Expedition name: Mantana

Well it's been a while since I've posted, this is due to my free wireless (from somewhere) drying up, snap.

Kevin Volkening (known as K-Bone) and I went up to the Alaska range this spring to climb and get away from the man for a bit. On May 1 we got dropped off beneath Mount Dickey on the Ruth gorge. The setting is mind bending, humbling, and inspiring. As soon as we could we set off for the Root Canal glacier below the Mooses tooth. This entailed winding our way up beneath seracs, over crevases, and around ice gendarmes. It wasn't to bad really, just a bit objectivly dangerous. We set up a small camp on the root canal glacier and waited until morning to climb (when things are a bit more frozen). The next morning Denali was illuminated as the never-quite-setting summer sun drew a crimson face on the cassin ridge. We pitched out the first 3 pitches of the "ham and eggs couloir", then simul-climbed to the crux WI4 pitch, this was climbed via fun and steep water ice. We pitched out the narrows of the couloir over miles of WI3 steps, then simuled the remaining terrain to the summit. We rappeled the route and were back to our tent on the root canal glacier 10 hours after leaving it.


Mooses Tooth


K-Bone rolling the dice en route to the root canal glacier


Cruxing on Ham and eggs


midway up Ham and Eggs, the Mooses tooth






ham and eggs


Kevin nears the Mooses tooth summit


Mooses tooth summit



The Mantana Expedition from Kevin Volkening on Vimeo.

A video Kevin made of "ham ang Eggs"


Other routes in the gorge we wanted to do were not in (shaken not stirred, freezing nut, wake up, snow patrol) so we decided to try and ski the west face/ridge of Mount Dickey. We woke up early and skinned up 747 pass setting off a small wet slide near the crest. We boot packed up the ridge carrying our skis on our packs until the terrain became to icy. We decided to jettison our skis and summit the peak, knowing that skiing the steep ice would be a bit to dangerous for our tastes. We dug a waist deep trench to the summit of Dickey, 5,000' above our tent below. We down climbed to our skis then skied from that point down to our tent over bullet proof ice, sucked.


Mount Dickey west face/ridge


Mount Dickey west face/ridge

We then decided to get a bump flight over to the Kahiltna base camp. Upon arriving it stormed for then next few days while we read and listened to Dane Cook on K-Bones i-pod. Seth Campbell, Dom, and Austin then showed up. We were meeting them to help do Glacier research on the Kahiltna Glacier (they are with U Maine, and University of Alaska- Fairbanks). We pulled sleds to K-pass that were loaded with science equipment, then we got right to digging holes. The research work was exhausting but educational, and I learned a ton. In short we radared from 11,000' camp to the base of ski hill (which has never been done before), and dug many 6 meter deep holes where we did ice core drilling an additional 8 meters.
We were able to go to windy pass (13,500) on Denali and we skied down from there (except for an icy part on squirel hill).


Pulling research sleds on the Kahiltna


Don doing research on K-pass


View of Foraker and the Kahiltna from windy pass

I met up with Jonathan Spitzer and Rachel Greenburg in K-Base and we decided to climb the "bacon and Eggs" couloir on the Mini-Mini Moonflower buttress. It was an amazing 10 pitch route with most of the pitches checking in at WI4. We V-threaded off the route as the afternoon's sun caused sluffs to come crashing down the couloir. A bit nerve racking and annoying as our coats filled with snow.


