Mother's Day

Saturday Mr. Peck got a late start and headed out to Lolo. The forecast was a chance of showers with potential for sending. We arrived pulled the pads out of the truck and it was already drizzling. Damn rain. We eschewed the warm-up and head straight to the corridor boulders where Dylan was working on the second ascent of Fucking cheese ball V8. I had been unable to repeat this problem that I established back in 07. We had worked on it our prior trip and were both psyched to send. I made a flash warmup send and Dylan worked out some better beta while I climbed some other problems in the area. The rain was coming and Dylan's goes were limited. After he worked out his new beta we smoked a cig and he was primed for the send. He executes the first hard move with precision and makes it to the last throw. He sags away a bit and I touch him to prevent an uncontrolled out swing into the adjacent boulder. Bro dab. He eaks over the sloppy top out and it is apparent that he must try again. He takes a few minute break and sends. Sweet. Then it starts raining and we bail into the ride and head over to elk Rock. I was gunning for a new line I had half cleaned last year but it proved to be too wet so we chilled under the massive overhang of the grande boulder and drank our beers and made a fire. Eventually there was a window in the weather and I convinced Dill-hole to make the trek over to the Opium den. It was super humid and the top out was wet, not that mattered cause I climbed poorly anyhow. However, I did work out the moves again. the last hard move is starting to become a formality so it gives me hope that I can send once I stick the second move which happens the be the hardest. I only stick the move once in 15 tries or so. Our window closed and we slogged back to the truck in the rain, checked out some other potential areas and called it a day.

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!