The end of an Era!

You can't keep secrets forever I suppose. Its been roughly five years now since I started spending nearly all of my free time up Lolo Pass. With the help of a few friends we've managed to establish at least 300 problems, picking plumbs and leaving the meager rocks for later. I've really tried to keep things on the "down low", talking about it as the collective lolo pass and limiting its exposer on the internet, not including directions and in general remaining reticent. I actually limit my exposer to the rest of the climbing community so that I don't have to talk to people. 

    I love lolo! This has been the experience of a lifetime. Very few people get to be the spearhead and father a climbing area. I'm not saying it was all me by any stretch. The other people who deserve credit know who they are and I appreciate all that they have done. The sense of adventure is incredible, combing the woods for the hardest, tallest most beautiful unclimbed lines.  One never knows how long  they are going to be one of the few running around the vacant woods, never seeing another individual or worrying about who is out amongst the stones.  A feeling of ownership and territory has grown inside of me. It certainly isn't the prettiest thing when it rears its protective head, but i recognize when it gets ugly. When you spend thousands of hours, thousands of dollars, through multiple relationships crashed and burned and friends ashes in the wind it is understandable that one might develop these sorts of feelings for an area. If I come off like kind of an overprotective asshole about things it's because I am. Im not ready to share my secrets and have my "private Idaho" trampled on. It has been really nice to have the peace of mind to know that no one knows where my stash is. I've gotten to climb almost everything that I've ever found and cleaned up lolo without having to worry about others' sniffing around, however, I'm afraid this time is coming to a close. People have gotten wind of new sectors and areas and the word is spreading like wildfire, apparently. Some climbers just want to be  friends with everyone and share all the climbing, this attitude is just fine but not my cup of tea.  If you have some time check out the Abyss movie on deadpoint, this pretty decent and might help you get the picture a little better!!!!!!!

  

The elusive "guide". "We" do have a text version of the guide. So much new stuff has been going up it seems stupid to put out a guide that's immediately super outdated. This will always be the case and we will do it soonish. In all my selfishness and keeping secrets we/ I have groomed lolo for the greater good. Trails and well cleaned rock with beautifully crafted landings can be found amongst the trees. Many many bolts and anchors have been replaced on the domes amidst lolo for the greater good and safety of the community, mostly on our dime, with some contributions by the ASCA and ARI.

     

Its been a real good run out there. Times are changing and at some point there will be a wonderful guide for your climbing pleasure. I'm not psyched about people tramping around my hood but what what can you do. Paradise doesn't last forever. Please be respectful of the nature out there. If you do choose to bolt some routes, please, please take the time to climb some old-school lolo ass kickers and keep things in the "style" to some degree. Make sure the line actually goes before you start slamming in bolts. 

One last thing. If you do end up doing some of your own development up there in lolo, please document it with some pictures and descriptions etc. Despite the fact that I don't like others in the :"HOod" I do want to publish the most comprehensive guide possible when that point comes and would like that information. Credit will be given where credit is due!

This has been kind of a ramble but hopefully it has conveyed to some degree how I feel about things. Peace

Nectar

Tis been a long time since I posted, partially due to the lack of much going on. Blame the weather. Perhaps the worst spring for climbing in W. MT, as long as I've been climbing. Summer is kinda here. Call it a good dozen days. If it isn't raining its almost too hot. Might as well move over to the Pac Northwest, same weather. Another reason for my lack of posting is my moral/ethical dilemma about blogging. Its really like internet ego masturbation, and as I've gotten older i've really started to despise all the shameless internet self promotion and ego inflation that goes on in the climbing world. Here I am being a hypocrite, however, nobody really gives a shit what we do. Climbing rocks, I mean really? Certainly, i take climbing very seriously but who really cares and in the grand scheme of things, climbing is so insignificant and selfish it deserves little recognition. On the other hand, climbing is kind of like going to church, if I may make that comparison, or athletic meditation if you will, for me anyhow.

Blog away though, just remember tact goes a long way. And i'd like to give a shout to the Montanaboulder blog which is a great blog, with little to no bullshit. Tommy and the crew are awesome!

Never the less, We've been up to lolo a decent amount, still putting in lots of work at the Hideout. I showed Scotty, Brandon, Molly, Ben Bruns and Jessie the goods. They were stoked. The Hideout is staked with lots of proud beautiful lines as well as lots of challenging boulder problems and projects, one of which I've put four seshuans into now. Not to be cliche but this is one pure boulder problem, a huge slightly off vert deadpoint/dyno off a decent horizontal edge to a fairly poor horizontal, a good meter and a half away with poor poor feet.

