Thursday, November 18, 2010

A Saturday in the Isos

Headed out on Saturday with Jesse to go climb and explore some more in the Isolated Boulders...A good day but I spaced the memory card. A few new problems, a couple good new potentials, and a 'project' that will surely go next time...all in all a good day out exploring and getting the Isos dialed back in...


Some new 'improvements' at the Burned-out Stove Boulder...



































The weather looks a bit sketchy for the weekend...but it may turn out decent for exploring...sometimes you just gotta go out and look...

Cheers!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Just another Autumn photo post--Mom and Son

Some shots of Molly and Ladd on the stone just off of the beginning of the CDT (Homestake tracks):











The uber-thin diagonal cracks in the last pic are untouched as of yet...

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Hideout Ridge and the CDT



Looked like the weather on top of the pass would be getting tough soon, with one more nice weekend in the cards and the brotherman hanging out in Butte, we headed out to some of the higher elevation areas...







Sometimes there's a loose flake or two on the new ones...careful out there...


Laughing up WSOW (World Series of Wide)

After a quick warm up on a new one, the plan was to check out the Taxman look-alike...which turned out to be a bit harder than we remembered...so we took a 'quick' exploring tour that ended up going on for about 4 hours. The ridge has an incredible amount of potential, and some really wild looking lines...we became very overwhelmed by the whole hike...so many good looking lines, then another handful of pins and fins just a few minutes farther.(repeat) I have no doubt that this area will be seeing much more action in the coming seasons...


Looking back at the Hideout (currently contains ~20 routes on the two formations)



Pat scoping a wide one



Interesting feature on this one...

After a evening in Butte we headed back out to the Blue bro project on the CDT...meeting up with Clay and Mish in process...a good day working the rig, with everyone giving it a go.


Clay getting inverted


Belay perspective

Finally the beta was figured out and Pat got the TR send. Strong work to be sure...plans for the lead are in the works, but now with the seasons changing, this might become a spring mission...

Overall a great weekend savoring the last efforts of Autumn.

Cheers!

Monday, November 8, 2010

The last of Mr. Cilley?

A warm Autumn week day provided the back-drop for one final climbing day with Dick? We warmed up at the "Cilley" boulders, then spent the rest of the outing at the Triple Crown area above the CDT on the south side of Interstate.



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Roadside warm-up face


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Pulling the crux of another good find


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Playing "Hogan's Heroes" in a hollowed out stump


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Queueing up for the Triple Crown


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Charging through the "Freakness Steaks" aka "Wop Chop"


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Mid-way through them all--on "The Belmont Hammer"

An old 5 lb. mining sledge hammer was found in this crack upon a closer look at the crack...



An ol' skool, pad-less attempt (my bad in going for the camera first...)



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Finally nearing the home stretch on "The Montucky Derby"--hardest of the 3


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Crossing the finish line...

Video of the full race...




Within five minutes of the above cracks are a dozen more (some harder, some easier) cracks to boulder, not to mention some OW rope action immediately to the right of the Triple Crown cracks.




Safe travels and good climbin' to you, Dick--it was an honor to partake with you on the pebbles.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Trailer and Druthers Tour

After a costume filled evening I met up Saturday morning with a psyched crew and headed out for a tour of a couple lower elevation zones in the Boulder Batholith...the Trailer Boulders and the Druthers.

Ari, Kevin M, Kyle and I made the brief walk into the main Trailer Boulders, on the way in I showed off the two sporadic overhanging prows...both seemed to inspire and help build psyche for the day, and perhaps the area in general...after a quick walking tour of the main Trailers, we jumped on a handful of established moderates, Misty was well received, The Aristocrat saw a round of sends, and a new overhang was cleaned up and quickly sent.

After about 8 or so problems we jumped on the proper(project) start to an unnamed problem Ron put up last season. Previously a stand start from the cobble up and right of Kyle.



Kyle made great progress on the start, deciphering all the moves. A send can't be far away...pretty damn cool.

We then ventured back towards the rigs, meeting up with Brady, Briton, Hutch and kids...we checked out the more reasonable of the sporadic overhangs, and then walked out to the Druthers.




We did a brief tour and then wound down the day at central boulder in the Druthers...seeing how feasible the finish of the super-proj is...





Impressive goes on a problem with few features...new beta was used on the initial toss and Kevin even made a go for the lip. Good stuff, but deemed mega hard...


Overall a super fun day showing off a couple zones to new eyes. Hope to be out again soon.

Cheers!