Monday, February 28, 2011

Continental Divide circa 1900




An old photo from the top of the Homestake Pass...the telegraph(?) line gives a clue to the photo's location....same line that runs between the tracks and the highway?

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Back and forth...

As the weather jumps all over the place...the weekend plans may have to be altered...


four below this morning up top...

Mabye this?



or this?


or?

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Winter Distraction

Since I have not been able to get outside too much due to the snow--I have taken a friend up on an offer to build a climbing wall/ woodie/ cave at his place.

The following pics are the work in progress--just awaiting T-nuts...


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Overall view


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Looking out from the back


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Looking in from the top of the "perches"


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Overhanging hand-crack arete



Hopefully, some rad sessions will go down and some folk will get stronger:-)

Friday, February 11, 2011

Mid-week session



A quick shot from last night...blank canvas and lots of holds...

Looks like things will be warm over the weekend on the Homestake pass as well...47 and sunny for Whitehall on Saturday...NICE!

Cheers!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

February adventures

Saturday morning I met up with the brotherman for a day of exploring up Delmoe Lake Rd...taking things a bit easy since he had a big day getting after "Crack of Doom' out at Whiskey...sounds like he's very close! Strong stuff.

We headed up Halfway Creek to take another look at the lower anomalies and see what was farther up the draw...things are were a bit snowy, but we managed to find some new gems, including a cool looking overhanging finger crack perched ontop of a a 18-20' steepish slab...could be a cool one!

After the successful walkabout we figured we'd finish up by completing the Delmoe lake loop to top the Homestake exit...we scoped roadsiders and ambled up the road...to our surprise the road conditions were much worse than 1 month prior, and the semi traveled road turned into 4-wheeler and snowmobile tracks just after the Delmoe Lake (10 miles off the interstate), we made it about a half mile further before the trouble began...the jeep was sucked into the soft snow/ditch on a uphill corner...after a couple hours of digging we knew that the we'd need reinforcements...I walked and found cell reception, and thankfully Molly was in Butte and able to come out to get us...4 hours after getting stuck and 3 miles of hiking in the dark later, we were on the road to Butte for the night.

We called in the troops, Clay, Scotty and Trevor came and met us the next morning. Fellas ready to do battle, truly good friends coming out to help us in a time of stress...we were very appreciative. A tenuous drive to Delmoe lake ensued... and a hike to the jeep from there...after a good shoveling session we were greeted by a 4-wheeler and snowmobile...they jumped into rescue mode, hooked a tow strap up to the atv, and a few minutes late the jeep was popped back onto the road. Soon we were back in Whitehall, full of relief...Thanks again to all that helped out, much appreciated.



The pit...the Jeep slid down and nosed down into the ditch...damn steep in the lower left corner...

So if you're thinking of exploring the back parts of the road, I'd suggest waiting a bit...especially now after Mondays storm...unless you are rolling an ATV or snowmo that is...



In other news, Clay has been busy with a new extension on his home wall...this thing is going to be epic...more to come as it develops...

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Cheers!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Late January in the Desert

Saturday I rolled out to the Desert with Ty, Trevor, and Ethan to meet up with the Brotherman, The Mojede crew, Clay and Derrick, and Dave and Chris from Outside Bozeman. It was cool to have a large crew and some new folks on these problems...a good tour ensued.

After a bit of warming up, Pat dispensed the OW Invert Project on the BLM Boulder (more info to come in the updates section) and Buttian Warlord saw a nice session...we then headed over to Optronic Eye...after some strong goes, the crimper just above the low horizontal ripped off...DOH! 4 years later, the problem gives us a new challenge...the new version of optronic should go, though it may jump the rating a bit...

We then headed over to the Bullet Boulder, where the grainy west face project saw a couple of variant ascents, one more center, and one moving towards the southwest arete (more info to come in the updates section)

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After we wrapped up things on the Bullet Boulder, Dave and Chris headed out and we jumped over to the West Hill for a go at Rubberband Man...the resulting video is a product of late day cell phone filming...viddy well my droogs...




Cheers,
Tom