead without anykind of turnaround time - you end up benighted. I should remember thats not too comfortable, but I haven't spent an unprepared night out in the winter, I'm sure it's not pleasant. There were quite a lot of climbs up there Big Wide Fat climbs, like 9 different lines, some of them over a pitch. All just taunting us; there is bad snow slopes above some of them, but not all of them. On to plan B. What's plan B?

More adventures in slogging

2009-01-27T18:56:00.002-07:00

After a lapse in time I'm back. I guess I tend to blog more about epics and expeditions than journal about everyday fun and training. The season has been good, with its ups and downs and cold weather, but good. I can't recall all the climbs that happened since November but in December Jon Toner came over from Washington and we attempted a backcountry trip into Yellowstone but never even slept in the tent; well I guess we couldn't have anyway because we left it behind to save weight. At any rate after 5 miles the snow started getting deeper and the fun-meter on pulling the sled pegged. We realized 15 more miles to get to our objective was ludicrous. Then we epic'd on Idaho roads and rallied back to Big Sky to climb Ousel and salvaged Jon's vacation with a day of skiing at Bridger Bowl.

New Years eve I watched "The Mongul" with Loren. Its a really good film and it's a great look at the trials and tribulations of Ghenghis Khan when he was a youth. Looking at Lorens maps of the Beartooths I dredged up the idea of going back down into the West Boulder. New years day I got such an alpine start that I decided to take a nap at the trailhead. I was able to ski from the car and I made it to the Falls Creek junction, but there was no visibility. Just a 16 mile workout on crosscountry skis. It looked like the terrain got pretty rugged so I was betting on finding something up Falls Creek. Barely! Amy Barwick joined me and we made off with a couple climbs, the only ones in the drainage that have been done to date that I'm aware of. It seems like there ought to be more up there, but its similar to what I saw in the Stillwater, just high and dry for the most part.

The awful snowpack that I experienced on New Years Day had consolidated nicely, but as a result of the warmth everything down lower had melted. That meant having to tiptoe through the trees across a mile of ice and carry our skis sloshing through the mud in the 45 degree heat for another 2 miles up through the beautiful meadows before we got to a place where there was enough snow to ski. No reason to get lost too early in the morning, we got traveling at first light and got up into the drainage and found some ice, only 10 miles from the car. It wasn't nearly what I was expecting, but it was fat and fun, brittle and hollow, all in all a good alpine experience. The snowpack was thin enough and not super wind-loaded so we were happy not to experience any slide activity. By the time we got back to camp and broke it down it was past dark, 0030 the next morning by the time we got to the car. The rest of the night was completely artificial stimulants, gas station burritos, and hobbling, but I was suprised how well I recovered with just a nights rest. What's next?

Success.

2008-11-24T07:51:00.004-07:00

Jimmy Stewart and I returned November 15, 2008 and were blessed with excellent weather and made it up the big icicle. Jimmy took the first pitch, a stiff WI5 and he was able to fashion out a "cave" belay behind the curtain of ice. It protected him well while I took the long second pitch of WI4. It was a big day in a wild place. I wore a helmet cam and the video will be forthcoming hopefully. We are calling it Gran Carambano, IV, 100m WI5.

eye candy

2008-10-28T16:41:00.007-06:00

We went back. Again. It was as nice as a day near the plateau could be expected to be. That's what we were hoping for: nice temps and sticky ice. But the ice was brittle, surprise surprise. Our toes only mildly froze.

The climbs were formed up pretty good, but the ice on the big ones wasn't getting much water so it was really brittle. Ron had the gut feeling "I don't belong here" and I wasn't feeling so frisky for the first climb of the season.

So we thought we would explore other options. As it were, this early in the season there wasn't much snow and we were able to climb a bunch of WI2 that normally gets a little drifted in later.

Soloing got the confidence jump started. We climbed side by side; Ron found nice wet stuff, I climbed the styrofoam and ice lenses. Yeah winter!

Hunger

2008-10-13T20:26:00.002-06:00

I am spiritually hungry and determined to get to the Lords table to get a meal. I just added a link to John Crowders blog. He gets high on God - literally. He does things and talks about things that most "protestants" would consider on the verge of heresy, but there are people being filled with the Spirit and led to Jesus. I think it's interesting how many nay sayers there are out there, people who just want to criticize, condemn, complain, and cry "false prophet".

The best verse I've seen lately is Proverbs 14:4 "Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, But much revenue comes by the strength of the ox." Surely alot more can be accomplished when we actually try to move out in the gifts of the Spirit. As mortals we can only see in part right now and plenty of people do some strange things. So when the freakshow comes to your neighborhood don't be too quick to judge others - God will judge you accordingly. I'm stoked to see the Christian culture change from taking people to church to people being the church. Its going to be like Ezekiels river; God is going to be moving more the further we get from the building!!

Love yall'

The summers adventures

2008-08-25T13:31:00.002-06:00

Well the summer has been full of adventures but I haven't made much time to sit down and write about them. It's usually only on recovery days like these... but there are lots of reasons I haven't been writing much. I have a computer coming soon so that should help. Anyway here are some album links to some more pictures and perhaps I'll follow this post with some stories.

Climbing at Morgan

castles

E. Rosebud - The Ramp and More

Beartooth camping/fishing 08

Mt. Cowen, NE Arete trip

Crash!

2008-07-11T22:41:00.002-06:00

It's a sad day in bloggerdom, my parents computer crashed and with it went a couple years worth of digital photos into neverland - so previous posts are all that remains of a whole lot of adventures. Strange and ironic that I had just bought a thumbdrive to back-up all those never to be seen photos. Alas, life goes on and I have much to be thankful for. I'm sure that any memories that were made will be relived in story at some point.

God bless, all!
O-

Road Trip

2008-04-16T11:12:00.002-06:00

UtahSpring08

Here is a slideshow of the spring road trip to Moab. The slideshow works, but cuts off the pictures, click on it again after hitting play and it will take you to the webshots website where you can get a better view.

Old Baldy

2008-04-05T17:27:00.005-06:00

Thinking we were superstars we tried Old Baldy, Dan and me. Even with a nice alpine start we got our butts kicked. A real winter it is! The road that goes to Headquarters Pass and the Mill Falls trailheads is only passable to the big cliffs... the forest boundary? I tested the limits of the suby and I got stuck, so hopelessly high-centered that it took us an hour to dig out. We finally got the car parked and made ready to leave - we were still umm maybe 3 miles further down the road than we had hoped to be.

Dan took off while I was still fiddle farting around and unbeknownst to me he turned on "special forces mode"; I didn't see Dan for another hour or more... I finally caught him taking a break - waiting for me.

Dan had a plan and I went along: try to gain the ridge that goes up the toward the middle of the east face of the peak and then summit. It didn't seem great to me but I was too pooped to argue. We meandered up through some steep thick timber and I got to test the abilities of my new skis. They pretty much rock at climbing! But that only made me more pooped. We crested a couple of demoralizing little knolls that weren't on the map, then finally got to some thinner timber and on top of a point that offered a little bit of a view. By this time we realized that no matter what we did we weren't going get to the top and still make Dans date night appointment. PB&J never tasted so good!

We cut some great turns through the trees and got out of there. It was still a long slog back to the car but at least I pulled a good trick without even trying. Dan put his skins on when we hit the flats but I decided to leave mine off. His skins were doing good at balling up but he wasn't having much luck keeping up - but he gave it a good "special forces" effort. By the time I decided to wait and he finally caught up (he wasn't too far behind!) he had probably lost two pound of sweat... all written off for the cause of getting a good workout.

I posted my best picture, unfortunately it was still a long ways off and conditions weren't the best for photos. This fellows got one at the end of the linked page - taken from the north of Baldy looking south at it. I don't know which peak exactly it was, but you'll get the idea from the photo - friggin steep!

http://www.earmountain.com/page/bigchoteaucam/bigwright.html

I'm actually thankful I didn't get to the top, I might have tried to ski it. Yikes!!

Tune in next week for my jounalling of Dans last "bachelor" skiing adventure. We're planning on heading up South Waldron Creek. It should be GREAT, its dumping snow as I type! And I'll try to take some more worthy picts!

Mt. Lockhart - conquered

2008-03-06T00:01:00.002-07:00

Pictures to come?