Looking down from a pitch on the mini-mini moonflower buttress


Jonathan leading on the perfect ice of the mini-mini moonflower buttress

K-bone and I skied off the small peak near K-base called the control towner, then Seth, K-bone, and I tried the Moonflower Buttress. We got up to the Burgshrund at 11 pm but couldn't pass it, it had melted out in the warmth of the last 2 weeks and was impassable to us. We flew out to Talkeetna while later and ate real food. In all K-bone and I were in the Mountains for 33 days.
Upon arriving back in Los Anchorage, my Brother (who lives there) took me bear hunting (no success) and halibut fishing (mixed success, I get sea sick). K-bone and I even were able to catch a live State Radio show at the Beartooth theatre in Anchorage with his soon-to-be fiance. A great trip. Cheers, Loren


the pipe line, feeding America


Live State Radio show


My Brother in Homer AK, halibut fishing


Montana boy meets the ocean

No beginning, no ending: The first winter ascent of The Beartooth Spire

The "Tooth" Photo by Rusty Willis

No beginning...well I guess it has a beginning and from this beginning the rest of my modern life can be traced. The Beginning. It all started one fine summer day in Montana, the Beartooth Mountains to be more specific. The long shadows of the Beartooths have always touched me. I grew up in Shepherd, Montana, not exactly a climbing hot spot, so this is the story of why I'm a climber...the beginning.

The road wandered up, up, up; winding and weaving around cliffs and stands of dwarfed white bark pine. The air grew colder, and thinner too. My youthful mind was absorbed with the drama of the vistas around me; Soaring cliffs, deep valleys where silver streams cut through forest, clouds playing on the edge of August snow. We were driving up the Beartooth pass. My Father was driving, my Mother riding shot gun, and me in the back seat, face plastered to glass. The drive to the plateau was astonishing, then suddenly anticlimatic, as precipice turned to pasture. The top of the plateaus in the Beartooth Mountains suddenly appear, usually flat, and usually appearing overgrazed. They are in fact very important and filled with unusual flora biodiversity. The elevation hovers around 10,000'-11,000' and the mountain range trends east-west, resulting in a unique environment where a cold and short growing period has resulted in flowers that are found else where only above the artic circle, and only in certain locations. But anyway, it was all lost on my youthful mind.
The road continued up the rolling tundra to a section where the plateau narrows and the road switchbacks on its self. It's here, just below the "summit" of the pass, where one can glimpse the Beartooth Spire.
I saw this spire, and I knew I would climb it someday. From that point on I became a climber, and the rest is history.


So here I am decades later, at the base of the Bear's tooth (or the tooth for short). I have climbed the spire now 3 times in summer, and have tried climbing it in winter so many times I can't even remember an exact number. Last year it almost killed Rusty Willis, Stan Price, and myself with an avalanche. We have paid our dues with bitter cold, wind, deep snow, long approaches, jungle thrashing through pines, and general Montana winter conditions.

We learned something every time we had tried climbing the tooth and this time we were going with a completely different style. Disaster style, lighter than alpine style.

We left the trail head at 1:30am with day packs. (we did have 2 luxuries, a jetboil stove and insulated pants). We skied the first 6 miles easily, then jungle thrashed up to black canyon lake. The valley took us to the base of the tooth just as first light hit the spire. 11 miles, roughly 5,500' elevation gain, and 7 hours later.
We geared up and climbed a couloir between the mini tooth (see previous blog post) and the long ridge leading up to the spire. We climbed this long ridge in about 10 pitches with difficulties up to M5. We finally gained the base of the tooth proper and climbed the remaining 4 rock pitches to the summit!

Finito! it was done. We signed the summit register, then rappelled down to the base of the tooth proper. We spotted a couloir on the north side of the spire in a sort of notch and opted to rappel this as the ridge we ascended was complicated. We rappelled this leaving most of our nuts and pins as anchors (every 30m) into the night. Darkness found us on the wrong side of the spire, dog tired, hungry, and mentally wasted from psychological rap anchors. We walked around the ridge and climbed back up to the col seperating the mini tooth from the ridge we just climbed. We down climbed to our waiting skis, jetboil, and warm coats. We brewed some noodles and had only one mishap when the jet boil tipped over and spilled the hot water. We both fought off sleep (now 11:00pm), as we ate in a cold wind. We bundled up, then skied out (bad dukkha, don't ask). We reached the trail head at 4:30am, 27 hours after leaving.

