Spire Completion, Butte Bouldering Bash, and the First Ice of the Season

Spire Climbing Center Grand re-Opening!

We completed the remodel of Spire Climbing Center in Bozeman this fall.  We had a grand reopening of the gym complete with a ribbon-cutting from 30 feet in the air!  It was great for me to be a part of this remodel project, and it feels good to see the gym in all its glory and people having fun climbing on it!

Here are some pictures I took throughout the summer as we made progress on the gym.

Jeff Ho cutting the ribbon on the Grand Reopening night with a sweet dyno from the roof.

Climbers on the new wall on opening night!  (props to the route setters)

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Fall time in the mountains of Montana

Bridget and I tried finding some ice a few weekends ago to climb.  We wanted to go rock climbing but the weather had other plans as it snowed around 20 inches.  We basicly stumbled over slick, snow covered rock looking for ice.  We found a little ice to climb and a loose gully that was around M4 (short section).  We ended the weekend by bouldering on the perfect granite boulders in the Rock Creek Drainage.

Truck camping breakfast of champions

The best part was bouldering in the sun with crisp temps.

Bridget sending a John Gill problem near the road

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 The Butte Bouldering Bash also occured last weekend.  I love going to this low key event (where dogs almost out number the climbers!).  This year the event was held at a new sector of boulders (the Trailer Boulders).  Rusty Willis and I manned the Sportiva booth and went bouldering throughout the day.  The new area is sweet, with high quality problems of all grades.

Good temps

good food and fun crowd

Rusty Willis sending a cobble arete

Keeping warm in the Sportiva booth.  Photo by Thomas Kingsbury

Cheers, Loren

The SW Buttress of the Bear's Face

 

The SW buttress is the right skyline.

Bridget and I had a fairly successful time in the East Rosebud this last week.  We climbed the SW buttress of the wall above Elk Lake (its been climbed prior).  We managed to make a mostly free ascent of the upper headwall-  I pulled on a cam on a friction traverse (The original rating is 5.9 A2, and Daniel Burson and Ari Greenburg made a free ascent of the buttress a few years ago at 5.11) and we topped the monolith out around 1 in the afternoon.  The unsuccessful portion of the climb was the descent.  We totally went down the wrong gully (the gully below the first wall).  It was the most chossy place I have ever been (and that's saying something).  It was a place you didn't want to linger in as it funnels rocks from high above and they come exploding past like bullets and missles.  It was like a game of Russian Roulete in there, you knever knew if the next rappel had your name on it, and pulling the ropes caused a whole new barrage of rockfall.  The gully was pooring water and we were soaked, leaving nuts and slinging blocks for anchors.  Five hours later we stumbed out into the evenging light at five mile creek happy to be alive.  Aside from the descent the climbing was great and, as always, the scenery was amazing - just never descend down that gully!

Bridget on the headwall

Bridget knocking a big block off the headwall

 Myself climbing steep corners on the upper headwall

The top out

The descent

The rope didn't handle the descent well either

Cheers, Loren

Sunlight Buttress

"The Wet Whitey-Tighty Contest" 5.11. 

A terrible (and awesome) route name I know.... let me explain.

This past winter Kevin Volkening and I went exploring a cool place for some ice to climb.  Well, we didn't find any ice but we did "discover" (I found an arrow head at the base of the wall, which means the wall was probably discovered a few thousand years ago) a beautiful wall of gneiss.  While exploring the cliff we were forced to cross the creek below it - in winter - in our underwear (or lack of...) a seriously cold endevor...

...that's how this route got it's name.

Kevin crossing the creek

Bridget, Scott "Sandbaggin" Salzer, and I headed to the cliff this past Labor day weekend to check the rock out.  Here's what we found:

Myself on the first pitch (The Fruit of the Loom Pitch) in survivor mode.  The perfect 2" hand crack in the back was protected by a wasp nest and a huge spider, both of which I had to climb around to get to the top. 

Bridget on the first ascent of the second pitch (The Atomic Wedgie Pitch) - oh so good!!

Looking down the "atomic Wedgie Pitch" in awe!