Dan and I got an early start and stomped up Mt Lockhart by Teton Pass Ski area west of Choteau. Using the skin track Dan had put in a couple days earlier we smoked up the North fork of Waldron Creek and gained ourselves a vantage point of the peak. After much discussion of the snow conditions (and how stable they were) we picked our route. Not easy but aesthetic and mostly safe. We got close to gaining the east ridge and things got steep. I decided to put on my touring crampons and I made it a little further all for not. Dan bootpacked up and then when I had to take my skis off I had to get up and through some tough steep snow. the worst of it was I didn't have a pack that would hold my skiis properly. Fast and too light unfortunately.

Well - we got on more consolidated windblown snow on the ridge and travel fairly quickly, but we felt the effects of the altitude a bit and that slowed us some. We gained the peak no problem at just under 3 hours. We took a few pictures and then traversed the narrow ridge down to the south for easier access to the bowl and skied from there. Snow conditions were great up top but got a little heavy midway and by the time we got to the technical crux they were downright icy. There is one spot the whole bowl drains down and through and I had to cheat and sideslip and use little pinetrees as miny belays.

I cant wait to go back! Maybe with all this new snow the rocks will be covered.

foiled

2008-02-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

The good ol' Bridgers - Feb 07, photo Ed Coyle

Here I sit at the computer, when I could be sleeping in a perfectly good cold tent. Drats! Why did that car have to come with the weather channels anyway? (a lifesaver maybe?) I read between the lines of the forecast, added 2 and 2 and carried 4. I figured that if I drove up the road through the allready challengingly deep snow and got to the trailhead that when we got the forecast 3-5" and the 60mph winds that I would be hopelessly drifted in - a long ways from anywhere. I hope its wisdom... but I am a little anxious for need of exersize.

On a happier note I should be set up with a rockin backcountry ski setup soon. That doesn't necessarily mean I'll be having fun, but there's a good possibility that I'll be able to make turns instead of summersaults! Probably the weak link was my monster heavy boots - that were a size and half TOO big. My hope is no more summersaults down steep col's - but I doooo wanna ski em!

Bush-Wacky

2008-01-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

Well the winter is off to a good start! I went out on Friday to go explore for new climbs to do, but my plans got redirected from my original plans - THANKFULLY! Because of all the fresh snow and the forcast for lots of wind on Saturday I went someplace near the Bushwacker (remember negative 22F from a previous entry, it was 44deg warmer this time). I had hopes that I would find ice and that if I could bring back friends to climb it we wouldn't get drifted in on Saturday.

I had a nice thrash on Friday. I skiied on my randonee gear until my skins tip-clip broke, then I took out some accessory cord and rigged up a makeshift replacement. I decided to continue on foot. Just in case the skin fix didn't work too well I wanted to be headed in the home direction. So I post holed through knee to hip deep powder for about half a mile and decided that before turning around I would head up the hill to try to get out of the trees to have a look around. It took me 45 minutes to do what in the summer would have taken 5 or 10. As it were I just happened to be right across from some ice. Sooo I ran down the hill and headed up to ice to check it out. There turned out to be a big cave back behind the climbs - similar to the Sluice Box climbs near Monarch.

Saturday we got an early start and got some new climbs in. Ron, Aubrin and I got in there and after the "pick a number game" Ron led the curtain which went at WI4+. It was good and steep for a bit but the ice quality was a little wierd and most of the screws were hollow... let the non climber understand - not good.

With a good bit of thought and route planning I decided to take a whack at the pillar. It was near vertical, but with less features to use for your feet... a real arm burner! It went at WI5 and was by far the hardest thing I've led so far. I still have a ways to go to be climbing at the level I would like to (for those more challenging projects), this was a great mile marker - I'm glad I got up it safe and sound. It was a real nice climb, it even ended in some bushes; it don't get better than that! A good day with some great friends.

December grew wings

2007-12-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

How did it go by so quick?
Updates to my life:
I'm hunting for a job... and finally starting to embrace the fact that I'm going to have to make a resume.
I got out ice climbing a bunch the last couple weeks and got feeling pretty good about it again.

Today I went cross country skiing, it was ok, but not the most blissfull experience. Its winter! It was ZERO when I got up this morning in Belgrade. The good news is my new neoprene facemask works nice.

remission

2007-12-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

I've gone into remission from rampant blogging as you can tell. But as my adventorturous winter activities ramp up a bit I may be compelled to tell about them to share the suffering with my readers.

I am now residing in limbo at my friends, Luke and Samanthas, condo in Belgrade; I have no idea how long for but I'm looking for 'home' if that exists on this side of heaven. I'm living out of suitcases, but at least now I have a closet and a borrowed (real not air!) mattress to sleep on. So much better than living out of a car. And Thankfully I can shower any time I want... ahh the luxury of being clean.

I'm writing from Lukes computer... and I'm still unpacking. I know everyone loves that activity. Leave me a comment if your jealous. I have no idea where my camera is, but above are a couple pictures I dug up out of Lukes files from when he and I climbed Emigrant Peak down by Chico Hot Springs a couple of years ago.

phooey

2007-10-20T20:49:00.000-06:00

I guess I'm not nerdy, at least not in the conventional sense. I stumbled across someone elses quiz results on their blog and figured I should take the quiz to see if I could find out what I might be passionate about on a nerdy level. I guess it just reafirmed what I knew all along; I like being with people. I like being alone a fair bit but I can't hack it too long with out some social interaction.

What Be Your Nerd Type? http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_be_your_nerd_type

My Results: Social Nerd

One thing matters

2007-10-16T21:23:00.000-06:00

I'm planning on heading to Calgary soon...

IHOP ONE THING

Well I was planning on going. Life happens - and gas costs money.

Freshies

2007-10-15T06:33:00.000-06:00

Here's something for the picture hungry, a couple of first ascents of some pretty sweet lines... somewhere in Montana.

Space Cadet Arete 5.9 - Daniel Wussow leading

Super Doug 5.6 - me leading

fat tire

2007-10-09T08:47:00.000-06:00

I did it! I rode across the river on a bike. Wahoo! Heck yes it was fun. Carrie Jo and I rode down and I tried to cross on my cyclocross bike but the skinny tires just dug in. Then I got on the ol' mountain bike and ground my way across. Too bad I don't have a picture.

September

2007-09-27T09:49:00.001-06:00

Warning: this post may be edited if and when my camera and I come into the same proximity as the computer.

I'm still alive; really I promise! No I haven't fallen off a mountain, but that's a good idea - I think I'll go try that. I just hope I don't get hit by any rocks.

In case you missed the last few episodes of The life and times of Olin (there may have been station outages) we'll review:

Ron and I have been Limestone Cowboy's trying to round up a big route. Many a rope lost their sheath to this project. Some weren't so lucky and got turned into packrat bedding.
I've been working occasionally as a real cowboy for my neighbor, Matt Hastings. His dad Hugh just had heart surgery. Pray for a speedy recovery so he can come back from Spokane. Who'd want to stay there... gosh it must be horrible - just kidding Katie S.
My friends Daniel Wussow and Sara Harlan got hitched-quite a suprise. At some point there was a trip to Glacier with them and K3 - too many Katies to keep straightened out. Much, much, MUCH! to her shagrin Katie didn't get to see bear. A close brush with a moose was my highlight of the trip. Dan and I stared at Mt. Wilbur. Dang that thing is huge. Hmmm...
Grandfather Ballou passed away, more to come on the legacy he left. I'm now grandparentless and in the process of observing how stressful it is to mourn (& combat the lies of Satan) while having to deal with all the bureaucracy and planning of a nice memorial service. I didn't mention grandpas name because who knows what it really was?? Through the course of his life I think he had about three alias's but I guess thats about par; everyone in heaven gets three alias tatoos. Look -->> ??? And on the subject of death and dying my encouragement as always is contrary: Make sure you know what it takes to get to heaven so you can have eternal life.

Grandpas peaceful passing was surround by a family event; my cousin Isabell aka Bell got married. All my favorite aka's were there: cousins, sister, Katie Lerch. Family time was good and CJ aka Skeeter and Katie (or is it Katherine?) and I got some mountain biking done too. I need pictures please ladies! We got pretty close to Hell. Thank God we didn't go down that slippery slope... I would have got us lost for shoooor!

August

2007-08-26T11:57:00.000-06:00

Month at a glance calander:

1-14 Firefighting Security near P.burg Montana

14-18 Jaunt to the Wind (and rain) River mountains, GTNP & Yellowstone.

Don't forget a map - Oops!

Quotable Quote: Something on the wx radio about "monsoonal weather"? huh?

