The Hanging Garden

Beehive peak's south face  In the beautiful Lee Metcalf wilderness.

The hanging garden is a "hanging" snow couloir that dissects Beehive Peak's north face. It was first climbed in July, 1967 (back when men were men) and has recently become a high-end ski descent in winter.  With nothing better to do with my day I decided to solo the route in late season conditions, hopefully find some ice to climb, and see the north face of Beehive Peak.  Beehive peak may be the "best" alpine peak in the greater Bozeman area (aside from the peaks lining Paradise valley) it definitely is my favorite peak in the region.  The hike in is short, the peak has no walk up route, there is snow, ice, rock, and ski descents.  It embodies all the aspects of a fun alpine peak- it actually reminds me of a tiny Grand Teton, and you can get your alpine fix and be back in town for lunch.

The hanging garden runs left to right in this photo and ends on the flat shoulder of the west ridge.  Photo obtained from:

http://www.outsidebozeman.com/activities/climbing/mountaineering/beehive-peak

The climb was really fun- lots of no fall terrain- but really moderate climbing.  I started by climbing the east couloir to the col, then descended down towards beehive lake.  I found the bottom of the hanging garden and had perfect frozen neve and some water ice to climb.  I topped the couloir out then tagged the summit and descended the west ridge and the 4th of July couloir.  The best part of the climb was that it allowed me to circumnavigate the peak, climb thousands of feet of ice/neve by enchaining multiple couloirs, and get back to Bozeman before 3:00pm.

Looking up the foreshortened east couloir

Perfect neve in the east couloir

Good views

down climbing neve on the north side

yea- in the hanging garden

Looking down the hanging garden

Cheers, Loren

Getting the Boot on Ti'Swaq'

Ti'Swaq'  (Mount Rainier)

 

 

Ti'Swaq' (the sky, sky wiper, it touches the sky) is the composit native name for the highest peak in Washington, aka Mount Rainier.  It is a giant mountain that honestly dominates the skyline and forms a great dichotomy of ocean and altitude.

 

Bridget and I made our way to Washington to give this behemoth of a peak an attempt at spitting us off it's slopes, and it did, with great success.

 

We arrived right when the great high pressure system was collapsing and a prolonged unsettled weather system was approaching.  Once we checked out the weather we abandoned our plans at climbing the liberty ridge and set our sights on the standard route (disappointment cleaver).  We skinned up to camp Muir under perfect weather...

 

Bridget skinning up

 

View from camp Muir

 

 

During the night the predicted weather system moved in and we awoke to a world of white.  This weather system lasted for two weeks and no party summited during this time; Ti'Swaq' was boss.

 

 

We gave the peak a half-hearted attempt by climbing just below the cleaver on Ingraham flats, but I was psyched out by the roar of unseen avalanches ripping on the flanks of the peak, so we bailed.  Bridget and I skied the 5,000' ski descent from camp Muir to the paradise parking lot in a complete snowstorm, following faint tracks and buried wands in a whiteout.  It was still a sweet experience.

 

Above the clouds for a moment- pretty cool

 

Soaking the view in

 

Tent time!

 

which way is up?

 

slug

 

 

We ended up heading to the Pacific Ocean to view the ocean life.  It was sweet!! I am always amazed by intertidal life, I just don't get it.  All the animals live on top of each other, eat each other, get along, and have bodies that are arranged in such a way that I can't figure out where their heads are.

 

 

sea otter

 

 

We even ran into the elusive Erik and his crab

 

 

 

A video on my sweet new knife I found on the Cowlitz glacier

 

 

 

On a serious note though: Bridget will be spending the summer guiding climbers on Mount Rainier.  If you want a badass (yet kind and gentle) guide ask for Bridget who is working with RMI (Rainier Mountaineering, Inc.)!

 

Cheers, Loren 





Steamboat Butte and the Leaning Tower of Pitons

I just graduated from MSU-Bozeman with a teaching degree, got a job teaching 7-12 science, and then spent the last week at my parents farm near Billings, house sitting.  While at my parents farm I went exploring in the Bull Mountains of Montana (Just north of Billings). 

Farm life

I bought a few BLM maps and located some public lands that may potentially contain some climbing, but as far we know there have been no climbing routes recorded in the Bull Mountains; thus the rock could be terrible.  What I found on my solo drive out to the 'Bulls prompted me to call (the) Olin (ator) and go exploring with ropes and cams the next day.  We went to an area called steamboat butte and it was much bettter than expected, actually it was great!

Olin with the Butte in sight

 

On the first scouting trip we explored the entire butte, found a few rattlesnakes, stumbled on a historic site with knappings and petroglyphs, and climbed two beautiful splitter cracks. 

 

This butte, we agreed, was a very special area, thus we were determined to have as little impact as possible while climbing.  We determined the ethics of the butte to have two factors;

 

1.) no fixed anchors/gear

2.) do not disturb the historical markings and artifacts in the pursuit of climbing the splitter choss

 

It was obvious that the butte had been visited/abused by many others in the past (the cliff was bullet hole ridden and people had carved their names in the sandstone near the summit), all I'm saying is that we as climbers are better than this, so lets just go climbin'.

 

 

The next day we convinced a crew of fun Billings climbers to join us in picking the plumbs of the area, here's what we found:

 

The crew:  Bridget, Echo, Olin, Chad, and James.

 

 



Myself on the first ascent of "petroglyph crack"

 

Olin beneath "Petroglyph crack", which takes a plumb line to the summit of the butte

 

James Melnyk climbing the beautiful "Friendship crack"

 

Chad Chadwick climbing "friendship crack"

 

Echo Oaks on Olin's awesome climb "House Cleaning"

 

Olin rapping on a gear anchor onto the short crack named "Masters of the Universe"

 

Myself on the first ascent of "Bull Mountain Jam"

 

Chad on "Bull Mountain Jam"

 

Bridget on top of the summit block over the zig-zagging crack she climbed.  The butte is set up in two tiers, so to get to the top you need to climb two pitches (or do the scramble on the backside of the butte).

 

 

 

 

We also climbed the brilliant leaning tower of pitons (aka the pinnacle) in Billings, Montana.  If you want a desert tower experience within city limits, this tower should not be missed!

 



 

 

 

  It's a bit run out until one reaches the crack.

 

 

parting shot

Cheers, Loren



space, time, and the texture of reality

Yesterday I found these topos I drew from a Beartooth climbing trip from many years ago.  For some reason I brought a really deep book to read on this trip (The fabric of the cosmos: Space, time, and the texture of reality) which describes everything physics, and I drew the topos in the blank back pages while sitting around camp.  I hadn't picked this book up for years (and I still haven't read the whole thing) but I started laughing when I flipped the book open to this page.  kinda cool to rediscover.


Cheers, Loren