Deano and I added a new problem to the Sphinx boulder (or Hideout) two weekends ago. Another incredible line. I played around with a sit start to Fires over Cairo, which happens to be the sit to Hieroglyphics and it ended up going last weekend. Cuneiform was written. Which starts, climbs right from Hiero and either tops out Hiero or goes up Dean's variation. Dean's variation tops out via a crack, way to go the trad way Deano!!

I'm in Bozo right now, its raining, go figure. But im here for the FF Consortium testing, working my way towards a potential real career. The Big Red engine baby. And I'm nearly an EMT with one more test to take. Sister is getting married this weekend, holy shiat. By soon to be Bro in law is rad though. I'm getting him all stoked up on climbing. And the new woody in the garage is sick. Ya'll ought to come over for a sesh! We're going to have a party at some point, ill throw a line when we got some time to party.

Been a while since I posted! Not a whole lot going on around here since its mid-Nov.  Lolo is completely done for. Went up and shot guns and chilled by a fire in the rain about a week ago. That was fun. This last lolo season yielded quite a bit of new development. Deano and I probably put up a good 40 new problems. There was development by others too. Scotty, Sam, Joe, Kyle, Greg, Dylan and others all helped out. Quite a bit of climbing came out of this season. The alchemist project was sent by Greg, McClure and I sent the Escape artist sit, and Kyle FAd the Opium, 7C/7C+? props to everyone.

We've eked out a couple more days out at kootenai. I've been working on the Arborist but tore a nice chunk out of my right ring finger a little over a week ago. Thing was gushing blood. Things are slow to heal so just getting back and climbing easier trady stuff and ropegunnin for some friends who are just getting back into climbing. And lots of pulling on the woody n lifting weights, 5 days a week, like a job. Its been fun to help rekindle the fire for folks, especially, Mike Cwik. I'm also helping mentor this kid Jessie from BigSky HS who is doing  his senior project on climbing. We're gonna meet up sometime this week at the old UM gym, showem the ropes n stuff. It should be fun. Now we get to wait out the crap weather for P-lot/jtree season.

P.S. Headed to Indian creek through the holiday 10days. Kind of a krew. I'll be flying my MT Flag, bitches. See you there.

Kooter Mileage!

Went out yesterday with Dean and Chris to Kootenai yesterday for a great sesh. I've still been hittin it hard just trying to get in real good shape for the winter climbing season. Dean is finally climbin back on the horse after a hunting hiatus. I never really transition gears from climbing to other sports but it seems to work well for others, keeps ya fresh...i guess. Chris brought his camera gear and we fixed some lines and did some shots n stuff. It was fun. Yesterday ended up great. I got in 11 pitches, 9 of those being .12s. workin on that ten sleep challenge ken was talkin bout. anyhow, first snow on lolo peak. might be a shit winter. we'll see.

Waving by to the fall!

Looks like the shit is going to hit the fan, weather wise anyway. 40s, Rain and the dreaded snow. I'm not really a skier anymore so...fuck winter. Skiing is sick though. And if I wasn't poor i'd probably buy some gear and take it back up. I do miss shredding pow.  Shredding pow is like good oral sex, it doesn't get much better. Plus gravity is in your favor, unlike climbing. Although, as we all know, the school of gravity gives hard knocks. Regardless, i'd rather be climbing somewhere nice n sunny. Like J-tree or Bishop, or The Creek, even if its cold as fuck, the walls have that micro-climate of sorts. 

The winter Destinations of the West are unparalleled! I'm feeling the tree pulling me. The creek for turkey day perhaps Jtree for a great 6 weeks if I can make it happen, mid Jan-Feb, with good old Deano the Machino. BTW i need a fucking nick name, so give me some ideas, and don't be a smart ass. Wrangler, Maverick and Jeans have all been used before and that quirky nick name that my Aunt came up with but we'll not discuss that here. Not that its bad, I just dont' want that shit on the street. word. 

The first Butress at Kootenai is getting good now. Sending temps i'm feeling. The nice thing is that those routes are overhanging enough to shed most light to moderate precip and it catches some sun. The BRIK, The Arborist, Hilti traverse, project, project, Lowfat turkey Dog. All good. Last weekend i got used to climbing on ropes again. Running laps on the BRIK felt good. Surprising how much training power can actually turn into endurance if you know how to ease off and just relax on those holds. Plus the tactics involved in ropes are so awesome. Its more of a journey than a boulder problem, however, those committing highballs are journeys too. If the weather holds i rekon i'll have some draws up on the Arborist and getting used to the mother again, hopefully send the rig this season. Tired of projects, need new stuff thats hard and fresh.

well...the woody is calling. you sick fuck, no! Climbing! 