A classic alpine climb. I feel privileged to have made a significant mark on this beautiful spire. The "first" doesn't matter, the numbers don't matter, all that matters is the relative personal significance something holds, and how much you tried, reguardless of the outcome. Cheers, Loren



The route



typical climbing, myself on the ridge



typical climbing, Rusty on the ridge



typical climbing. myself on the ridge



Rusty mixing it up on the ridge



Rusty on the tooth proper



myself on the ridge



Rusty heading up the last pitch



signing the summit register



It looks like this climb has been getting a bit of press!
Here are a few more stories on the climb, Cheers!

Alpinist Newswire

La Sportiva

Billings Gazette

An Archive of beta

Protection on "Lone Goat" Crazy Mountains


I figured I'd archive a few First Recorded Ascents partners and I have done over the years, mainly because I have a short memory and these routes have a high chance of being lost to time, which will eventually happen anyway. Climbing in the mountains of Montana it's not really about first ascents; it's about the experience, sharing cold coffee with good people, laughing, being so scared you want to puke, sunrises, sunsets, falling snow, getting away from "the man", falling ice, commitment, having a synergy with your partner where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, falling rock, pushing yourself beyond what you think you can do, being a living part of a mountain, being awake.

Ice:

"Puta Gato" WI4, 2p, East Rosebud, Beartooths
"Wolverine Falls" WI 3+, 2p, Crazy Mountains
"Elk Falls" WI 3, 70m, East Rosebud, Beartooths
"Piolet falls" WI 3, 15m, Crazy Mountains
"Brown Gully" M6, 2p, Pine Creek, Absaroka Mountains
"Chicken Wing" M6, 20m Crazy Mountains
"Low Hanging Fruit" M5, 15m East Rosebud, Beartooths
"Scottish Leather Face" WI3, M3, 2p, West Rosebud, Beartooths

Rock:

"Cloud Forrest" V8, Rock Creek, Beartooths
"The Butterfly Effect" V7, Madison River
"Meadow" 5.12a (sport), Bozeman
"Cyber Circus" 5.11a 3 pitches(sport) Bozeman
"Moon Dog" 5.12a (sport), Bozeman
"Half turn" 5.9 (sport), Redlodge
"Scruffy Squirrel" 5.10 (sport), Redlodge
"New World Monkey" V6, Billings Rims
"Apsaalooke Spire" 5.8, Beartooth Mountains
"East Ridge of Spirit Mountain" 5.7, 12 pitches, Beartooth Mountains
"North-East Ridge of Storm Spire" 5.9, 6 pitches, Beartooth Mountains
"Lone Goat" 5.7, 3 pitches, Crazy Mountains
"Dark Moon Couloir" AI3, 1,300' Spirit Mountain
"Unnamed" 5.9, 2p, Unnamed wall, Hyalite Canyon




Rick Dvorak on "East Ridge of Spirit Mountain"




Myself starting up "Elk Falls"




"Puta Gato" WI 4




Olin Erickson on "Scottish Leather Face"




Olin Erickson on "Cyber Circus"



Apsaalooke Spire



Dark Moon couloir, spirit Mountain (with partial ski descent, solo)

Leaning Tree

K-Bone, B-Rad, Scott Salzer, and myself went to climb "Leaning Tree"; an 800' WI3+ pure ice climb.  We drove from Bozeman to the ice climb and arrived at the "campsite" (pull out next to the road) at 12:00am under clear skies and a cold -9F temp.

We crawled into inadequate sleeping bags and slept untill 5:00am. We woke, brewed drinks, ate breakfast, and got ready for an adventure. We left the road at 6:30am and headed down towards the canyon following tracks of a friend who had climbed the line a week prior. We dropped down 1,000 feet through timber to the canyon rim where we got our first glimpse of the ice climb.




