Finishing out January Properly

Decent temps lured a crew of 8 to the Batholith on a ground-snow Saturday. "Bozeman" represented with Tom, Pat, Guy, Dominic, Ron, Ty, and Trevor--I was the lone local...

Some snaps of the the day:


This way, right?



What a grunt-fest



Winter Bouldering, eh?



New meat on the problem



The motivated bro-duo returning to the car after a successful Kingsbury (Pat) send.



Racing towards the next destination--the Desert



Guy trying to get the elusive top-out on the Bolted Boulder



Ron moving upwards on a pebble that he would later send



Trevor on clean, dry rock



The inspiration "TKings" on a fun arete



Some of the crew on support



In spite of the snow cover on the ground--decent bouldering could be had on the last weekend in January...

Desert Party!

Last Saturday, a large crew showed up in the Desert to partake in some winter pebble pulling. 15 folks, a dozen pads, 3 dogs, and ~50 beers....good times ensued.

Group shot of the day, under the Optronic Eye



The Buttian Warlord saw a number of repeats, and the obvious extension heading out the nose was worked out as well. Nice Send Levi!

Kevin checks out the extension





Optronic Eye Session. Congrats on the repeats y'all!

















We then headed back over to the Airship Arete, where Levi added a sit start and he, Dean and Andy all repeated. A strong finish to the day to be sure.










Dean shows us the descent




Overall it was a superfun day. Great to see so many folks out enjoying what the Boulder Batholith has to offer. Hope to see y'all out again soon, if not the Desert, somewhere else out in those woods...

Cheers!

Tom

east bourbons......

CDT in Winter

After trying a few different times and ways to "hike" this trail from Homestake, I got a few hour window on MLK Day to see how far and what I could see while traveling on skis this time. The day was sunny and some good bouldering finds were to be had--the down side being that my battery died before snapping three mini-zone cracks (hand, finger, hard OW)...


One of the first climbable trailside goodies






Atop a blank proposition


Cool problem



Water-Ice Zero difficulty


This one could be fun...


I didn't go in very far, and came out a different way, but saw enough potential to lure me back during dryer climes.

Mid-January in the Desert

There was lots of activity in the Desert on Saturday, with groups coming from 'round the State to meet up and climb on the pebbles. Ladd and myself was the Butte contingent:


Ladd maximizing his pad time.


Getting in a slab problem

After calming down over a freak-out, Ladd tops out.



Dean (Machino) representing the 'Zoo crew.




Levi capturing the second ascent of "Optronic Eye"



After seeing what we got for weather on MLK day, I am excited for warmer and sunnier days.

El Nino and Its Effects on Ski Season

It was the weekend but the skiing at Bridger sounded lame and the backcountry is trying to kill people this year. The sun has been shining and temps have been above freezing for a week. Kingsbury as always was stoked and I gotta feed the stoke. A trip to the Desert of the Batholith to meet-up with a larger then ever crew from Missoula, Helena, Dillon, Butte and Bozeman. DAMN!!!

We hit-up many of the established problems, cleaned-up a few others, added some variations, put down a couple newbies, and started to sus out the projects.

My upper-body and tips are soft and I feel like a yuppie for skiing so much. It was good to get grounded for day by the touch of granite on skin and rubber, feel the vibe of positivity that is bouldering, and remember what its all about.....climbing.

The light was flat and grey while the urge to climb was too strong, so here is what I could come up with. Lo-edit photo gallery:

Triage on the Mastodon Boulder




Levi sending SlabTech V3. A sweet little beauty we swamped out of the trees. Clean, crisp crimping on dark granite.




SlabTech



SlabTech

finishing 'er up


Thomas on Buttian Warlord (right variant)

Next on to a proud Fruh original. Beta was shared, it was sent two different ways and the train entailed. Senor Fruh: heal thy elbow biatch!

Optronic Eye


Optronic Eye

Sweet day, getting my season's stoke on. Gonna have to ski through April, that's just the way it is. Hopefully a couple sessions in the 'lith and many days getting my ego squashed by 13 year-olds and Dockins at plastic land will get me ready for the upcoming Bourbons season where we push how high we can get.

A winter's sussin'

No shoe-ups for me on this trip, only trail-time for the kids--still good to get out and hook-up with the Boz'Zoo crew:-)

Airship Arete

On Saturday, though the conditions were tough, a good sized crew ventured into the Desert for some wintry pebble pulling. Though the temps were decent, the midweek temps were too low to allow much in the way of melt off.



After a brief warm-up, we decided to head back to the Airship Arete project....though I think I was the only one returning to it...Gee, Dylan, Mike and Dom had yet to pull on it...This was my 2nd real day on it...the 1st being last week.

After a fair amount of work from the fellas and I, Gee Alsenz unlocked to moves and topped out in snowy conditions! Nice one Gee! He reckons it weighs in V5+ or so...I'm waiting for slightly drier conditions. Though with the 10 day forecast being in the 40's for much of it...I'm thinking it will be sooner than later.



Gee on Airship Arete


The Zoo crew had to jet, reinforcements arrived late day and we ventured to the Outback Boulder for some more...


Note: Dylan took these pics, check out his blog at

http://dylanchouinardpeckphotography.blogspot.com/


Cheers,

TK

Opening Day--2010

Fresh snow overnight, combined with afternoon flurries, kept the first "climbable" day of the New Year in check. Spirits ran high, but most of the boulders ran snow-topped. A few moments on the stone:


Can a sacrifice to the shirt gods bring about more sun?



Ron on the crimpy project



Pat throwing a blind hand



Reaching the "crux" holds...



Solid pulling to the top



Taking the quick and DRY descent:-)


Another Saturday pebble event...