Finding good climbing weather has proven difficult lately. Bozeman is experiencing a very early winter unlike the normal Indian summer we usually get. Luckily, we have a rain shadow desert in Montana known as the Boulder Batholith. The continental divide squeezes all of the moisture out on the windward side while the leeward side remains dry. East of Butte in the Pipestone area is a great place to escape bad weather. Sam, Manfred and I gambled on the weather being at least tolerable so off to Whiskey Gulch we went. We drove through a couple of rain showers and snow flurries but arrived at a dry, albeit cold, trail head. Our first stop was at the Entryway (?) boulders. There is a somewhat highball V1 (sandbag!) that I have been walking by for years but decided to give it a try this day. I got at least half way up it before I got flash pumped and had to jump off. Its not quite what I was hoping for. Not sure I really want to try it again. I climbed another V1 on the same boulder immediately to the right and flashed it. Next we found The Force area and climbed a classic V0 dihedral and the V1 arete right next to it. Sam then took us to an area I had never been to and we climbed a V1 crack then spent some time figuring out the V4 (Zombies and Gummy Bears?) just to the left. It was good enough to climb twice. We finished the day on the Seamstress, a tall heady V1. It spat snow on us a couple of times but only for a minute. Upon driving back in to Whitehall it was very apparent we dodged a fairly major ran shower.
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| The Force Area: V0 right above my head and a V1 a little ways over my right shoulder. |
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| The curvy crack is the V4 and the straight one is a V1. |
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| Seamstress climbs the right crack. |
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