KT

Yo kt who are you. There's no need for anonymity  Here. Identify yourself!!!

RainMan!

If you're living in western MT you know that the weather has been shit for several weeks now. We got spoiled with several weeks of near perfect climbing weather in early April only to be nearly shut-Down the last several weeks. Beth has got me going to yoga several times a week now and it has been a nice change. I can really feel the difference in my posture and Mindset. I would recommend it to anyone looking for good cross-training. I think it's the key to the next level of my climbing anyhow. Particularly the Opium den Pjkt. I have a hard time quantifying the difficulty of this thing. I  become jaded when we have learned a style/area  of climbing over several years. We engineer our bodies and minds to climb a certain way. So..I've been struggling with what to rate things in our upcoming guide. As always though, sandbag or stiff is always better than soft.

Deaner and I have been out quite a bit with the bad weather exploring and what not. Since house painting is my job and we don't have any interior work i've been chillin A-Lot. And then I was broke with a bunch of time on my hands and no gas money. Several days back we followed a lead on some super secluded boulders. We were on the right track just didn't walk far enough. A wild goose chase for sure. Turns out the boulders sit just in Idaho...I mean Montana. The fastest way is likely a 5 mile approach with significant elevation gain. Thanks to Clinton our access to many places was shut down  even before I started climbing. What a waste to have all these nice logging roads that never get used.  Anyway, we didn't hike far enough but later talked it out with scotty and scoped google earth n shit. Good summer alpine blocs i guess. 

Yesterday we finished bolting a sweet 9 bolts sport route somewhere in the greater Lolo area. Can't wait to go get on it again when it isn't freezing cold. Its nice to just be in the woods doing your thing drinking beers kickin it in front of the fire chillin with your bro. It doesn't get much better and I feel reluctant at the end of the day to return to society.  Well speaking of society and my role, time to get my ass to work. Peace, pics sometime soon. I apologize for my rudimentary blogging skills. In time they will improve! 

The Opium Den Projkt, It goes.....and I can do all the moves now....its time to link it up...and send...plus....it has two exits one hard and one weird and hard. Which one shall it be?? fotos courtesy Sam Johnson

The HIDEOUT!

On Sunday Dean, Mike Cwik and I rallied out to lolo for some climbing. The objective was to FA two lines that we had cleaned and were waiting for the snow to finally melt off the topouts. We produced two amazing lines. Names are yet to be determined but the following foto will do. The right line where I am standing goes at V6? from the sit and the left most line of flakes goes at likely V3/4 sack. Some more photos of boulders in the area from this winter!

Loho and Lolo!

Yesterday my friend Ry and I headed out for an afternoon session at Losthorse. The drive takes quite a while now that summer/construction season is more or less upon us. Several bits of 25 mph. We made an attempt to drive up to the Stallion boulders but got thwarted by soft snowy roads and turned back. We arrived, cracked another brew and checked out some potential lines and then warmed up on the clear cut boulder and then moved on to the John Wayne boulder. Ry wanted to work the South Face V7 next to the Duke. I wasn't really planning on climbing a ton but decided to give it a few tries and finally put the thing to rest. Ry made steady progress and should send his next time out. What a beautiful day it was with nice spring sun and a slight breeze. The South Face is substantially easier under ideal conditions as opposed to a greasy summer day. We then set our sights on moving a large boulder out of the way of a good moderate next to the SF. It proved to be easier than expected using caveman techniques and a safe landing soon followed. After that motivation fell through and we had a smoke and took off for the rig. Then the dog took off for 1/2 and hour..great excuse for being late!

Today, I kind of blew off work to head out to Lolo this afternoon to catch up with Sammy, Scotty and Jessie. It was another awesome day here in western MT with great temps and clean air and a near high speed dirt road head on, on the way in. ScarrY! Slow down son! yeah, shit got my heart pumpin, had to bail off the road a bit. The trio parked in a more convenient location and I traveled overland to check out how things were melting out at the Hideout and then trugged over several ridges to make it to the Opium den. The Opium Den is a near dead horizontal roof with a few lines but the beauty exists in a singular pure pocket proj that climbs nearly a dozen feet out the underside of the roof. I have tried this problem for many years but today was the breaking point. At first I thought this problems was going to be somewhere above my grasp deep into the double digits, which it likely is for those of you who are less that 6'. Sorry, another reach/height dependent problem in lolo. Its still going to be hard but likely 7C or 7C+. Anyhow, I figured out the beta from the jug undercling and was able to do the move several times from that point up to the big horizontal. Scotty also did the big reach/tension move. Good work dog. There was only one move that I wasn't able to do today, which is a left-had crossthrough to a more or less flat hold with a suggestion of a lip to a super core intensive throw to the undercling, Burley!!!

Sam has a bum ankle and Jessie has tendinosis/isis or something so they didn't try a whole lot. After the ass kick we made it down to some block Dean n Scotty cleaned which proved to be a bust, as in we floundered with wrecked skin. Then for giggles we jumped back up to a line I had been spying for some time, cleaned it roughly and started working it out. It goes, just one big last throw at the end to a SHARP good hold. I punted a bit, we were tired and so I had one more smoke and took off over yonder to my truck. On the way back I found remnants of a crystal and spooked up three elk on the way out. Sweet. More adventures and hopefully some pics. Sorry my camera is a crap point and shoot to I don't take many photos, however, Jessie and Sam got some amazing pics on Overdose in the Den, I'll beg for them to post and you should too!

The melt off!

Dean, Ryan and I hiked into the Hideout this weekend for an overnight. Prior to our departure we stopped at bobwards to purchase some more ammo and so Ryan could buy some shit. As we're leaving he recalls that he forgot his walmart sleeping sack. Dumbass. So back we go into b-wards, 10 min later rydog comes out $175 dollars later and chucks his new bag into that back. A few moments later Deaner pipes up, "you know you bought a womans long right?" I didn't turn around so ry was stuck with the chick bag for the night.

This was the third night we've spent up there and it was no less epic. Hiking with oversized crashpads with yellow bellies spilling out the top was just as exciting as the last time. This particular trip we tried a new point of entry which proved to be just as a bitch as the other way, if not more so. Melt that fuckin snow sun. Never the less we stumbled and slipped our way into the hideout. Many beers and a bonfire ensued along with pork sausage n chili. After a few can has accumulated we decided to bust out the pistols for a little redneck target practice. Shooting in the dark aint easy but it'll do. Pick up the brass in the mornin. After shootin I got psyched for some sawin and bucked up a bunch of rounds which Ryan split for the fire. I kind of burned some karma or Nature points this weekend. I took this poor fir 6 times my age for a sick looking sports route. Trees grow, don't get your panties in a wad, you should see what the the loggers do. I finished filling in a landing we built and then went and joined Dean who was working on brushing another dope line. We proceeded to build a landing for that as well. By this point in the evening we had consumed most of our allocated brew and turned in for the eve. It was a cold night and morning brought icicles and some frozen water.

The sun quickly brought warmth and comfort to the day and we continued to clean and check out potential lines for several hours till it was time to climb. Deaner and I cimbed three new lines on one boulder and I repeated an old line he had done before. Then back to the Rabit project. The whole problem changed in a way with the tree being gone. It took we a few tries to stick the first move but I sent the first time I connected with the arete producing a great line. Probably weighs in somewhere around hard 7 or so. Cheers, sorry for no pics but will post again soon.