Peace

Disappointment, penny pinching and PLastic!

 I know..........its kinda fucked up. Like my life!

I'm sure by now the word has spread, and yes, i'm still in MT. Worse places to be for sure. The highly anticipated NY job contact totally fell through. Just goes to show ya not to stack all yer chips in one pile. Between breaking up with the lady, not working for two weeks, drinking a lot and getting my Zen training merit badge and training like a Fiend i've nearly fallen off the edge into a pit of anxious, self deprecating monk vomit. If that makes any sense? I have, however, been enjoying NoT working, sleeping in, getting fucked up, not having any obligations what so ever. Like when you realize, smoking that cig on the street corner, that there's no people you gotta meet up with, no one to go home to, do what-ever you want, that feels good, really good. I've also been getting back to searching out new music. Good shit. Probably cause---

Timmy and I hung out other week...it was "fun"!

The Institution is keeping me in their cage till further notice, until I come up with $40'000 to pay those assholes back. I hope Obama will forgive that shit and legalize Herb in Cali. Then the black god will shine....oh wait......you didn't know?.........God is a big black man

In addition to being poor and having my main climbing buddies check out for other legitimate pursuits and it getting dark at 7 (which blows) I haven't been outside a whole lot. Two weekends ago made it up to lolo for some goodness. I worked out and finally sent the sit to At all costs, realizing the totality of the endeavor. Likely a good V7 ish thing, not as hard as Great White though (Pickle, nice job!). Brandon followed suit that same eve. I also climbed a funky assis to Sirens Vagina making a funky V5? The "Bruns", Victoria and Dylan were there in addition to Molly, Brandon and some older folks with kids and a couple who've names are eluding me. I kept yelling "FUCK" when I fell off. sorry kids, this is a cruel and expletive filled world we live in. Welcome!

.. And WE SHOT GUNs n Got DRunk. A did all kinds of stupid shit!

The plastic has been good. During my work hiatus i got psyched again at the woody. Several days of getting reacquainted started to yield very desirable results. Small home walls are the shit. If you don't have one, build one. Its a good arrow in the quiver at getting strong, plus you can do all the things at the woody that you can't at the school gym. Fuck it!

Last night I went to Emancipator at the top HAT,  danced, drank, smoked and people watched. I think i may have seen more beautiful woman last night than ever in one place in my life before. Insanity. Ive become convinced that the world is getting crazier by the day

A good Tune!!!!!!

Opium Den proj goes DOWN!!!

Well.....The long awaited ascent of the Opium Den proj went down the other day by the hands of Kyle "Nasty" Neely. Not sure what he named or graded it. We were talking somewhere in the V9/10 range. Another hard problem in Lolo. I'm really glad this finally went down, even though I'd had quite a bit of time on it and was pretty close, its awesome Kyle nabbed it. Super stoked that it went down by a MT local, woot woot, Missoula represent, and not some outa-state floner. Props to you Kyle. Good work and perseverance!!! With this ascent I'm willing to bet that Lolo now has the highest concentration of good/hard bouldering in the state. Not that I'm pissing on the Batholith or anything, there are just more unique features to be had in Lolo. Word!

Yesterday- Went out with an afternoon sesh with Chris Gibish and Dave Kratovchvile out to climb some ropes in lolo. Dave has had a pretty long hiatus from climbing and I've been trying to help motivate him to get back out. We went to Reef Rock climbed some pitches, did a little bolt replacement and took some photos. Then went over to Elk and did some more climbing. The weather looked a bit dodgy in the morn but it proved to be a beautiful day, almost too hot in the sun. We stayed to near sunset and enjoyed the fleeting sunshine. 

-Fuck, There's those days when it feels so good to be out there in the woods, quiet, comfortable, beautiful, a slight breeze, good company and Libations! Days when you long to stay out there forever. I appreciated it even more knowing that I might be my last day out there for a while, but alas, NY is looking up but pushed back till next week. But looking solid. It gives me another couple of days in lolo. I'm taking Ken Turley on a Tour on Sunday, of all my new hard routes. And maybe a sesh with Dylan and Vicky on Sat. 

Also, Just want to give a big thanks to all my friends who make life more enjoyable by their presence and attitude. High five. Peace, and once again, Kyle good job!