By your 4th day of climbing you start to feel a little worked. We decided to brave the crowds and the local bros and hit up the popular Battle of the Bulge wall. I hung all over some 5.10 handcrack, but was happy to get up it at all. It was my first lead where you had to use the crack for everything, no face holds. We ended the day by trashing around on another offwidth, Big Baby.
I managed to make the most of the good weather in Missoula last weekend. On Saturday, Conor and Cole wanted to put up a new pitch on a big route in Mill Creek. We climbed 3 pitches, the 3rd of which consists of a really clean hand crack that I got to lead. It was nice to onsight a 5.10 trad route. Then Conor grabbed his drill, took the sharp end of the rope, and burled out a new line for the new 4th pitch.
The day where we woke up to snow we went on an expedition to look at Critic’s Choice wall. A wall that includes the hardest off-width climb in Indian Creek, Belly Full of Bad Berries. On Wed we decided to climb there. We saw a total of 2 people all day, a big contrast to the action-packed scene at Way Rambo.
For Spring Break myself and a few friends went rock climbing in Indian Creek, Utah, a little over an hour south of Moab. We spent a full week surrounded be beautiful desert with world-class crack climbing thanks to the unique geology of the area.
These are all pictures of Tuesday. Saturday we climbed at Pistol Whipped wall but I didn’t bring my camera. Monday we woke up to 2 inches of snow on the ground outside our tents and had an unexpected early rest day.
Spent a couple days climbing in Indian Creek. It might be my special place.
The name of the route is “Venus DeMilo”. The first 5.11/d I have ever made it to the top of.
Pictures from a 4-pitch climb in Mill Creek Canyon. A pitch of 5.10something, two of 5.11something, and one of 5.9. I led the first pitch with a bit of difficulty at the crux. Conner led the 2nd, Steve the 3rd, and both of them led the 4th. I managed to drop my shoe after the 2nd pitch.
Yesterday I met Steve at 5:30am and we drove down to Blodgett Canyon to climb the southwest face of Nez Perce Spire. Rock Climbing Montana says it is 8 pitches, 5.10. It is definitely the tallest climb I have ever done.
The pitch length and difficulty of our route varied quite a lot from the guidebook’s. However, it was freeing not knowing exactly how hard what you were climbing was or how long you should go before setting up the next belay. Big ups to Steve for leading all the hard stuff.
I had a bit of a scare on the first pitch, taking a 20 foot lead fall/slide on a slabby section (apparently there was some slack in the rope, none of my pieces popped), and was both grateful and proud of myself to be caught by a #3 stopper I had put in a fairly shallow crack. (A piece of metal a little smaller than a jellybean with some metal wire attached to it.)
The sun was out and we didn’t have any other major incidents, and were back to the car around 7:30pm.
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day in the Bitterroot Valley. Steve and I made the most of it and went climbing. We did No Sweat Arête, a moderate 4-pitch 5.7 in Mill Creek Canyon.
Sunday we went went with our friends Steve and Ann down the Bitterroot to Lost Horse Canyon for a fine day of climbing. It turned out to be a wee bit chiller than forecasted, but quite reasonable for March in Montana.
On Tuesday my friend Steve and I did a 5-pitch climb up the Original Route on the Drip Buttress in Blodgett Canyon. It is 3 pitches of 5.9 followed by two of 5.8. We had some awesome weather for October in Montana, sunny all day and the windiest part was at the base of the climb.
It was definitely a long day, taking us about 3 hours to walk off the route once we had finished climbing and get back to the car. I am really sore now but it was well worth it.