18-22 Catch up with friends and church family around Bozeman

It was a thoroughly wonderful little vacation.

xxxxx

Censored photos of a couple middle age fellas climbing "Fat Mans Reunion".

xxxxx

No pictures of the Crazies or Bridgers or my crazy friends there... Page and the tee-pee or Ron and the hiking all day to work on a new route and put in two bolts. Ha! A typical Olin adventure, a good bit of bushwacking and scree climbing. Ahh but I had it good; I'm realizing putting up bolted routes can take a good bit of work. I went to pick up Rons pack and I thought it was caught on something. Well umm, no, no snags, just HEAVY! A drill, batteries, & an alpine rack, those things add up to pretty good workout. ?Puedo alquilar a porter?

Something to chew on

2007-07-12T18:15:00.000-06:00

I recently took a trip with a couple of stout fellows, Dan and Doug, to the Beartooth’s to attempt to climb up the Notch couloir then summit Granite Peak. It was a successful trip: we all came back alive! In fact it was a VERY successful trip; we accomplished our objective and nobody even got injured. It was however probably the closest I’ve come to living out a “Touching the Void” situation; i.e. an extended misery. When I could I tried to take pictures of the notables that made this trip memorable. Most of my account here seems a little woefull but really I'm not whining, just... reminiscing. He he. Dan put himself in special forces mentality and led everything above the first half of the glacier; Doug and I tied in a few meters apart at the end of the rope and just tried to keep up.

Mountain climbing can be brutally hard and sometimes dangerous. I don’t know why this is so easy to forget. I am amazed at how the human brain can cling on to a few little positives amidst a torturous experience and call it fun. This little trip took place over July 4-7, 2007; during which most of Montana experienced record high temperatures. It seemed like anytime I was moving I was sweating; it was crazy to be in flux between heat exhaustion and hypothermia. I guess I looked like a little boyscout with my red bandana on the chest strap of my pack-I needed it there to dab away the sweat every other moment.

Here were a few of the challenges: we had relatively heavy packs, 60ish lb backpacks and 20+lb climbing day packs) and an arduously steep and a sometimes indescript "trail", well the “trail”… what trail?? we were boulder-hopping house size rocks in places, we faced a melting out couloir that was only sparcely protectable and had horrible rock fall in places. Then there were the more technical difficulties: a couple pitches of fairly exposed and somewhat loose, challenging rock climbing (5.7ish). I did the first pitch in my mountaineering boots and I think I probably used ‘ish’ as an expletive a few times. Then we got threatened by a storm and started doing a litteral running belay to the top. We got benighted on the summit, in essence this means brrr!!! On the menu: Nyet for dinner and Humble pie for dessert. Exquisite!! The menacing Beartooth thunderstorms, well I was too busy praying them away to take pictures. God really answered our prayers by keeping them from visiting.

And a few minor details; the icing on the cake so to speak…the endless spider webs clogging the boulder fields, running out of food and water on the climb, struggling to find our way down the easy side of the mountain, blisters, sore hips, races against more thunderstorms, AND a water supply tainted in one spot by a dead mule… ick; I’ll spare you that picture. You can imagine my disgust after realizing I had just filtered water down-stream from a dead animal. I should have known better, it smelled so bad I couldn’t bring myself to eat… if you know me that’s pretty bad. The day after the climb I ate a sandwich that Dan and Doug were going to discard...well I won't go into details because I don't want a lecture from my mom, but it sure was good to get some calories in before the Avy Lake boulder hopping! The Clif bar from breakfast nine hours earlier was starting to wear off.

So all in all--not too miserable!! When we weren't starving on the mountain we ate great. Perhaps the worst misery was self induced. It was my brilliant idea to leave the bug spray behind and this made the walking (everywhere below base camp) quite a bit more technical: every other step had to be accompanied by swiping skeeters and the occasional horse-fly off your exposed flesh. It’s hard to look where you’re going when you’re going crazy!! I wish I could have gotten pictures of the GINORMOUS (now in Websters by the way) cornices that were still clinging to the mountains. Thinking of Klerch's pretrip warning I tried to build an MRE heater bomb to blow-up some snow... my only attempt at fireworks this year. I thought it would be cool video; well I burned my hand and the bomb was a dud. Back to the drawing board on that one eh? All that rambling to say this: I had a GREAT adventorturous time!!

The stellar views: well you should have been there last week!!

You should have been there last week!!

2007-07-01T23:25:00.000-06:00

Amazing!! Finally a good fishing trip... We went to catch fish and we did! Myself, my dad (Joe), one of his longtime friends (Gary) and his son (Mitch) went up north to Lake Diefenbaker in in southern Saskatchewan. It had been so long since I'd caught fish till I was bored of it--I forgot how fun it was. Our guides had to work pretty hard to find fish for us to catch. They had recently gotten alot of rain that raised the level of the lake alot and the upper part that they normally fish was all muddy, so we got to go explore some different places. Places where the locals were jealous since our guides are so good at catching fish. So jealous in fact that they thought they would call in the "fish cops" to make sure we weren't taking more than our limit. So we got to have a nice talk with the "fish cops". I caught quite a few large fish, but it was Mitch that caught all the 'hawgs'.

We were a bit short on sleep (it fishin - You gotta get up Early RIGHT?) but we got to eat like kings.

Since we got back I've even been trying to feed the fishing addiction by going down on the Smith River, it's been nice and peaceful--but I haven't hooked anything except the bank.

The end of the season.

2007-06-23T19:28:00.000-06:00

After finally finishing my MPA tour, my mom and dad and I went down to see Carrie Jo and some other Coloradans. It was a glorious trip made better by great hospitality and good memories created with friends and family. Too many pictures and too much to think about!

Near Craig, CO.

To start somewhere, here are some blog worthy sunsets from the trips last days of spring. It is now officially summer, the days are long and it is bloody hot.

Near Lake Hartenstein via Buena Vista, CO.

And the good ol' middle of nowhere, MT - somewhere between Eddies Corner and Great Falls.

Jammin

2007-06-08T18:13:00.000-06:00

Look Ma, No hands!

Nathaniel and I went and hit up 'Ski-Tracks'; it was wonderful climbing - nice to get out on some moderately challenging rock and walk away feeling good about it. One point was a little tricky figuring out that it was necessary (for me) to work out onto the face and around the overhang than directly up through it on either side. The pitches were more than necessary twofold: first of all because of my decision to leave the guidebook at home - so we didn't know exactly where to stop for belays; the other challenge on pitch length was a communication error before we started... Ok, so you're bringing that? Well then I'll leave this; and as it turned out we each thought that the other had "that" and so we both left "this" behind.

After the climb I cleaned up a bit and went to a conference at a church in Bozeman. It was great to see so many friends and refresh and revive spiritually; God is doing some great things in the Gallatin Valley and in this time for all who want to take part.

No worries.

2007-05-29T21:39:00.001-06:00

God is learning me on some simple things lately.

NASB Matthew 6:25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air;

they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow.

They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

The last couple years I think I've noticed a trend when I try to overplan and take things into my own hands all chaos breaks loose. Ever notice that in your own life?

Today I just sat in amazement as this robin jumped around and filled his tummy, How in the world do those animals know where the worms are? Can they hear them? Smell em? What? Amazing creation! God provides the rain and the worms, wow!

The simple things.

2007-05-29T20:55:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I blabbed so much about all the gross stuff happening with my nose. Really I don't even like dealing with it any more; I just wish it would finish healing up... but aren't you curious what splints looked like?

Thats my hand! Amazingly one of those tubes was crammed completely up each nostril. Somewhat flexible, so it wasn't fully as wide as it looks, still -- not too comfortable. I am glad they are out.

Heres the "after" picture. My new and improved nose that I am totally happy to be breathing and smelling out of.

My huge shnoz!

2007-05-13T21:20:00.000-06:00

Ah yes how pictures (flash, focus, etc.) can exadurate the wrong things. The right thing was captured too, that jaundice color. Oh joy!

Smells Like...TMI

2007-05-12T13:07:00.000-06:00

Oh dang, thats right I can't smell. Well it looked like salsa but I wasn't sure. Sure enough out of habit I stuck my nose up to the jar. Then because my nose didn't work I did a little closer inspection for fuzzies before chomping in.

I just want to jerk out the doily splints... ooooooooooohhh that'll be great to be able to breath and smell again. You should have seen the stuff I pulled out this morning... eeew! some of the little blood scabs around the edge of nose limit the mobility and making it seem like it hurts worse than it really does. The bridge of my nose is turning green because I haven't been icing enough.

