A Darth Maul Encounter

Lucas, Manfred, myself and a new friend Micah went out to Lost Creek to do some camping and climbing. This was Micah's first Montana camping trip so we had to set the bar. And boy did we set it high! I remembered everything but two sleeping bags which left us in a predicament; Anaconda is no place to be if you need anything besides gas or beer. With no luck blanket shopping in town, we stopped at the Owl Bar and schemed ways to get blankets or sleeping bags. Fairmont Hotsprings was on the agenda for the evening so we went out there figuring we could find some blankets in a storage closet or something. After our soak, we found a storage room but no blankets, just a life size Darth Maul statue and some heavy duty table cloths. 3 of those table cloths plus Manfred's fleece blanket plus Manfred would make up our sleeping system. There was no way we could leave Darth Maul to collect dust so Lucas and I rallied back in and straight faced it all the way to the parking lot with the statue. Nobody said a thing. We proceeded to have way too much fun with Darth, dressing him up and hanging him in trees, bringing him into the Wise River bar (which didnt go over so well with the owner)....  No climbing got done but we did find some quartz crystals on Quartz Hill on the way home.

Now theres the party brigade! Notice that green 'blanket' Micah is sporting?...

DJ Darth spinning the block rocker.

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Darth partied a little too hard and had to puke-and-rally!

Manfred resembled the Wise River bar owner "I dont get it, its not funny. Get him out of here."

I wouldnt call it a hangover, more like serious lethargy.  

Tetons: Mt.Moran - Skillet Glacier

I dont know how to put into words a ski trip to the Tetons that went perfectly? Ill just say that I have some pretty cool friends (Nina and Lucas) that like to do rad shit and let the photos do most of the talking. The Skillet glacier is just under 6,000ft long making it one of the longest descents in the Tetons and in the U.S.
                                     

The USS Moran

And its crew. Thats Mt.Moran in the background with the Skillet glacier running the length of it.

A little ways in to our 1 hour long, ~6 mile boat ride.

What can I say!? There no place like the Tetons! 

Apparently this is more common than I thought; a new tree growing directly out of the stump of an old tree. 

Lakeshore camp in Bearpaw bay.

A liter of Chardonnay to kill some time is always a good idea.

A 1:45am start put us way up the glacier by the time the sun came up. I have never walked in the dark for so long. This is about 4.5 hours of hiking later. Nina and I were leading the pack; we could see a string of headlamps all the way down the glacier.

Jackson Lake is hidden by the clouds.

Enhance

Enhance. 

People always ask me why I do these things: well here is one reason.

                                     

I think this photo is so cool. It makes Nina look like she is standing on top of a Himalayan peak at 8k meters. We're actually at 12k ft somewhere at the top of the climb.

Looking down. The entrance is a little steep requiring some jump turns but otherwise pretty straightforward ski.

This is for the boys at Spark R&D; the original Blazes still killin' it!

One of the few sections were I was putting in the boot pack.

If you're going to take selfies with my camera, I can do whatever I want with them!

Looking up after we skied a thousand feet or two. Notice the people still going up. I think there were atleast 20 people on the glacier that day!

                                               

7 hours after departure, we got back to camp.

Adventure doesnt start until something goes wrong right? Well our motor decided it didnt want to bring us back across the lake so we flagged down some fellow skiers that graciously towed us back across saving us from a 3 hour paddle.

People didnt know what to think when we got to the boat ramp..... you were skiing? Where? Really? People ski that? Did you use ropes?....   What a trip!