Tooling Around in Bozeman

To escape the horrible inversion Missoula was experiencing last week, I headed for Bozeman to hang with friends and ice climb in the sun. I wasn't motivated to try anything big so I thought a day of cragging would be nice. Ben Brunsvold and I headed to the Bingo Cave for an entertaining day of dry tooling. We had no idea what the ratings were, but because the routes had fixed draws, why not try.

We each gave a route a few goes and got totally worked. It was great fun though and something to strive for. After that we chucked a quick lap on the Good looking One so we could actually swing our tools.

All in all it was a fun day playing around in the sun.

Bingo Cave

When sport climbing, think like a sport climber....stick clip it

Worked, attempt #1

Ben starting up

Pretending to be strong enough. Turns out its rated M10+

GNP....again

Last week Justin Woods and I headed to Glacier trying to climb a rarely traveled ice route. We were looking at a line on Mount Cannon, which like all route on the mountain, is heavily threatened by avalanches. Conditions seemed ok and since we wouldn't be stepping foot on the avy slopes, we figure what's the chance of a natural release.

We skied the 8 mile approach and made a small mistake getting to the climb. After 5 and a half hours, we were at the base of the route. It was late in the day, but we still had time to climb. We soloed the first step, then roped up. Justin lead the first pitch which was poorly protected, but incredibly fun. The route was so aesthetic that we decided to keep climbing, planning to leave ourselves with just enough light to get down. The next pitch was equally fun, but left us at a position that we couldn't access trees to rappel from. This meant one more pitch.


As I was following, the sun really began to shine and I started to enjoy the "warmth" (12F) and beautiful scenery. I was looking up at rolling ice contrasted against a dark blue sky, when a wave a white began pouring over the cliff band. Momentary panic grabbed me, but I found a safe position as the snow rushed by me. Just sluff, nothing big. I started climbing again. For a moment, I though I heard a roar, weird. Then I felt the force of it. I was on the right side of a bottle neck as the snow began pounding me. I could hear it roaring, and feel the surges of force. I thought if it got any stronger, I would be ripped from the ice. Then it stopped.


I screamed to Justin, but nothing. I quickly scrambled the remainder of the pitch and found him at the base of the next ice flow. He yelled at me to escape out right and then followed once I had a belay. Turned out he was belaying from the ice and could do nothing when the small slide came except curl up and take it.


That was enough for us. We were over it! Three rappels later and we were on the ground. The sun was setting and no more sluffs were sliding off the mountain. Only 8 miles left between us and a cold beer.

Justin back at the base

Sunset over McDonald Lake

Whistler for the Holidays

Once again I headed up to Whistler ski area with Bob, Heather, Derick, and T. Claes for the week between Christmas and New Years. As expected, it was a great time. There wasn't any new snow when we arrived, but there were unusually blue skies. The skiing was fun, but more importantly, I had a great time visiting with everyone.

Bob and Heather

Bob

More Winter Dance Pictures

Here are some more pics courtesy of Sam Magro. This series shows me climbing pitch 2.

Winter Dance Again

When Jeff and I had to bail off Winter Dance last week, I was left with the burning desire to try again. We had a similar experience on a route in Canada years ago, but without the opportunity to try again, we tortured ourselves with what-if's. I didn't want to go through that again, so knowing I had more time off coming up, I looked for anyone available to climb.

Ben Brunsvold called me and had left a message that he would be in Bozeman on his way to Jackson. He was looking for someone to climb with. Perfect! Ben has less experience than me, but great energy and is always into an adventure. He was up for it.

Winter Dance

It was Wednesday, 6:15am, and we just started hiking by headlamp. Kris Erickson had told me that it takes him 12 hours car to car, so I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time. After 1.75 hours of hiking up the ridge, we reached the base. Ben and I quickly organized the gear and then he started up the first pitch. Ben climbed quickly and it wasn't long before I started following.