I've been anxious but I saw a cool saying this morning and its true:
I'm a spiritual being going through a temporary natural experience.

Scientific Recovery

2007-05-10T15:46:00.000-06:00

Make sure to have plenty of Vitamin K for clotting. I actually slept last night and am not requireing bandages anymore. Add lots of water and season with some mud and a sunset. It sounds like thunderstorms are whats for dinner tonight, I better shut down the computer. HURRY!

Recovery Day One Looking more like a clown

2007-05-09T05:30:00.000-06:00

I guess I forgot to mention it but the rock climb was called "Tears of a Clown". What a fitting beginning to an unforgettable week. Yesterday was surgery day and I actually felt pretty good. Now my nose is getting all gooey and crusty inside. I went to half strips b/c, like observant friends have noticed, full ones block my mouth. Sleep last night was fitfull and I doubt I really got much; I am feeling weaker and I will probably be lazing all day.

I did change the bandage just before taking the following photo. Normally I wouldn't post such a gross picture, but my sister inspired me and I considered myself tagged.

http://carjoson.blogspot.com/2007/05/morning-face-challenge.html

Low RPM recovery week

2007-05-08T20:57:00.000-06:00

septo Rhino Plasty Man I am. Though I was a little sketched by most of the stories I had heard from those who have survived the surgery, going ahead with it was easier than cancelling the appointment.

Tears of a clown

2007-05-08T19:48:00.000-06:00

Well I'm a little disappointed I wasn't able to get anymore ice in this year (yet?), but it was a good weekend. As it were there was lots of factors opposing an ice climbing trip, mostly lack of sleep on the human end. A cold creeping into my throat and questionable weather didn't add confidence either. So with a not so alpine start on Saturday instead of Friday night, Dan and I started the 'plan A' in reverse and went down to the Castles enroute to the Beartooths. I got us mildly lost and so we got to explore lots of rock formations I hadn't been to before. Dan was like a kid in a candy store. With my energy level waning I just wanted to pick a piece. We did a cool (literally) granite hand crack and Dan worked a tough face climb right next to it while on toprope. I didn't get feeling any better so we just booked it back home for the night and we took the next day off.

Monday we got out and climbed a super slab west of Choteau it was the first rock leading of more than a move that I've done this year and the variation had a good bit of following that kicked my butt. Don't tell mom about the rocks that crashed off and crossed our path... I'm glad we were above them when it happened. I guess that scree gully isn't done growing yet.

And of course we also eyed some fun stuff to check out in the future.

Hiatus

2007-05-02T18:06:00.000-06:00

Mt. Lockhart

I've obviously been feeling not so wordy, or perhaps I'm just using them all up on the phone. If a picture was worth a thousand words I'll just post a bunch of pictures, unfortunately I dont have too many. At any rate I've been keeping busy and out of trouble. Work is work and play has been less. The ground is green and in a way its kind of depressing, but the seasons change... hopefully I can still get one more ice climb in before the first day of summer. Its hard to get spring fever when rock climbing is threatened by rain showers and big brother...(a slightly sore topic). Basically summed up (after an exhaustive safety awareness process) the Air Force seems to be telling me have fun but don't get hurt cause we may not cover your medical expenses. I hate ambiguous situations like that. I'm really looking forward to being done with the current job mid-June and getting out into the sticks and stones - with an insurance policy that will cover me if I screw up. On the positive side it has made me realize that active duty service in our military is a serious obligation and if you enter into it you have to be subject to their rules. Its sooo easy to lose sight of the fact that as a soldier you must give up some of your freedoms.

A couple weeks ago I got out for some spring skiing out by Choteau. I guess I did the un-Lockhart thing. I didn't have it in me to go to the top of the mountain, I got close and got a 355 degree view, only 5 degrees short of what I was craving. I suppose I had it in me to get to the top, but it was the down part I was concerned about. I skied down this huge white bowl that was wonderful. I was psyched to link up a few turns. I had a few minor spills but it was a good time cruising on moderately steep slush. Then going down the easy stuff I got going too fast and ate it hard. Ufta. After the trip I found out what the base of my skis look like, I guess I found a couple sharp rocks! Hopefully I'll get that fixed here shortly and get in a bit more skiing up in Glacier NP.

This past weekend I got out rafting, finishing up raft guide training with a couple river days. Saturday we hit the Blackfoot and Sunday we ran the Clarkfork. Going through Tumbleweed rapids I got my first experience getting recirculated out of a 'hole'... hopefully my last. I had the revelation that breathing is cool. Even after getting my head above water the fight for my life was far from over. Everything we learned in class about a defensive swimming position was nearly impossible. Next time I go rafting I'm wearing the biggest lifejacket I can find. When your in aerated water the PFD is less bouyant b/c of all the air in the water. In the wave train below the hole I could barely keep my head above water. My dad said when he saw me I looked calm and collected. In reality I was spent. My will to fight for my life was about toast. Probably the first time I've been in a situation completely out of my control where I thought I might die.

I got a lot more respect for just how powerful and unpredictable the forces of the river can be. If you don't know what a hole is I found a pretty good definition at http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/agesubject/lessons/newton/whitewater.html

"Water crashing over a submerged ledge or rock becomes chaotic and creates a hole. A hole creates a horizontal vortex underwater that actually rotates in an upstream direction. A rafter who falls into a hole is pushed back upstream against the ledge that created the hole, then driven down underwater. Often the only way out of a vortex is to dive to the bottom of the river, where some of the water crashing into the hole flows under the vortex. A rafter who gets into that deep current can follow it out of the hole and then resurface. "

Let your imagination play with that a little bit.

And as for the cartoon, well I dont think its a good idea to take Fido through a hole either. I found a collar down below Tumbleweed at the recovery site. If Fido made it through alive he probably had a pretty wild ride.

Pensive

2007-04-15T18:23:00.000-06:00

An afternoon with the letter ‘P’:
To answer a friends email and understand what she was feeling I looked up pensive again to make sure I knew what it meant. I guess I have been in the habit of thinking that it is synonymous with ominous because of a certain thing called Pensive Tower. I learned much today dawdling on dictionary pages 348 and 349 while the pot roast cooked for dinner. I guess I started the day peeved; but determined not to get pent-up over my fallen nature I am now mostly just feeling penitent.

Thinking about climbing Pensive Tower makes me slightly melancholic i.e. pensive, I wish I could climb it but it may be too much for me any time soon. It’s like 14 pitches and if that isn't committing enough its also just remote enough to require most normal folks to camp. I don’t want to waste my time trying it until I have more confidence in my speed, skill, and endurance. So I am setting my sights on “simpler” and/or more easily accessible objectives such as the Tower of Innocence... Well that one in particular may actually technically be harder, but at least its more easily accessible and it has a name that is more pleasant to ruminate on. Maybe by the end of the summer I won't be pensive about trying Pensive.

Randomize

2007-04-14T18:24:00.000-06:00

A girl must be in Googles programming department, when changing my blogs colors it showed me colors that match my blog. I didn't know colors could match... So instead of being too creative I hit randomize and it did it for me, matching and everything; although I guess random is random, the date is now hidden. I guess now you'll have to work harder to see how seldom I'm feeling wordy.

Winter?

2007-04-03T21:20:00.000-06:00

Spring is here! Nothing like a little more slogging to welcome it in!! Wet and humid and acting like it's still winter, seemingly more than ever in some places. You can guess what type of torture devices I strapped to my feet--they really didn't help much.

As I was driving south for the "weekend" there were all kinds of snow advisories and warnings. In my experience so far this winter, the forecasts for snowy precip. in MT have been quite unreliable--usually coming up quite short. Well this time they actually nailed it. There is about 16" of fresh in the picture. And as you might imagine on the steep slopes it was moving around. It made for an interesting morning of ice climbing. We played it relatively safe on some easier ice that didn't have any slopes above to bomb us with avalanches. But as we soon found out, just the snow unloading off the trees and sloughing off the climb was enough to create quite a stir. Then just getting to base of the ice of our second climb I triggered a "little?" powder slide that got my attention.

I'm daydreaming about hiking on summer-trails with no snow and no bushwacking... I know its only a dream; opportunity knows too often to always stay on the trail.

2007-03-26T21:25:00.000-06:00

I got attacked by chickens today! Not really - I just chickened out... well, thats stretching it too; but I didn't use the "glacier-mobile". On a truthful note - at one point I did think I was going to get attacked by a herd of elk (around 50?). I saw them all running toward me so I stopped & then they stopped. I took a picture and then continued on and I began to think that they were following me thinking I was their leader - they ran along in the field following my pace and getting closer and closer until the field ended; they got within 30 yards of me and then like a flock of birds they changed direction.

