Montana Rock Climbing
We aren’t in sandstone country anymore. Single and multi-pitch climbing near Missoula and Bozeman.
It was lovely to be back in one of my favorite states climbing with some of my favorite people.
La Sal Climbing
Pictures from a few of my last days in Moab. We spent a couple of nights camping and a couple days climbing in the La Sal Mountains. I had been staring at them for weeks and it was grand to see an extremely different side to Moab. Lots of green and the rock was Dakota Sandstone with colors and textures all its own. A magical place to visit in the spring.
Day Canyon Climbing
A lovely day. It was quite warm but we chased the shade and stayed comfortable.
Utah Paddlin’, Bikin’, and Climbin’
A 4 day stretch including 2 days of rock climbing at Indian Creek and Wall Street. We did something like 13 routes in those 2 days, mostly in the upper 5.10 range and climbs I had never done before. I didn’t weight the rope once. I was pretty pleased with myself.
Utah Campin’ and Climbin’
More desert rain, camping, and some climbing at Indian Creek and Maverick Buttress up Long Canyon, outside of Moab.
Biz and Mikey Crush Looking Glass Rock
“Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come to get extreme” -Business 3000 Spence
Yosemite With My Brother. Goodrich Pinnacle, Right Side.
By Davy’s last day we were getting a bit slab-crazy and decided to do a 6-pitch route up Glacier Point Apron. The Supertopo description for this route makes it sound a bit easier than I found it to be.
We made it to the top without any major complications though.
Yosemite With My Brother Part 2
Some cragging, an evening hike, and multi-pitch climbing on Middle Cathedral Rock.
Yosemite With My Brother Part 1
My brother Davy came up to Yosemite during my last couple of weeks there, and discovered that he is pretty into climbing. We went just about every day he was here. Usually pushing the daylight. These aren’t totally in chronological order.
The pictures that are on the wide and smooth chunk of granite (called Glacier Point Apron) were from some of his last days here.
Davy has had a pretty old-school introduction to the world of climbing. We climbed outside for his first time ever years ago in Gallatin Canyon, MT. I don’t think he’s ever climbed indoors and most of the climbing we did this trip involved cracks.
Crack climbing was all they used to do back in the day, but the advent of sport climbing and climbing gyms has made face climbing more the norm now. I would venture by the time he left that Davy had gained more crack-climbing experience than the majority of climbers.
Climbing the East Buttress of El Capitan
The route is 1200′ tall and summits due to its starting location and El Cap’s tapering shape on its east side.
This all happened yesterday. A warm and sunny Saturday in Yosemite Valley. We didn’t see any other climbers.
El Capitan – East Ledges Descent
The East Ledges descent is the quickest way to get down off the top of El Cap.
We were sitting under the rainfly on the summit trying to wait out the rain, and decided we were just going to get colder if we didn’t start moving.
The Nose, The Final Pitches
Climbing from Camp 6 to the top. Once again narrowly avoiding getting rained on while we were climbing.
An El Cap Evening
The pictures are from our third and final night up there.
Currently it is the 3rd week in October and I have been living in the area since May 19th. There haven’t been more than 6 days that saw considerable rain during that time frame. Somehow we managed to be on El Cap for 3 of them.
