"If it wasn't for choss we'd have nothing to climb"

 

With a very limited amount of time to get out climbing due to teaching middle school science as a student teacher (and a very limited wallet) I have been sticking closer to Bozeman this winter.   I have also been doing something I have never done before as well; I have given a route more that three days of attempts.  I generally dislike projecting routes, it leads to burn out and takes alot of the fun away for me, but this season I have been growing immensely as a climber by projecting a certain route.  Northwest passage is a mixed climb that climbs out a roof in Hyalite canyon and has been my nemesis this winter, I've climbed through the crux a few times now only to unexpectedly pop off or pump off. So maybe if you feel like you have hit a plateau in your climbing world, try picking a route that seems really hard to you and give it a bit of effort, you WILL make progress!

 

Myself pumped to the max at the lip of N.W. passage (M11). Photo By Bridget B.

 

  

 

The bouldering guru Erik Christenson came out mixed climbing with me and made this funny video of me failing on Northwest Passage.  We ended up going to Billings (MT) later this same day and competing in the Montana Bouldering Competition at Steep World climbing gym; which lead to us going to Chuck E Cheese with the Bozeman Climbing team... we even got to dance on stage with Mr. Cheese himself...

 

 

 

I also got out with Kyle Vassilopoulos as he worked his monster project in Hyalite canyon (which he just climbed!) he named "The house of flying daggers" M12+.  Like always it's badass watching Kyle climb through improbable sequences so well- very, extremly, super, inspiring.  

 

 Kyle on the roof of "The house of flying daggers"

 

 

 

Kyle gaining the ice on "The house of flying daggers".

 

 

Bridget and I also headed down to Cody, Wyoming for the 15th annual Cody Ice Fest.  This is such a low-key event, I really enjoy working the Sportiva booth during the fest and watching new ice climbers emerge.  We got out for three days during the event and climbed beautiful ice pillars in the South fork and dry boulders in the North fork of the Shoshone river.  Climbing dry and warm rock in February is such a luxury, we couldn't resist climbing the perfect sandstone boulders.

 

 

 You know you're in Wyoming when...

 

 

 Rusty Willis working the moves and the gear on the"Carotid Artery" mixed variation.  This had some of the loosest and scariest (even on TR) rock I have ever tried climbing. Photo by Bridget B.

 

Myself leading "My only Valentine".  Photo by Bridget B.

 

 

Bridget climbing on the "toadstool traverse"

 

 Myself climbing "mini cave center"  Photo by Bridget B.

 

Bridget enjoying the sun

 

 

 

Cheers, Loren 



Nyes' Ice- an enjoyable excursion

Lately I have been motivated to climb as many ice routes as I possibly can (in between student teaching) with a personal bias towards obscure or unpopular routes. I decided that I'll try and climb all the "recorded" ice routes in the Beartooth Mountains to ensure the quality of obscurity. This last weekend Bridget and I headed to the Stillwater River valley near Nye to climb "Nyes' ice". Nyes' ice is a long (180m, WI2/3) moderate climb that spills over a beautiful cliff band near the Stillwater mine. The climb sits entirely on the property of the mine. The Stillwater mine digs up Paladium and Platinum and is the largest paladium producer in the world (used in electronics). Having the ice climb lie on a mine's property makes for a unique situation. We had to ask for permission to climb the route from the guard station at the enterance to the mine, luckily the route is visable from the guard station so it makes explaining what you want to do/climb much easier. We lucked out and the guard let us climb the route (it turns out that to climb the route on the weekend you must call and ask permission on a business day to get formal permission from the higher ups).

We ended up having goldy-lock conditions. The ice was fat and sticky, there was hardly any snow, the valley was beautiful, there was abundant wildlife, and the climbing was 100% type 1 fun.

The reason I'm talking this route up so much (it's only WI2 for all you radsters) is that it is the best route of the grade I have ever climbed- pure hippy holler glee!

Spot the line?

 

Where's waldo?

 

 

 

We ended up soloing the first 300' of the route over rambling, fun, ice.  Bridget soloing the initial portion of the route.

yee haw pilgrim! the upper pitches of the route.

 

 

Bridget leading on the upper pitches

 

 

Bridget coming up the final pitch- all smiles.

 

 

Nice views from the top

 

 

 

One of the best parts was eating at the greasy spoon of "Carter's camp" (the hotel/post office/eatery/saloon) in Nye.  Bridget going big buck hunting.

Cheers, Loren

White Mountains Ice

This past holiday season found Bridget and I on the East Coast of the U.S.A. We enjoyed Christmas and New years in Massachusetts but spent the time between in the White Mountains of New Hampshire ice climbing. As a native westerner I must say I was impressed with the climbing on the east coast, the nice people we met, and the terrible weather that adds character to the experience.


Upon arriving in Franconia Notch (New Hampshire) the weather turned for the worst.  We wanted to do some routes on Cannon cliff but the winds blew us to the sheltered climbing area called the "Flume".  It was a great setting.

 

 

The flume

 

Bridget climbing at the flume

 The most dangerous part of climbing at the flume was the raging wind which was knocking down big trees all around us.  One tree fell 20 feet in front of us on the hike out to the car.

After the flume we headed to Frankenstein cliff to go ice cragging.  We climbed a few of the classic routes (after getting lost on the drive and wasting half the day).

 

Myself leading the classic "Dracula" at Frankenstein.

Bridget leading the classic "Standard route" at Frankenstein.

Bridget coming up the second pitch of the "Standard route".

