Spring Bleeding

Signs spring climbing season is on: Huge flappers and climb-on in my backpack, a tick-list of problems to send in the margins of all of my notebooks, my clothes no longer smell like campfire, and a long line a of shirtless Brobrahs lined up to thrutch and flail on the Wave.

On Thursday, Kyle (spacecat) Neely and I headed out to the Trailers for an afternoon session, which involved quick sends of the Pope's Simulator, and realizing that we are both short on Heart of Darkness. (Neither of us sent, but Kyle deemed the sds to be MT's next rad v10+ probelm.) Then Kyle wanted to go sus' some beta, on an old Dwight line on the Queen. Given that we only had my mondo and no ropes, this was probably a poor idea.

On Saturday, the Dizzler and I pilgrimaged to Whiskey, with a long list of problems to try. I managed to get an FA of a little line called Western Grip (v4), in the recently developed cluster directly in the middle of the main area (near that weird red cave). We then both got shot down by top-out of the Whiddler (v7), before finishing up the day, Erik Christianson's newish problem, Full Gravity Daze (v5). A neat little problem which involved a fun dyno, and some ugly face dragging falls.


A shitty pic of myself on the Whiddler, that does no justice to the problem nor my old climbing sweat pants.

Side note: A few years back I stumbled upon a white shipprow like mini-butress above what became new whiskey. The other day, I went looking for it again and found it cleaned and chalked with a large landing area constructed and a ladder stashed. It looked as though a lot of work had gone into the lines and I was wondering if they are still projects or are established and open? Beta por favor.

BAQOM -new segment

Bad ass quote of the month

"Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and the beaten earth around it, and plunge into the forest, and on and on, he knew not where or why; nor did he wonder where or why, the call imperiously, deep in the forest."

-Jack London
Call of the Wild

back to the butt(e)hole

Whelp, spring break has come and gone. I had pretty lofty ambitions (sort of), and managed to accomplish almost none of them. And that is just fine with me. I did however manage to ...

Ski into the old growth wonderland of Monture Creek (and create an excellent and incredibly crass snowman near the creek's headwaters... lichen allows for a variety of body hair you don't normally see on snowmen)

Use a chainsaw on the family ranch. Alone. Out of cell phone service. Balanced on a ladder. Cutting down roof beams from an old barn. Yeah, man stuff.

Catch some March Browns on the Bighorn.

See the season's first griz tracks on the East Rosebud trail.

...And watch a shit-ton of March Madness. I don't even like basketball.

Also, I've started training for the Grizzlyman Adventure Race in Missoula, because apparently climbing is not masochistic enough.

Spring Break Cancun 2012!

...Just kidding. What frat did you think I was in?




Actually, my spring break does start tomorrow, and at the moment I am completely without solid plans... with the exception of helping my Pa do a little fencing at the family ranch. Yes that is correct Lavina, MT: where hillbillies travel to feel isolated:








But before I head to the northern plains, with any luck, I will be spending a couple days here:

The North Fork of the Flathead (Save it Don't Pave it!). The Last Best Place's last best place. Rumor has it grizzlies are almost docile when they wake from hibernation.





And finally, if the spring weather god's allow, climbing on some newly discovered Billings choss:


Two midterms away!

Lagging Time

Yep, did not post for a while there... Once again, this is mostly due to my aversion to essay based blogging. ...it always seems to come of douchy. Anyhoo, things have been happening. Mostly in the genres of ski touring and climbing.

Here are some pics compliments of John David of my ski up the North Fork of the Blackfoot. The best part of this trip was the fact that the plan was concocted on a bar stool the night prior. Normally this results in a 10am wake up and a half-ass day of changing plans, but in this case: Success!

For you ignorant sonsabitches not in the know, The N. Fork of the Blackie hits the main stem just east of Ovando. This is one of the most beautiful rivers I have ever seen. The river flows though large precambrian boulders (choss), in a deep walled canyon, lined with old-growth larch. I can just imagine running out a fat bull trout... not that I would ever do that (Its illegal to target Bull Trout.)

Enough writing, here be the pics.


Charred from the epic 1988 Canyon Creek fire, which burned 250,000 acres in 1988. Second biggest fire in the state's history.



Breaking trail.


Skiing on top of the frozen river.


JD in front of the Scapegoat wilderness boundary sign.


There be avalanches in these parts. This particular on damned the river... I probably should not be standing here.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get back on track with the regular updates.

Jombo.