Catch up!

Well its been awhile! Lets get things caught up to speed. A couple weekends ago I headed over with Beth to the BoulderBatholith Comp/fest; it was good. Brandon and Molly are back and they came over and climbed on the sickness. The comp went well. I cam in second to some strong sponsored dude from WY. Lots of good folks and good times. Another weekend of gettting fucked-up and climbing.

Working on the guide book. Shit takes forever. 

Been out to lolo quite a bit to do new shit some more. Bolted two new routes with Kelsey Duncan this last weekend and we're headed back to send them both, 5.12 i think. Super good slightly improbable but great. Bromethias and Roller girl, respectively.  Bromethias is 4 bolts with a boulder start and then another looooonnnnnngggg lock off to a crimp followed by some semi-easy-climbing and Roller girl is boulder start to sweetness/funkyloloshit. 11 bolts I think, its a huge arcing line. Gotta keep ya off the deck right?

YESTERDAY-

I shit you not,, it took a half hour in grid lock to get from the center of town to wallmart yesterday and it was backed up from lolo. WHoly fuck man. So..................-----------#####we bailed to REststop crag for a cramped evening sesh. It was good as always. I love that place, so good. Might be checking out over the east coast for a couple of months but I'm stoked to make some $$$$$$$ and maybe stop at the red and go to rumney n shit. The Red is sooooo got, go there and get PUMPED.   I get the word next week if its a go. I'm crossin my fingers to say the least. I'm ripe for an adventure and some time away from MT even though I love this place more than life itself. life goes on--and there's always some shit to climb. 

-LOVELIFE-

Random Redpoints

Yesterday, Craig Kenyon, Kelsey Duncan and I headed out to lolo for an evening seshuan! Kelsey and I had put in a couple of bolts and an anchor on a cool little Dike climb down on the Creek by Tor Rock. We hiked down, removed some dead fallen trees and I put in the last bolt and did some remaining cleaning and handed over the sharp end to the Crag Master. CM sent and Kelsey and I followed up and created KDP 5.8 sport 3 bolts. A great setting and a great addition to the area. This is now the easiest climb at Tor and a great warm-up/mod.
After a break  we headed up to the Random events wall to climb a variation on the Lorax I bolted a couple weeks back. I cleaned, sussed out the moves and bolted the thing mid July but just now got back too it. The light was fading fast and I opted for the no-chalk- memory beta ascent. The first part of te Lorax went smooth and I could tell 10 sleep paid off and I cruised into the rest before it gets hard. You have to step out of this alcove after the 2nd bolt on the Lorax and trend right to clip the 1st bolt of the variation and the bust up some tricky, delicate, pocket (several monos) moves past two more bolts to a definite thin redpoint crux to a nice jug/tufa/dike hold. Then it is run-n-fun to the top. Shares anchors with The lorax. The Once-ler 12b/c??. Thanks to Cragmaster and K-dunc for the support. I wrapped up the evening with a dusk lap on the Cowboy and we retired next to the fire and  n made our way back to the saddle. Catch ya again partners.

Also- Replaced the Sleeping Beauty anchors in Kootenai today!!

Peace

Ten Sleep getaway

Not this previous Wednesday but the one before I broke out of Missoula's vortex on a solo road trip to meet up with Scotty and Jessie who were camped out at Ten Sleep for a couple of weeks. I finished work and all my errands latyer than I wanted and made it out of town around 5:30. I had intended to make the whole 8 hour drive that night but I got sidetracked in Bozeman by some bros with beers, namely Tom K and Guy, and spent the night.
Thurday morning I woke, drank coffee with TK and hit the road for the remaining 5 hours. I arrived in town just in time to meet up with Scotty and Jessie before they hit the crag at 1:30.
Slavery Wall, Word! ALL The climbing is in the shade after 1:30 so conditions are actually quite good even though it can be 100 degrees in town. First day: warmed up on a Schools out a couple of times and then procedded to belay Scotty on Happiness in Slavery 12b. Scotty sent and I decided to give it a go. It took for fucking ever but I managed to eek out a long flash of this. What a sick route. Almost gave up. Then we hoofed it over to Jessies project at the time The Great White Behemouth 12b. Ended up flashing this one as well. Super stocked. Kinda luck in a way, so many chalked holds you never know what you're going to get. We were all pretty worked by this point and I went and flailed around on some more shit at the French Cattle Ranch= FCR and super sick streaked limestone wall. Saw Joe Kinder do some cool 14a FA and meet a load of super cool folks. Joe and his girl Friend Colette are the nicest pro's i've ever meet. Super chill and not weird at all or snobby. I wish all climbers were that nice and chill.