We dropped down into a nasty drainage which took us another 1,000 feet into the heart of the canyon. We hit the river in the narrow gorge and walked to the base of the climb, crossing the river on a sketchy little tree over the freezing neck deep river.

we racked up below the climb then proceded to climb it in 5 pitches with a 60m rope (some short pitches ending on ice ledges). Climbing with a group of 4 proved to be difficult at first but then we got in the swing of things and had a blast. The ice was really brittle with dinner plate after dinner plate, keeping the moderate ice interesting. The climb ended by climbing right through a tight ice couloir with screws and nuts for gear. We rappelled the route off v-threads and touched down in the canyon at dark where we recrossed the sketchy tree bridge and hiked the 2,000 feet back UP to the car uneventfully.











We drove back to bozeman and my head hit my pillow at 2:00am. A 5 star route very high on adventure. Cheers!

California Ice

Kevin (K-bone), Brad (B-Rad the youth), and myself went into the Beartooth mountains to climb California ice. California ice is a 3,000 foot WI 4/5 spilling off Sylvan peak and flowing all the way to the east rosebud Valley floor, 4,000 feet below. This is said to be one of the longest ice climbs in the lower 48, and a classic alpine experience to boot. We left the truck at 5:20am and hit the ice flow soon after, we soloed 1,500' of WI 2/3 to the base of the "headwall", then climbed the headwall in two long pitches. B-rad lead a WI 4 pitch to a cave belay (55m), then I lead a WI 4/5 pitch to an ice ledge (65m). The beautiful 3rd pitch went to K-bone and was the icing on the cake. B-rad then lead another WI3 pitch to the top of the main flow. Here we decided to take the climb to the top, which proved to be brutal. Unconsoladated snow groveling leading to more WI2 which we soloed. We topped out the plateau at dark, then ran towards spread creek under threatening skies and a fierce wind. We dropped into Spread creek and decended 4,000 feet of hell. Deep unconsoladated snow in which a pixie stix arrangement of dead fall hid underneath. After countless falls, countless curses, and countless mgs of dukkha, we hit the valley floor and stumbled back to "Truck Norris" at 9:00 pm. Not a speed ascent, but a great day out, Cheers!

East Rosebud: new ice and old ice

Bridget and I headed into the Beartooths to climb some ice this weekend. I have been spying a little mixed line in the next ravine north (downstream) of "Hellroaring Falls" for a few years now. I imagined a steep rock section to a hanging ice dagger with bolts for protection (the rock at hellroaring falls is very compact). What I found was a "cute" little mixed climb about 15 meters long with a hanging dagger. There were crack systems so I opted to lead it on gear (some poor). I fixed a pin midway up and trundled BIG rocks off to make it more repeatable in the future. I did find some ancient tat on a tree at the top so its most likely been climbed, so I'll just do the traditional Beartooth thing and call it a F.R.A. I think "Low Hanging Fruit" would be a good name for this route, all-in-all it's a worthy climb minutes from the car and is about M5 in difficulty, cheers.






We also climbed "Upper Rosebud Falls". It was brittle and the strong winds were knocking off microwave sized rocks from above the ice climb that came crashing down. Other than that it was a great day out.

mixing it up

We've been mixed climbing a lot this winter. Here are just a few sampler pictures of what we've been trying. Cheers.

Hyalite Canyon rockaneering

Ross Lynn and I climbed a new route on the black magic wall in Hyalite Canyon, Montana. It is about 150 feet left of black magic and starts in a clean hand sized crack. The first pitch was really good solid 5.9 (in ice boots and gloves) to a single bolt belay on a ledge (back it up if you can). The second pitch goes up into the obvious chimney, I won't describe it to much but I will advise beaks for pro. It's another solid 5.9 pitch to a single bolt belay/rappel anchor. Another Hyalite classic, enjoy!

cold snap

The high today was -2 F. I waited until noon drinking yerba mate and itching to ski. I finally went out to Bridger bowl on a solo mission and skined up in the freezing fog. What I got was one of the coolest fog rainbows I have ever seen, and the skiing wasn't half bad either.