Big Creek. My new home.

This pic was taken from my front porch. Huckleberry Mountain over my boss' casa. If only the sky would stop peeing...

Bitterroot bound.

A long weekend in Missoula between jobs, meant a return to perhaps my favorite time/thing of the year. Spring climbing season in the Bitterroot. A couple of excellent days sandwiched between weeks of rain and depressing gloom.


7' tall Dylan illustrating how huge Midnight Lightbulb is.


Dylan, 4th and inches on "The Cradle and All." Scotty sent before I even had my camera out.


Girl's Best Friend. Lost Horse's forgotten gem.


Scot on the proj.


Kevin "K-Biscuit" Barnet, on Razorback. Kootenai canyon.


Heading to the Blacksmith Brewery. Yayyyyy!

Because Charlie Russell is a badass.

How I plan to deal with grizzlies this summer.

Westward ho. Fuck I-90.

The Crazies from the North.


Harlowton


All thats left of the Old Milwaukee


Backwoods trailer park. Checkerboard, MT.


The Big Belts. Mt. Baldy, and Mt. Edith (9,500').


Spires of the Castle mountains. Above White Sulphur Springs.


The Conoco big rigs, East of Townsend. These things are effing huge... and guarded by a security detail.


The lovely East Helena coal yard.

Essentials

Packing my bags for the spring/summer in the park. These are the items that no seasonal laborer or seasoned dirtbag should leave home without.



1.) Flyrod

2.) Electronic social life.

3.) Climbing gear

4.) Hatchet/Axe (for hunter gather related duties, and protection in the case of "Deliverance" like scenarios.)

5.) Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (Less tasteful options are not only allowed but encouraged.)

6.) Barley Soda

7.) Mexican shower stick (a.k.a. deodorant)

8.) Nerve steadier/laxative (Copenhagen)

9.) Electronic campfire

10.) Cribbage board (Used for settling debates ...if debate remains unsettled see #4.)

-Honorable mentions include instant coffee, canned tuna, the leatherman, toilet paper, first aid kit, and girls.

The Yellowstone from Laurel.

Lifty Life

Yesterday marked my last day working at Red Lodge. Here is a sampler of what my life entailed. Missing in the series are douchy steezbags, North Dakotans in Caarhart onesies, hangovers, and actual snowboarding. Click on pics to enlarge.


Mt. Maurice in the mornin'.


Willow creek lift.


How my days were spent.


Obviously its a very complicated job.


Excellent graffiti found in a lift shack. Please note the box next to my name is not checked.


Red Lodge Mountain late season powder day. 7:30 in the morning.

Mountains I shall Teabag.

As of saturday, I will be abandoning the rednecks of southern MT and headed Northwest. Pumped. After a brief debauchery filled layover in Missoula, I will be arriving in Glacier country to spend my summer spring/summer with a entirely different breed of redneck found in the flathead. Wahoo!

Usually this time of year involves Sam Johnson and myself drinking beer and making tick lists for the spring climbing season. But given that "chossy death flakes" doesn't even do justice to the rock quality in Glacier, and Sam's spoiled ass is sloshing wine, oogling euro-babes, and humping swiss granite, I am forced to make a different type of tick list. Here are a couple peaks I hope to summit before the summer is up... assuming I don't spend all my free time at the bar in West Glacier. Hoka Hey!


Mt. Gould- The face pictured is the largest vertical drop in Montana. Like 4'000" I believe.


Mt. Reynolds. Gem of logan pass.



Rainbow Peak. For all my gay friends.


Chief Mountain. Holy mountain of the Blackfeet. I'll probably be on peyote.


Mt. Siyeh. One of 6 10,000 footers in glacier.


Great Northern Mountain. Great Bear wilderness.

Montana Icon #2

Rocker, MT. On the way to Red Lodge.
Red Necks in the area were concerned they simply could not intimidate tourists, and minorities at all times. Their solution was to construct a 30ft tall gun-toting shit kicker. Problem solved. ...creepy.

Where the Red Fern Grows???

Is there a better way to spend fat tuesday, than running through thickets along the Yellowstone River chasing hounds, who in turn were chasing raccoons? (If you answered yes: trading cheap plastic beads for a glimpse of some female naughty bits, you may have a point.) Regardless, I couldn't turn down an offer from my buddy Gillvray, to head out to some state land near Pompey's Pillar and scare up some coons. After chasing the dogs in circle for over an hour we finally treed two (unfortunately they were way to high in cottonwoods to get a good picture)... Only in eastern Montana... Or backwoods Kentucky.

Click on pics to enlarge.

Peaks from my lift shack window.

These are two 12,000 footers I am forced to salivate over when I look out the window of my lift shack. If only the Beartooths weren't covered in snow. Or I was brave.


Silver Run Peak


Mt. Wood

Postholing Ingles Creek

A recent achilles tendon injury (sustained while trying to 360 on snowshoes... seriously) has left me less active recently then i'd prefer. On a recent day off I planned on going for a walk on the mellow silver run loop trails and ended up wading through waste deep snow and attempting to posthole my way to the top of the plateau... I nearly barfed. Good thing a whiteout blizzard rolled in to make the whole affair just a little more interesting.


Storm rolling in the Beartooths. deposited 14" of fresh.








Puking.