Scott following "the atomic wedgie pitch"

The next day we rappelled the cliff looking for a way to link the route together

We linked the route together by climbing the pitches ground up after inspection from above.  We ended up placing a couple bolts in blank sections (i.e. one 60m pitch has 3 bolts)

Bridget following "The Fruit of the Loom Pitch" on the free push.

 On Labor day we climbed the route ground up all free at solid 5.11.

And we were watched the entire time by the worlds boldest climber... no pressure.

Scott on pitch 4 "The Bannana Hammock pitch" - bring very small gear for this one to supplement a couple of bolts.

Bridget on the 3rd pitch "The skid marks pitch".  Bring a clean pair of underwear for this pitch as it is insecure. (the white scars on the slab below are from cleaning the route, there still may be a few loose blocks on route- bring a helmet).

Route cleaning

We bolted every anchor on the route and the route can be rappelled with 2, 60M ropes (3 rappells total)from anchors that have bones tied to them (recommended as you approach from above).

If you want beta for this route let me know, I'd be psyched!

Cheers, Loren

An ascent of Iddings Peak

The long east ridge of Iddings Peak

Iddings peak is the second highest peak in the Crazy Mountains of central Montana.  The entire mountain range is an anomoly, it resides in a basin feature (i.e. the mountains shouldn't be there), the rock is ignious and metamorphic, and the relief in these mountains is enormous for such a "low" mountain range.  It's a unique place.

I have always wanted to climb this peak's long east ridge, and with the rest of the mountain ranges in Montana being on fire, this was the logical choice.

I leasurely hiked into the beautiful cirque that contains Pear lake and set up a camp near the inlet at a small tarn.  I spent the day exploring the two tiny pocket glaciers that surround  the peak.  They both had small terminal moraines which is a good sign (you can see one moraine in the picture above). 

I awoke when it got light out then headed up the few thousand feet to the base of the east ridge.  The night felt really cold and I was surprised to see that the tarn I was camped at was frozen over.  Once on the  east ridge I found the rock to be a bit loose (expected) but really, really good climbing as well.  The ridge was mostly 4th class for about half a mile, exposed, windy, with great views.  I summited the peak then descended the entire ridge back down because it was so fun (one can excape the ridge just below the summit pyramid).

The east ridge

The east ridge with the summit pyramid still 1/4 mile away.

Rock lake way down there, the haze is from all the forest fires in Montana.



A few mountain goats

This little guy was more interested in choke cherries than me.



Cheers, Loren

Highway 14 pinnacles and Tensleep

Bridget atop the "Trickster" pinnacle


I have tried making it to the Highway 14 pinnacles (Bighorn Mountains, WY)  earlier this summer but a ghetto truck made getting to the towers unfeasible.  Bridget and I finally made it this past weekend, but we barely made it out of the area.

We arrived at the Coyote rocks area in the evening with pent-up energy from the drive.  We immediatly free-soloed the "trickster" pinnacle (5.6) and sucked in the view of the area; what a setting!  We were at timberline, there was a snowfield near by, and there were hundreds of domestic sheep grazing around us and the towers.

We ended up climbing most of the towers in between rain storms.

lots-a-towers

We did alot of hanging around in the back of the truck with two wet dogs waiting out rainstorms.

Bridget atop the "Yipping Coyote Tower"

Really cool spires abound!

lots-a-sheep

another pretty tower

The highway 14 pinnacles were really fun to climb at but it was adventure climbing.  There was alot of loose rock and the leading was pretty heady (i.e. don't bring alot of gear because you won't place it).  We almost got stuck there as well.  The description of the area states not to drive on the 4x4 road when it rains.  We decided it was no big deal to drive out once we climbed most of the towers so we headed down the rutted road.  It turned out the road turnes to gumbo mud when wet and getting out of there was the most gripping part of the trip; but we managed to make it out with out destroying the truck.

We then headed to drier places (Tensleep) to go sport climbing.  I have never been to Tensleep before so it was time to drink the cool-aid.  I found the stone to be awesome, the climbing pumpy, and routes bolted liberally.  It was stellar!

 Bridget leading "Big Yellow Butterflys" at Tensleep.

Myself on the huge roof of "killer karma".

Cheers, Loren