The next few days only yielded one route for Scotty and me Kielbasa 12c. I tried some other shit but wasn't into it.

The last and final day I was able to do two great routes on the Slavery wall with the quickness. EKV 12c and Prince Abduhla 12d both second go 4th day on. Both awesome routes. Scotty did The Prince 2nd go too. Great job Scotty!

Ten Sleep: Is sick. Climbing is awesome, The people are kick ass awesome and the camping is uber chill and free. Only thing is you have to drive to the next town for food. Plus there is a super cold creek to ice your pumped arms in and the sceenery is top-notch. Couldn't ask for much better place to go. You get to sleep in and dick around before you go climb everyday, so sweet. Likely the premier Summer climbing destination that isn't blown out and greasy as McDonalds fries covered in redneck toejam and axle grease. Oh and the guidebook is one-of-a-kind, buy it if you go. If you need beta holla at me, I'm going to try and get down there again for a 3day weekend here this month. Peace

Capuccino Cowboy and ketchup

Its been quite some time since I've posted, Sorry. It rained most of this spring and then we sprung right into the scorching temps of summer. Sure makes it hard to climb here. This last month as been full of demotivating, hot and hungover weekends. Deaner and I replaced a couple anchors. The Elk fart/ Dragons breath anchor on Elk and the back side anchor on Tor that serves three climbs including Originator. We also replaced all the anchors on the random events wall earlier in the season.
Last weekend Pickle-Peck aka BIG rig and I went to scope some boulders at Baker lake that Kyle was raving about.....yeah.... they sucked. We were foder for mosquitos. Floner escepade for sure. So... we bailed to loho. We drove up to the Stallion area, 11 miles past the bridge. The boulders are visible from the road on te south side over the creek. We did a new problem and worked on a new project. The trail crew arete V5? assis climbs the right arete of the first big boulder. There is a fallen tree just right of the climb but it is of no worry. Crux right at the top almost. Good fun. The project is to the left and starts sitting and involves neat beta and good temps for a send oh and it helps if you're tall. I plan on getting up there again soon with the chain saw and do some work out there to make things safer and more aesthetically pleasing. Beth came up and meet us the next day and she made good progress on the duke and dylan and I barely climbed. Too bloody hot.
Earlier this week Kelsey and I managed to take advantage of some unseasonably good temps and went to the random events wall for some goodness. All the climbs on the wall are great ranging from mid 10 to mid 12. Capuccino Cowboy 12a is the prize though. The wall is nicely secluded next to a creek and catches shade in the evening. Plus you have to go through a sick tunnel to get there. The wall itself is grande with sweeping overhangs. Its so good,the cowboy is arguabbly sandbag but is a contender for one of the best 12a's anywhere. Its like the baremetal teen of montana. Headed out for more adventures this weekend. Peace -climb well

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

The Crystal Concierge!

Yesterday, Sunday, Dean and I headed out to Lolo to take care of some loose ends and potentially get back on the line that we bolted about a month ago. First order of business was cleaning up after the bear mishap. So we stashed a pad up there with a bunch of tools in it. Axe, ropes, brushes, car jack, biners, etc. The pad had been up  there for quite some time and was starting to get trashed by rats n the like. Dean went back solo one day and found the remains of the pad strewn out. Foam everywhere. You can see the claw marks in the foam. We cleaned that shit up and packed up the tools. We meandered down trough the shady hill boulders, looking at potential problems and cleaned a sweet 30 ft rail traverse. Sick. 

Next up we had to retrieve a ladder that we stashed. So we did that. This ladder is kind of sketchy as it is a telescoping ladder. You're never quite sure if its all locked, once and a while one of the rungs will slide down. A little unnerving to say the least. This ladder was up at a boulder that is really sweet. It has an amazing 20 ft tall overhanging face with one nice possible line. We cleaned it but haven't tried it. I set the ladder up to get ontop of the boulder and went up, dean followed and we retrieved the rope and biners. Dean also found two Coors that I forgot that were up there. Over a year old still good. We cracked em right then. Delicious, Cheers!

Then, we headed back down and rallied to the Random Events wall. We warmed up on The Lorax 11c, a super awesome climb with several mono moves. We recently rebolted this climb because is had bullshit chain-link hangers. Now it is equipped with nice 3/8 SS. Then we got on our line and worked it on toprope. It felt really solid so after Dean was done working it out I gave it a lead go. It flowed nicely and I found myself really appreciating those fine moments. Making a climb a reality and thinking back on times of old. Anyway, we called the line the Crystal Concierge 12b? It has everything, pockets, techy corner, overhanging LB and some more steep pocket pulling. LP DT, peace