As I neared Ben, "Fuck!" echoed through the canyon. I looked over to the ridge and saw three Bozeman guys. We had beat them to it. None of us ever imagined that two different parties would be gunning for this route on the same day. And a Wednesday of all days. Too bad I thought and headed up the next pitch.

Pitch 3 (WI6+/7-)

This attempt was better than last time. I made it through the crux, but still had to hang twice. I uncomfortable hung from the belay bolts and watched Ben follow the pitch. While Ben climbed I kept looking at the next pitch trying to figure out how I was going to approach it.

I had never attempted a WI6+/7- pitch before. I knew it would be difficult, but figured I would place as much gear as possible to make it as safe as I could make it. As it turned out, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. A series of difficult/awkward sections followed by rests. Eventually I reached the belay and set an anchor.

Starting pitch 4

Ben and I eyed the last pitch best we could. I was tired and offered him the lead, but he wisely declined. A short WI5+ pitch was all that stood between us and success. Ben put me on belay and drove my picks into the ice. The climbing started out trickier than I expected and I was also feeling more tired than expected. "Too late now, I'm committed." I turned the corner and saw a slight grove in the ice I could work my way up. Desperately trying to recover energy, the foot and tool placements got better. Eventually I rounded the top and recognized that I had just realized my goal, I had just climbed Winter Dance.

Nearing the top

With a few well earned hoots and hollers, Ben and I began rappelling. We reached the car with daylight to burn in just under 11 hours and found two cold beers waiting for us.

Climbing pictures courtesy of John Meyer

Winter Dance

Finally, after so many years, we went for it. I have had the image of this ice climb in my head since I began ice climbing nine years ago. Big, mysterious, and difficult, it towers above the entire drainage; Winter Dance.

First climbed in '97 by Alex Lowe and Jim Earl, it has since seen only a number of ascents. In 2007 White Magro freed the bolt ladder allowing the climb to go entirely free; M8, WI 6+.

Winter Dance

Tuesday night, Jeff and I were preparing for a trip to Glacier National Park. A last minute Internet check changed our minds. A post on a climbing forum said that Winter Dance was in great shape and the weather was looking good for Wednesday. Bozeman it was!

Staring pitch 1

We left Missoula at 3:00am hoping to start hiking by day break. It was a long shot to try day tripping this climb from Missoula, but worth a shot. It was 10:00am when we reached the base after 2.5 hours of hiking. We racked the gear and Jeff headed up the first pitch. It turned out to be much trickier than either of us had expected. By the time I reached Jeff it was noon. With 3 hard pitches left an only about 4.5 hours of day light remaining, we knew we had been too slow.

Jeff reaching the 1st belay


Myself mid-way, pitch 2

There was no need to bail immediately with the time we had, so we decided to at least climb the next pitch. This was the bolt ladder White had freed at M8. The bolts are close and safe so its worth trying to free. I hung in the opening roof to figure out the move, but eventually worked my way through it. The climbing eases a bit but I was forced to rest again at the next bulge. From there it was to the anchor. From this position, I was directly next to the ice and could take a good look at it. It appeared very tricky but manageable. Unfortunately this was our high point.

Myself reaching the 2nd anchors

The sun began to bake the ice making Jeff and I uneasy about our position. We rapped off with hopes of returning soon.

Blodget Day

Last Sunday Jeff and I thought it could be fun to climb Shoshone in Blodget canyon. It's been cold out, but the ice hasn't fully formed yet. Rather than sit around on our butts, we figure we ought to go rock climbing.

The temps actually turned out to be quite pleasant. A slight breeze forced us to keep jackets on, but for the most part, we were warm.

It was nice to be climbing with Jeff again. We hadn't climbed together in a long time and even though Shoshone isn't a challenge, it was still a fun adventure in winter conditions.

We finished the climb with plenty of day light remaining and slowly made our way back to the trail. Snow covered rock made travel kind of tricky, but we managed to reach the car just at sunset.