Visitors and Sendage!

It has been raining as most of you know for some time now. On Saturday god stopped crying and let us have some sunshine and blue skies. Thank you Lord! Beth and I did a quick market walkabout and then headed on up to Lolo to meet up with the McClures, Mike and Tami. They came over to Missoula to go to a show and potentially do some climbing and got in touch with me. I was a little heisitant to show off my baby but I said what the fuck and gave them directions. Always good to have a different perspective on things and make some new friends. Mike and Tami are awesome folks. Super-chill, real nice genuine people and their dog Dahlia kicks fucking ass.

We rolled up, meet up with Kelsey Duncan and headed to the Rose Garden boulder to warm up. Ry and Loren also showed up and climbed with us. The forest was a bit damp due to large amounts of rain but everyone warmed up and was stoked on the nice weather. Beth came super close many times to sending her project and Mike added Squeeze Job V8?. After that we headed over to the Beautiful boulder.

I was really excited for Mike to try the lines and confirm some of the grades. In particular Way of the Samurai V9/10 and Heartbroke V8. I suprised myself by repeating my problem the Samurai first go and Mike followed up with the quickness in a handfull of goes. Nice job dude. I heard voices and ran down to the cars to find Jessie "glass boy" Spaulding, Sean McCormick and Kyle "Nasty" Neeley. I talked em into coming up to the beautiful boulder and a session ensued. Some of the guys were new to the boulder and were stoke on the new climbing particularlly Hooray for boobies V6. A sweet dyno. McClure sent almost every hard line on the boulder and He and I worked out the beta to the Project, It has three potential independent exits which is sick. hard, harder and super hard, all likely 7C+ or harder. We were all hungry and I needed some beer so we headed down to the car to refuel and take a break.

After break time we set our sites on the Euro Stone. Home to The The Flying lotus V7, Escape Artist V8/9 and The Alchemist project V10?. Everyone was super excited to get on the Lotus because its awesome. Mike and I both managed to do Escape Artist from its logical sitstart. I had just done the stand a couple weeks prior. Its just a tad bit harder from the sit and has a nasty sharp small RH crimp catch crux. The Alchemist thwarted again, but conditions were far from Ideal and we were both gassed and skinless. We all packed up and headed back, good and exhausted. Beers and some chillin before the drive. I was stoked on the day, likely my best climbing day ever.

Sunday- Some good and not so good news. Loho was damp and muggy, go figure right. Beth and I got out there around noonish to meet up with McClure gang again. Motivation was low and skin layers few. Warmed up, then headed to the Mo-load with the crew, Scotty, Jessie, Kyle, Sean, Some other people, sorry I forgot your names. First off some retard rednecks were shooting skeet right down by the boulders. Then as we rounded the corner of the Super-Rad we were struck by the horrific image of total destruction. Highschool grads I gather had made a huge 4 ft diameter fire pit directly under Zulu Death Mask. The damage is terrible. The original problem is destroyed. We cleaned up the garbage, broken glass, bottles, cans etc and dissasembled the pit and cleaned the new Zulu. There is no phoenix just the ashes. I climbed the new Zulu, It is ok I guess, Not the same, a little easier, and way less aesthetic. Start both hands in seam with good feet now. LH up the Left heal then the same Topout. Oh yeah, and gun fire the whole time. Lame.

One a brighter note, McClure sent Spread' em. The first repetition of this problem. Sweet. Once again good job Mike.

Mike and Tami also got video and pictures of some things. Check it out soon on their site!

Climbidaho.com

Peace-Levi

Elk Rock Revival

Its raining, just like is has been for nearly two weeks now.  I get fucked twice. One, I likely won't work because I paint houses and two, not much climbing! Never the less Dean and I have been out in Lolo the last three days. Tues, Wed, Thurs. Tues and Wed were rain days so we did trail work and drank beers in front of the fire and managed a small window of climbing but yesterday was cherry with blue skies and wind.

There was an old project (Uncle wiggly's power quest?)  near the hardman wall on Elk rock that we checked out. The line had a brutal tech slab start then traversed into the water runnel. We took this old line and created two plumb mixed lines. The first line, Dave's Deep Discounts 5.12- is just left of White Feather, Stick clip the first bolt, there is no stance to clip in the first 15 ft. Climb sick slab for 6 bolts then run it a while to a #1 camalot placement before the anchor. You could likely climb White Feather and traverse into this line for some harder climbing. The Second line, Aqueduct 5.11+, climbs the line to the left of D3, climb a left facing corner with optional gear to a bolt above the roof, It then gets hard and funky for a few moves then nohands rest. Then you head right a bit then step left into the water runnel for sustained thought provoking climbing. The end is the same as D3 and is spicy but easy. These climbs are bolted in classic lolo style. There is no fixed anchor but you can easy build one with 2 or 3 #2s and a #3 BD. It is super easy to access the anchor area as well. They make great TRs if you're not up for the lead. Stoppers might be useful for pro at the tops as well, like a number 9 or something. 

After we finished up these we headed on top and did some anchor/bolt replacement work on the west face of Elk, We've replaced most anchors on elk and are working on getting rid of all the shit bolts. They're all at bad angles and break with scary ease. All replacement bolts are  bomb SS 3 3/4 x 3/8. carpe diem!

The hideout is coming along well too. We, kelsey, dean, beth and I established a few more problems a week or so ago. Bat Crack V0- 30ft, some v2-v4 lines and another project that is sick and a sweet V7 type thing. The guide is getting fat! We have 50 pages, at least of just text for routes and boulders.

peace-LEvi