Throughout the entire trip I just wanted to get into the bigger mountains but the weather was terrible- a wet, cold, high humidity, windy kind of terrible.  We looked up the weather at Mount Washington everyday and it was consistently 70-80mph sustained winds with a temp hovering around -4 F.  When we saw that we had a day where we might be able to get on Cannon cliff and climb the "Black Dike" route before another weather system moved in we jumped at the chance.

Climbing with a bunch of other people on a multi-pitch ice route was a novel experience for me as I tend to stay away from falling ice, however, by hanging out at the base of the route I was able to find a pretty descent ice screw that someone dropped earlier in the season-winning!  All in all the other groups on the route were really nice people and we had good conversations at the social-belay hours, and the route was indeed as classic as its reputation.

The beautiful Cannon cliff at Fraconia notch

Looking up the black dike with a few parties already on route.

Bridget looking for dropped gear at the base of the route.

Myself leading the crux middle pitch.

Cannon cliff from the "Black Dike" top out. 

Climbing in the east blew me away in respect to the amount of ice climbing there is to do.  I saw more ice in one valley than we have in entire mountain ranges in Montana.  I feel like I barely climbed any ice on the east coast, and I'm already anticipating another holiday visit 'out East' with ice gear in the bag!

Cheers, Loren

Hyalite choss scratching

Hyalite Canyon has been good this year and I've had a few great opportunities the past month.  I had the chance to help with Sherpas Cinemas film Conrad Anker and Kris Erickson climbing a Hyalite test piece ice climb (Winter Dance).  I was the mule and hauled camera equipment to the top of the climb and then did a bit of rope rigging.  It was a learning experience for me in many ways.

Conrad on Winter Dance

 Looking down Winter Dance

The Chopper filming- the film is going to be awesome!

 I also got out with a few friends to do some Hyalite mixed climbing.  We have been working "northwest passage" (M11).  I came very close to climbing it on my third burn so I'm feeling confident that I can get it done this season (in between my student teaching semester in a middle school science classroom).

Kyle vassilopoulos climbing "Panama Canal" M8, "Northwest passage" climbs out the roof to the right of the hanging ice dagger.

Myself red-pointing the techy "Panama Canal" M8.

Rusty Willis on "Northwest Passage" M11.

 

Cheer, Loren

Turkey day ice

silver falls

Olin, Bridget, Brad, and myself had a fun couple of days in the Beartooths during turkey day. 
We climbed silver falls (shown above with Brad on lead).  It is in fun shape, get it before Dec. 1st when they gate the road and you have to walk an extra mile (one way).

We also climbed the seldom done Hidden falls.  It is in the fattest shape I have ever seen it.  There is a super fun mixed variation on the right side in the obvious dihedral.  It goes on natural gear (to 1.5") and is really high quality.  I first climbed this mixed variation with Matt Weiland years ago when the ice was in poor shape.  Climbing it this last Thanksgiving weekend reminded me of how good a mixed route it actually is.  The mixed variation is roughly M4, so go get it while you can drive the road!

A couple of Billings cats we met up on hidden falls- solid guys

 

 

Brad and I bonding-photos by Bridget

 

I hope you're all enjoying whatever medium you like to climb on the most, and being thankful for the experience as well.

 

Cheers, Loren

 

 



Cottonwood Towers

 

While trail running with Bridget last spring up South Cottonwood Creek, near Bozeman, we ran past what appeared to be limestone spires sticking out from a thick mat of pine trees.  I logged the location of these spires away in my memory, for a rainy day activity, and kept on running behind Bridget with a pounding side ache. 

Nearly a year later we were back, we left the ice gear at home and loaded a pack with rock gear.  We hiked up the south cottonwood trail in perfect fall weather to the third bridge crossing (2.5 miles).  From here we walked up the trail another 5 minutes until the spires could be seen on the other side of the creek.  We crossed the creek, hiked to the base of the spires and looked up at limestone choss in all its glory.  As an inspired choss tower connosure I can not pass up unclimbed towers so we tied in.

The first view of the cottonwood towers from the trail - "The Ancient Fart Tower" on the right and the "Choss Wrangler Tower" on the left.

The spires turned out to be really cool.  They are overhung, really narrow, and tilt out in strange angles.  There is a notch that separates the two towers on the spires' back (west) side that has a wide crack.  I started up this loose crack that lead to the notch that protected well with cams to a #4.  From here I went up the climbers left tower and found some protection with two ice specters pounded into turfed-up cracks.  I mantled the tiny summit that is reminascent of the 'ancient art of the desert tower' in Utah.  It really is the ghetto version of that tower- thus we named it the "Ancient Fart Tower". 

The ancient fart tower- the route goes up the arete in the center.

Myself heading up the "ancient fart" tower

Bridget rappelling off of the ancient fart tower- we ended up slinging the entire summit with cord as an anchor.

After climbing the ancient fart tower we decided to climb the other tower that is attached.  We started up the same wide crack that gained the notch between the two towers then climbed up climbers right on the exposed ridge to the other virgin summit.  

Bridget heading up the "choss wrangler" tower with the "ancient fart" tower in the background.

Bridget on the summit of the "Choss Wrangler" tower.

Required gear for the cottonwood towers.

We placed a single bolt on top of the choss wrangler tower in good rock as there was no other option for a rappell anchor.  Both these towers deserve a special rating- a choss rating- to mentally prepare for the climbing.  They both get a Choss 5.7 rating, bring some pitons/ice specters. These towers are chossy as hell, but also good fun and a cheap reminder that climbing inadequate rocks is best approached with humor and zest.

Cheers, Loren