So I don't know about the still small voice I heard--telling me to go to the one place that the road was closed. Lots of roads are closed, I was actually planning on going to a closed road, but the road TO the closed road I wanted to bike on was closed. Maybe it would have made for a great story had I persevered; but I turned around at the road closed sign. If I had gotten up there maybe I could have used my skis - I really wanted to, the mountains up there are so awesome looking. Most of the day was spent driving, around 500 miles. After turning around I drove a while on plan B to check out some other stuff. As it worked out plan B included a nap to wait for the sun to come up so I could see something. The mountains of plan B toward West Glacier were all shrouded in mist and I didn't get any happy thoughts about putting my freshly waxed skis on any of the nasty icy snow. So then it was on to plan C; drive up to St. Mary's Lake and possibly on to Many Glacier to check out what might be up there. Although it was only about noon when I started exploring St. Mary's I knew I didn't have the time or enthusiasm to get my skis anywhere where they would be usefull. I could also see that even if I did to really enjoy the skiing I would want the burly boots--which I left at home. So I took my backpack and rode my bike up the lake a ways. The views were great, I love staring at the mountains and wondering if and how it would be possible to climb them.

After seeing enough to thoughtfully plan a return trip I biked back down to my car and drove up to where the road was gated at Many Glacier. I had a quick look-see and then headed for home. After stopping a couple times on the way past the Walling Reef to drool at a huge ice-climb I made it back--without becoming a grizzly treat or avalanche fodder.

My Glacier-mobile.

2007-03-25T19:16:00.000-06:00

Well here it is folks, my very own Glacier-mobile; hopefully it will allow blissfull travels up the dry paved roads in Glacier National Park that are gated at the park boundary. Pray I don't become a bear treat as I hunt around for mountains to climb.

I have been getting spring fever and was going to head down to the Castle Mountains by White Sulfur Springs, to look for some rock, but the still small voice this morning in church seemed to say Sinopah; so Sinopah it is. Its up a little North of East Glacier by Two Medicine Lake. If you're not familiar with Glacier here's a link to the GNP map: http://www.nps.gov/archive/glac/maps/glaciermap.pdf

I went into Wally World looking for a kiddo-trailer and saw the $8 mini-skateboard and couldn't pass it up. I strapped it onto my backpack, threw my rack and a snow-picket on the bike and voile~ the picture probably explains enough... Yikes! It is a bit contrived getting it all strapped and clipped together but in my preliminary tests it actually tracked really well: time for a real field test.

Biking Running Etc.

2007-03-25T19:04:00.000-06:00

My friend Jen Dahl told me, a good while back, about a website-- www.favoriterun.com . After a long bike ride the other day I checked it out to track the milage and save myself the gas money and time of driving it. It uses Google maps to calculate distances for you. Sho-nuff it was around 30 miles like I speculated it might be the other day. It felt like 40 to my butt and legs -Ufta- I guess I need to ride more.

I hadn't even recoved and I was wondering if I could ride 100. I'm going to try to work up to that by June.

A strange pasttime

2007-03-19T08:29:00.000-06:00

With the goal of doing a "fast and light" car-car, single push cave exploration Nathan Z. and I snowshoed through mashed potatoey, half-set concrete snow, with appropriate gear, to Crystal Cave again. Was it fast? Well probably not, it took us about 8 hours to cover 8 miles going in, 7 hours to hike out, and 12 hrs inside the cave. Its hard to put that in perspective. Things just take time; we didn't dilly dally really, only one cat-nap and a breakfast stop aside from the general exhaustion stops along the way. On the other hand neither of us made it as fast as it could have been. It was Nathans second time on snowshoes and it was my second time ever jumarring up ropes, both fiascos in their own right. The snowpack was probably the biggest challenge for both of us. On the trip in our enthusiasm was high and the snow was reasonably firm at first but it got alot of sun and we started to break though alot as the afternoon progressed. The snow held the heat only getting mushier at a deeper level overnight but it did cool down enough to make just enough ice crust on top to keep things torturous. Having our old tracks to walk in helped but we broke through more coming out than going in. With our fun meters pegged on E. we were quite glad to be done with the snowshoes by the end of the trip.

So it wasn't fast, but was it light? You be the judge. Going in Nathan and I probably had 50 and 40 lbs respectively. We took a good bit of stuff, a bit much perhaps, but who wants to have an epic a mile underground 8 miles into the wilderness? We were really looking forward to leaving some of the 350' (20lbs?) of rope that we packed in. We thought we would find some new ground to push that hadn't been explored yet and also replace some existing ropes that were getting ratty. Well shucks, we decided not to leave any rope... conservation of funds and time I guess. The ropes down the drop Nathan is climbing in the picture shown in the previous post: "A caver muses why" really should be replaced. The bottoms of the ropes are frayed out. They are safe enough to climb, but then when you rappel down you get stuck on the fray - unable to get it to pass through a belay device - meanwhile your dangling over a nice pool of water facing a nice splash! Hint: A figure of 8 device may work better in that application. Well back to the weight - I weighed my pack when I got home and with all the added mud and water weight it was around 50 lbs. I compared our packs so I know Nathan was carrying more than me! This is what his felt like on the way out:

Well without pursuing sidelead distractions we pushed through to our goal of exploring the farthest reaches of the cave. We got to a room where there was rat poop (must not be too far to the surface) and took note of all our possibilities trying to find an exit. All we could figure is that the rats must have come through a boulder choke - no exit for us that way. So with limited time on our hands we explored the best option, one we had been a ways up before and were not excited to repeat. This time it didn't seem as challenging and we made it up past our far point without excruciating effort. The camera and everything except an extra headlight was left behind for this push because it is a real squeeze and shimmy through some sharp limestone. We got the to a point where there was an impassable waterfall that crashed down about 20 feet with a deafening roar showering everything below. There is a small hole at the top - maybe not big enough to fit in, but it may be a possibility for someone with lots of gumption and a wet suit, . As for me, I only had Seal Skinz socks to keep my tootsies dry.

I got thoroughly muddy - thank God for my mom who helped me clean all my clothes and the mess I made of the sink. All in all it was a worthwhile trip, we "built our character" staying mostly awake and on the go for 32 hrs, and we saw some cool things - even stopping for a few photos of the more interesting formations.

A few screws loose

2007-03-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

Today I explored biking a new short loop from the house. I guess there are no really 'short' loops, they are probably all more than 10 miles but some are shorter than others. I haven't done anything longer - the next options I have are more like 30. At any rate it was pretty enjoyable. During part of the ride I was racing after the school-bus trying to catch it. That didn't work very well, but it was good motivation. The only drawback to riding my bike to the South East of the house is the pavement being in such poor condition. The dirt roads are actually faster and smoother than some of the old pavement. Rattle Rattle Rattle... I wonder what that noise is? Oh, just a few screws loose. Good thing I brought along a multi-tool just in case.

Spring must be coming, I saw the first Robin of the season in the yard today.

Run around weekend

2007-03-01T17:32:00.000-07:00

I don’t know if long weekends are healthy for me; with too much time off I tend to try to bite off more than I can chew. It didn't feel like I pushed it too hard, but it was three good days in a row and afterward I felt the sting of the respiratory crud that I've been fighting. I beat the ice and made it down to Bozeman while the roads were still mostly just slushy. Some hospitable friends let me stay with them. I found out that they are engaged. Congrats LUKE and SAM(antha). First thing on the docket was to go out looking for ice to climb of course. Ron and I went up to a new climb he had found in the Paradise Valley; it was in great shape but the snow conditions were spooky. We skied in approx. 2hrs to get to where we could see it and then had an invigorating steep thrash through the trees to get onto the slopes below the climb. However shortly after starting up the moderate slopes the snow pack started settling on us. It was the first time I've ever experienced hearing that noise, whoomp!, not knowing where it was coming from, and feeling like the mountain was going to come down on top of me. Even though we knew that the steeper upper slopes would definitely slide if we got on them I was scheming how we could get above them to a safe place and then set them off. But knowing that the slide would be unpredictable and likely propagate far from the source we decided to tuck tail and find something else to do. Even getting ourselves off the low angle stuff was spooky. It felt good to be back in the safety of the trees.

Next we went and checked out a different drainage (the West Boulder River) that had quite a lot less new snow. We didn't find any ice but it was still a good exploration. A big fire last summer burned up most of the drainage so it was very easy to see the mountains through the trees. We saw some HUGE wolf tracks from a pair of wolves traveling together; the tracks were roughly 4"x4". It is big country with big animals... the drainage is immense. On the ski out my backpack grabbed a spindly branch and started it swinging and it whacked Ron in the eye, right as I was warning him to lookout for it. We were both very thankful that it didn't put out his eye. After we were sure that it was only his eyebrow bleeding we made tracks out of there, fairly exhausted after having skied a total of 16 miles with climbing packs. Then after a spicy drive via a different very snow drifted route we got back to the safety of civilization.

The next day was a more moderate day of top-roping (and soloing) ice at Pine Creek near Livingston. Thanks Luke, Rod, and Nathan - it was a good time. Everyone had their own little bit of excitement. Luke opened our eyes to the dry-tooling possibilities on some rock right off the belay. Rod humored us by trying the route several times and eventually succeeding. He would throw himself at it with everything he had--undaunted by the fact that with all the rope stretch he would deck out when he pooped out and popped off. Nathan got a pump trying to claw up some overhanging rock next to the ice. I enjoyed the drytooling and got a kick out of how good the ice was, (somewhat) gently scratching my way up a thin curtain of ice.

Monday I got an early start and met up with a new partner in Augusta and we headed out to the hills to explore some waterfalls out west of there. Our skis got a good scouring from all rocks poking through the thin snow, but all in all it was a good day. We got to climb some ice and amazingly enough I filled my quota for the weekend in one regard—I actually said “I am tired of bushwacking”.

Skiing

2007-02-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

Yikes! Note to self... The top of a steep couloir is not the place to do the first turns of the season. We dug a pit and tested it, we knew it was marginal. Dan said it was "yellow"... I walked down to the narrrowest part and put my skis on. Then very tenatively, full of fear and trembling, I scraped my way down and in. The ice sketched me out, I was sure I was going to yard sale and slide all the way to the bottom. I balked and told the other guys to go, Dan (on skis) came down the ridge past me (and the steepest part) and jumped into the chute via a cornice and made a few turns, crashing only once, then waited on the other side for me. Seeing how nice the snow had accepted Dans crash raised my confidence.

I realized my boot was loose of my ski. I had to fiddle with my Silveretta binding, it slips to side in addition to the DIN, causing a wierd loose fit. I fixed the problem and then went for it. I did a few turns and summersaults down the steeper part of the chute and then ended up where Dan had waited for me. He took off and told me to wait for Jeff (snowboarder). I watched as Dan gleefully bounced turned down the more mellow stuff below. Behind me more action was unfolding; the last of our party hucked off the cornice in the same place and cratered the landing. I heard him bark from above and turned around to see the whole bowl sliding my way. I hollered AVALANCHE a couple of times, mostly concerned about my friend below and then I realized as debris started sliding over my skis that I was not totally out of danger myself--there was an even wider mass of snow coming. I skied a little further off to the side in the gully as the snow finished its slide. I thought to myself something to the effect of "crap that friendship (Dan) didn't last long". Then my snowboarder friend, who had slid down at the top of the sliding debris until he conveniently stopped by hitting a tree, reached me and said lets get down there and find him. We got down the debris a good ways and I hollered down to Dan and he hollered back up. I breathed a sigh of relief and continued down. He said when he heard me yell he straightlined it for the bottom. Thank God! There was probably between five and seven feet of debris bending over the trees in the thickest deposits of the runout zone. Definitely enough to bury a guy.

We had so much fun we thought we would try it on the other side of the valley. After another nice climb I set up to take pictures as Dan and Jeff were to huck off a little cliff above. I was safe from Jeffs line through the rocks but Dan decided to come down through the loaded slope above me. Thankfully the tree I hid behind broke the momentum of the snow and didn't bury my stuff too deep. Lots of news recently about people and avy activity--definitely time to pick your lines carefully.

Mourn with those who mourn

2007-02-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

It is something I have been fighting: How hard and serious do I want to go with this climbing thing? Definitely to a level BEYOND SAFE AND EASY . Sidenote: I highly recommend book of said title by Dave Delgatty, possibly available through www.bccenter.net I haven't even read the whole thing myself, but there is some riotous stories of outdoor adventure in his little book.

Well unfortunately I learned of someone that recently perished while ice climbing. I didn't know him but he seemed like a good bloke, his 'In memory of' website is www.chrishunnicutt.com I wish that I got the impression that I would be able to share stories with him one day in eternity. I'm not the judge of where we end up, but I do believe there is a judge, so like the country song says: "Get right with the MAN"! But if your a climber and your readin this and ya aint savvy to do that, at least do your friends and family a favor and put some pro in every once in a while, even when the goin's easy - falling sucks and dying is permanent. Well I guess the reincarnation camp would argue that, but I think you get my point.

Me and my Duct-Tape Dog

2007-02-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

Well after listening Sunday to the pastor talk about how God provided a dog to meet the needs of his daughter - I guess I had it in the back of my brain that dogs are a mans best friend. How could I forget so quickly the fall bird hunt? I think in the afternoon we were out he was only within stones throw for about ten minutes. He chased away lots of pheasants that day. Flocks, coveys, Hordes, whatever...LOTS!! I consider it an act of God that we even got two birds that day.

Well I awoke early and packed and got headed out to go explore the approach roads and trails to this cave thing (see last post). Then the dog pops out and I think Oh why not? So I go in and grab some dog food because I'm thinking I might stay overnight. Then I hit the road. When I got up to the area it was still dark and I didn't quite know where the trailhead I wanted was so I stopped to look at the map and let Hans out to relieve himself. It was half an hour before I saw him again! I redeemed the time with little Bible reading figuring it wouldn't hurt to let the sun come up so I could see a bit. After a short bit Hans showed back up and we got to the trail that I wanted. It took a couple false starts to figure out what method of travel was going to work. I tried XC skis but it was too steep, sidehilly, and icy. I suppose randonee with skins and crampons would've been the ticket but I didn't feel like getting that much of a workout. Skiing icy trails sort of terrifies me... so snowshoes it was! I'm sure the way it turned out snowshoes were just about as much work. Snow conditions were awful. Half an inch of icy crust on top of about a foot of sugar; even with my tails I broke through nearly every step. Just when you think your gonna stand on the surface - it sinks like a sponge. We're getting more snow as I write this, but knowing what that base layer looks like is a bit concerning. Hopefully it will bond good and strike the right balance of travelable and avalanche safe.

After a couple hours I noticed Hans' feet were bleeding and so I took a closer look and decided to try and patch him up. I figured Duct-Tape would be about the only thing that would hold. I taped over the scab that had rubbed off and continued on. After a couple more hours of somewhat disoriented wandering through the woods we ended up on a pass where I figured it was time for lunch and turnaround since Hans' feet were still bleeding from somewhere. I closed my eyes for a bit and then I was just starting to enjoy my lunch when I heard this awful bellar from down in the valley. I gathered all my stuff back into my pack, made sure my pistola was readied, and went looking for Hans, concerned that he might have treed a mountain lion or a bobcat.

Too bad he doesn't stick right by my side... I wandered down the trail and called and called - nothing. I figured I would hear him bellar again, but nothing. He's not much of a barker. I listened and heard a little shuffling around and with a bit of tuning my ear, figured out which direction it was coming from and headed that way. Then I saw Hans down the hill in the bottom of the gully--mired in snow up to his back, unable to move much. He must have just bellared out of frustration... When I finally got to him he followed me good for a long ways after that. Then I broke out his lunch, but he's spoiled wrotten, he would barely touch the dog food; he knew I had jerky. I finally did get him to eat--some... dirty beggar. The rest of the trip down that trail was uneventful. We got back to the car and then I decided to check out the road above and found out that just like years before it is a sheet of ice. With any camber a car just slides right off the road. I went as far as I could before snow drifts stopped me then I parked and decided to go up on foot a ways further. At one point I was walking along and then started slipping and I slid right off the road.. So amazingly slippery!

Then I started running. After being sick and inactive for the last couple days it felt good to get the heart going again. I noted a few places where there looked like there could be ice climbs, snapped a few photos and then kept on chugging. Then I came to a big bowl where it looked like there was monsterous ice. So of course up the mountain I went. It was too foggy/cloudy to really get a good look and I figured it would be worth the hike if the climb was half as good as I thought it was. The hike was nice, I went up the hill, gained a ridge and started postholing until it got so steep the dog couldn't follow. I found out it was all just snow in the bowl, but I was enjoying myself too much! At this point going up to a point where the ridge dumped into a side-gully was easier than going down. I figured Hans would catch up quick once I turned around. Of course I figured wrong. Maybe I should have Duct-Taped him to my back for a better workout!

On the way back I tried to video a body-slide on the road. It didn't work out. Homeagain homeagain Hippity hop! I got close to GreatFalls and the roads turned Horrible! Cruising along at about 40mph on glaze ice I saw about five accidents in 15 miles. There were people careening through the fences all over the place. At one point I looked in my mirror and saw the red Subaru behind me going around in circles on the interstate. After I got away from GreatFalls, closer to home, the roads improved a little. Thank God I made it home without incident. And the dog, well--he still has way more energy than I think he should.

A caver muses "why?"

2007-02-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

A few photos of some Montana cave exploration. Note: the big rap is 'stitched' together. Note to the note: that rap scared a good bit of hell out of me.

I have been caving seriously only a couple times, now I am considering taking it to the next level. This potential trip would require dragging a bunch of stuff into the wilderness in winter, dragging a sled full of stuff through the snow for 7-12 miles, then hopefully ice-climbing a waterfall, then going into a pit above the waterfall, AND then wading and swimming through 3 miles of underground river; just to go where no-one has gone before! What kind of craziness is that just to go someplace 'new'? Ahh the joys of exploring. We might even camp in the cave! I'm sure it will be an exhilarating thing, with results much like the long day that prompted the sprawled fatigue. That picture was actually posed on one of the easy days! The morning that picture was taken my boots were frozen stiff and I had to thaw them over the fire before I could get my feet to fit in to them. Lord help me... What am I getting myself into?

I guess the big deal in MT would be to find the 'big one' a cave system that has over 1100' of elevation change. But I guess I have to ask myself what is the light at the end of the tunnel? What are the eternal rewards? Good times with friends, glorifying my creator and savior who will love me even if I perish.

I found this interesting article that sums up cavers pretty well, enjoy!

-OLin
http://gorp.away.com/gorp/activity/caving/argenta.htm

the ooze

2007-02-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

Here's some ooze worth talking about - Rasberry Dark Chocolate - I ate the whole thing in one sitting. It was awesome!! Thanks Livia.
What the heck is theooze.com about? The layout seems helter scelter but I guess I'm not savvy with the times. I did browse this article and a brief glance impressed me; I always like it when someone can tell it like he sees it. The crazy things the 'church' does can sure make you scratch yur noggin.
I guess I understand why people avoid the sacred cows of religion and politics... its just so easy to get pissed off. Similarly, I went to the grocery store one time with someone who has a little different food standards than myself - I thought I was going to have to medicate my blood-pressure. Organic, GMO, IBM, TTFN!

blog spam

2007-01-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

Spam: you're it. Thanks KLERCH! Homework is just what I wanted. Really! Well no, not really, but it did get me thinking about how to answer those essay questions I'm working on. If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged and answer these questions on your own blog or print them out and do your own new years resolution / life meaning homework!

1. What’s the most fun work you’ve ever done, and why?
- Lots of jobs are fun for a little while. Poop scraping on a Dairy Farm with a skid steer: thats pretty fun! It's amazingly gross yet you don't get that dirty doing it.

2. Name one thing you did in the past that you no longer do but wish you did? - Gardening

3. Name one thing you’ve always wanted to do but keep putting it off?
- Well there are always lots of climbing projects, but 'always'? Well I've always wanted to be able to share with someone who Jesus is in such a manner that their eyes would be opened to Gods love.

4. What two things would you most like to learn or be better at, and why?
- Climbing and Skiing among other things. I could use a little more grace in my movements. Just watch me ski or toss the ropes into the only bush on the mountain...

5. If you could take a class/workshop/apprentice from anyone in the world living or dead, who would it be and what would you hope to learn?
- Mike Bickle at the Internation House of Prayer in Kansas City. The man is on fire for God. It is SO cool to see someone whose passion is really directed toward a worthwile goal.

6. What three words might your best friends or family use to describe you?
- Projects, plans, dreams

7. Now list two more words you wish described you…
- Disciplined, loving

8. What are your top three passions? (can be current or past, work, hobbies, or causes)
- Climbing (and being in the mountains), the great commission, and praying for Israel and the end times. I'm not quite sure where girls, beer, and food are supposed to fit in - but they are good for a distracting thought every other second or so.

9. Write–and answer–one more question that YOU would ask someone.
-If you could go anywhere, where would you go? I would go to Lhasa. I don't know why - it's just stuck on my heart and brain right now.

Have fun thinking of whats important in your life!

Lewis Creek Adventures: Winter wonders.

2007-01-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

It was January 2005, why I waited until January to go back in to Lewis Creek I don't know. Perhaps because it is out of the way and it was unknown; when getting back into the swing of things climbing, it's usually nice to go out into the realm of the explored to gain some confidence - then head for uncharted territory with a good strong attitude. January rolled along and I talked my new friend Jonathan Toner into a little trip. No worries about it being winter, the trail is pretty flat as I remember it, I'll just borrow you some cross-country skis and we'll be off. Off like a hurd of turtles loaded for bear! Packs full of extravagant things like fresh potatoes, summer sausage and moist banana bread and other heavy things like a four season tent and full ice climbing gear we set off. Our bags must have weighed around 75 pounds - more than half either of our body weight.

Poor Jon, from Jersey, never having been on skiis before had quite a time. It was an "interesting" way to learn to ski; at first there was just a dusting of snow (as a friend of mine says - North Dakotan turf skiing). Snow conditions changed rapidly when we got into the canyon, there was probably only 8-10 inches of fresh, but wallowing in it, it seemed like much more. We were buffetted by an up and down trail that made Jons life misery; he didn't have enough traction to get up much of a grade and then when it went downhill he would go unconrollably fast and wreck. I was on my randonee gear with skins, an unfair advantage, but I took my share of spills too. Life aint easy when your picking yourself up off the ground all day. We were like turtles flipped over on our backs. The easiest thing to do was just get out of the backpack and then put it back on after standing back up. Finally we made it to the creek crossings, the endless endless creek crossings. Prancing around in my running shoes giggling at getting my feet wet was one thing, trying to navigate steep banked little crossings while wearing skiis with the seriousness of winter bearing down us was quite another. The creek must be warmish. (Hmm there is a hotsprings just across the valley - and a geothermal meca just down the road - duh.) In some places it doesn't freeze even where the water is stagnant. Ice would cover some of the crossings, others we would have to hunt for - looking for a likely log to cross on. By about 4pm we had our fill of thrashing through the creek bottom and scraping slush off of our skiis so we decided to camp at the next place big enough to land our tent.

The next morning we went out for an exploratory hike and found a nice ice climb just around the corner from our camp. We went further up the valley but the going was slow and we knew that weather was coming in so we decided to go back to the climb by the camp. Much like the hike up, the climb proved to be a bit of a thrash; we had to wallow in snow to get to the base of it. There was a nice steep little bit of ice at the bottom, a little thin ice ramp leading up into a cul-de-sac, and one obvious finish - a blue green steeper section (the one with the least bushes) that went up to a tree. We rappelled off the tree - snapped a picture and called it a day. Getting out only involved lots more falling down. It proved timely also; it dipped to -15 or -20 that night.

Take II: there must be more.

This January (2007) I went back into Lewis Creek on snowshoes with a new friend... well I hope he's still a friend. You guessed it, another mini-epic. I wanted to xc-ski and let Nathan Zahler use my AT skiis, but the bindings on my skiis wouldn't adjust to fit Nathans boots. We got thinking about the temperatures and realized that my feet wouldn't be warm enough in xc boots anyway. So we snowshoed in with our double boots - and our toes were still cold! The cold snap hit harder than the weatherman had forcast, but I wasn't about to let it ruin my vacation. Everyone thought we were crazy for even going out but I figured a day up Lewis Creek would be good because it would keep us moving most of the day. Things at the trailhead were COLD. We were so focused on moving and getting our feet warm that we overheated shortly after starting. Shedding layers at -22F, who'd a thunk? A little while later Nathans boots had snow in them and were refrigerating his toes into popsicles, requiring a little warmup in my armpit. I wish I had a picture of that! We kept on at a pretty good clip and Nathan did well considering it was his first time on snowshoes. He fell over a few times due to the typical problem of stepping on your own shoe. He joked about opening up an all-season snowshoe shop. "All snowshoes - all the time!" The creek was frozen up more than before and the crossings were just as interesting. Slushing up a snowshoe adds about 10lbs to it, great fun until you can find a good tree or rock to knock it off on.

Where the canyon narrows the creek divides and runs down the trail a ways. When Jon and I were at this spot before it had merely been a trickle over some pebbles. This time we walked into a dangerous situation with out realizing it. Where the streams ran back together there must have been an ice dam that raised the level of the creek, so we strolled up the trail a little too far before realizing things were serious. I probed the water through a hole in the ice and it was over a foot deep. Then I tested the ice with my pole and it made a scary hollow sound, not thick at all and it was cracking under my weight! We were trapped! We gently backtracked and tried to hunt and peck our way around these places where the ice was so thin. I found a likely spot that had nice thick green ice, so I forged ahead and ker-sploosh! Suprise! it was only slush dam. I scrambled out and up into the bushes. Thankfully I had gaitors and good double boots, I dont think the foot got too wet there. We had a couple more interesting hops across iced up rocks... Walking on pressed down willows was quite a thrash but it provided the best flotation. All the while I tried to keep spirits high by talking about how close I thought we were to the climb based on terrain that I occassionally recognized but by the time we had actually gotten to where Jon and I had camped Nathan would believe none of it.

It would have been nice to explore further up the drainage, but it had taken us four hours to get this far so we knew that we only had time to climb a quick bit and then it was going to be time to get back to the car. Now it was later in the day and at this higher elevation it was at least a reasonable climbing temp, above zero I think. I headed up the climb and got up over the first bulge and realized I had overgripped. Whhaahhh the screamin meanies! BRRR! Then I made good time until I came to the upper section where I sunk a screw and noticed water trickling down. The ice is softer and more plastic (less brittle) where there is more moisture so I tried to climb right where it was dry but within reach of the wetter ice. I made a couple moves up and then got unsure of my feet on the chandeliered ice. Then I got unsure of my tools and freaked out. I repositioned my right foot to a good horn and reset my tools and tried to put in an ice hook but realized the angle was all wrong. Meanwhile I noticed water was running down my leg, it felt like it was getting inside my gaitor and going down my boot. "Not good" I'm thinking, "this could be serious". It was cold enough that frostbite could bite quick, better do something. I hadn't bored out a starter-hole for a screw and I wasn't high enough to get good leverage on one; I tried anyway but slush instantly froze to the screw and it just spun and floundered on the surface of the ice. I should have just traversed left, gotten out of the water and continued up, but I was freaked at this point. I down climbed, built and anchor and brought Nathan up. To avoid a having to drill a v-thread and do a double rope rappell we scrambled down and over to a tree that we slung. We got down with a single rope that only mildly tangled in the bushes when we tossed it. A bit more "fun" snowshoeing and we were back at the car right at dark when the temps again plummetted.

Who says you can't go play outside when its 22 below?

The Lewis Creek Adventures: Summer of intrigue.

2007-01-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

Happy to be back from Iraq in the late summer of 2004 I decided a road trip was in order. I took a trip down to CO Springs to see my sister. My primary map was a Gazetteer. Hint: Always use a Gazetteer if you want getting lost to be an integral part of your adventure. I learned a few lessons in the long-cut on that trip. Yellowstone - not a good shortcut, and driving at 3am because you can't sleep: not a good idea - guaranteed to put you asleep behind the wheel by 6am; by my experimentations that's about how long your body can run on energy drinks before bonking. I'm fortunate I didn't ditch it into some canyon in the park - I did hit this massive culvert thing and have to stop because I thought for sure it should have punctured my tire. Then there was that turn I missed in Wyoming that took me to Green River instead of Cheyenne. That whole round about gave a more scenic drive through Colorado and helped me avoid Denver traffic, but someone was mad at me for being late. I felt fortunate to have found Colorado at all.

For some reason I decided to go through the Park again so I could get back to Bozeman. Coming back into Montana it got dark somewhere in the park and when I got to Gardiner I started looking through the Gazetteer for a place to camp. It was way off the beaten path but somehow Lewis Creek is where I ended up. I found the campground along the creek bottom situated in some old growth forest. I decided that I would just stay in my bivy-sac to save the hassle of setting up a tent, that way I could get going hiking earlier in the morning. I tossed and turned for a couple hours. It started to drizzle so I zipped up a bit and kept trying to go to sleep. The creek was loud and the wind seemed to be making strange noises. The trees were creaking and I was probably over caffeinated. I was just starting to think that I could get to sleep when a squirrel came and scurried around in between my bag and my bivy; after a good bit of thrashing and paranoid searching with my headlight to make sure the critter wasn't hiding in my bag somewhere I zipped completely up and finally started to doze off. Then the little vermin decided to use my head as a trampoline. The last straw! I gathered my bag, rearranged my car and slept in the back seats of my sedan. It wasn't much of a night but it was rest.

The next day I headed up some various imaginary trails up a ridge trying to get to Hyalite Peak. It was the moistest hiking ever; I didn't know leaves could hold that much water. On the trip one of the only pictures I took was of some bear scat - it was enormous! Thankfully I didn't see any bears. I got a look at the peak but had to turn around short of it. Hiking down a drainage on my way back I cut a trail. Then there was an intersection. Uh oh. There was no intersection on my map. I decided to head up and out of the drainage in hopes of getting away from thick creek-bottom timber. Then it started to rain - a lot. I got thoroughly soaked and decided that I had taken the wrong trail. I cut back cross country to the other trail and referenced my GPS to see where it thought my car was. My GPS and I have issues - I decided to put it away and pretend to know where I was. The compass in the thing doesn't work unless your moving but I didn't know that then. By the time I reached the other trail it had stopped raining.

Going down through the canyon was beautiful; there were brilliantly colored red formations of rock on one side and steep formations of the unique Hyalite conglomerate on the other. I thought "This place would be worth checking out for ice in the winter." I skipped along in my running shoes and hopped across creek crossings, not knowing for sure where I was, but the trail was good and I was making good time. I don't remember anything too eventful happening the latter part of the trip; it just drug on. Then it was dark and by headlight I finally made it back to the car.

Freezer burnt brain

2007-01-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

I'm such a clueless dork sometimes! I just went through the dashboard haphazardly turning things on and off that looked cool. I was wondering why there weren't any comments, thinking everyone hates me or they are just really busy. Comment moderation is now off. There is a secret password - I just can't remember it right now or I would leave the moderation on.

So I'm back to work now and my shift is from 11pm to 7am in the morning - try getting used to that. Wheyew its strange. On the positive side the schedule will allow me to go to Bible studies and things at church that I was missing working the mid-shift.

Running in place

2007-01-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

Ron Brunkhorst on lead.

I just had a revelation! I sign in with the "new" blogger instead of the old... I was getting so frustrated. Well hopefully that is the extent of my frustrations for a while. The photos above are from a trip into the Beartooth Mtns. of MT that occurred in November or December 2006. Exactly where I'm keeping a secret because I'm still hoping to get back there to get some more first ascents. I don't know why they drive me like they do, but I want to go places unexplored and do things that haven't been done before. Like the following great line (three or more actually) that will surely put me to the task. I'm going to be working on my skills and strength in hopes of getting back to it in the spring when hopefully the snow and temperatures will be a little more amiable and Lord willing the ice will be a little softer too.

Nathan Mussetter and I went back in to this cirque January 10th and it looked like things were sublimating a little (ie. getting cold, drying out, and falling down) but it was nearly white out conditions; we couldn't see much and didn't dwell on it too long. He said "When I think of belaying, I imagine my feet getting very black." We were of the same mind to turn around and head for the warmth of lower elevations. However while we were at our highpoint, trying to take a little break despite wind gusts of 50 mph from all directions at once, the question was posed: "Which side of the rock do hide behind to find shelter from the storm?"
Well I guess there can always be something to be frustrated about... like page layout! I guess this is a trial by fire. Like my friend Jonathan Toner's first time on XC skis, AND my friend Nathan Zahlers first time on snowshoes!!! Both of which happened exploring Lewis Creek for some ice. Tune in next time for those adventure notes.

baby steps

2007-01-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

This picture is of a waterfall in the Crazy Mountains that my friend Ron and I climbed on Dec. 19 2006.

My first post and maybe my last. Things are going well so far; hopefully I don't get overwhelmed by all the posibilities. What do labels do?