Revenue Village: Proud Face is all done! Roadside Ramp has one route.

I was able to get three more days in the village this season. I have been working on Proud Face for the latter half of the season and now with 9 routes, I can call her done. None have been climbed on lead yet so I will refrain from grades for now. Before the season even began, I set a goal to start and finish Manfred's Rock, start and finish Proud Face and finish a route on the Roadside Ramps; essentially develop everything encountered while walking in from the North entrance. It didnt look like I was going to make it but this Indian summer (can I still say that?) held out long enough for me. A lot of this post is purely record keeping for me, sorry if its dry and to the point.

Tools

Smoke on the water

An inversion kept the fog on the lake. Purdy neat

THE Proud Face. Proud Face Route starts in crack, traverses left in to middle of face to 6 bolts. Sam's Variation goes up the crack, stays in the crack then takes arete to top (TR). Proud Face Crack starts in either crack on the bottom then stays in obvious wide crack to top (not visible). 

This chunk is the right side of Proud Face Rock. 'Empty Rangers' starts in the lower left crack (right side crack variation to Proud Face Crack) then traverses left to right at the dike (3 bolts) then the arete and cracks to the anchor.

The right side start to PF Crack or the standard start to Empty Rangers. Upper PF Crack can be seen.

This slab is just left of Proud Face. There is a subtle slab right in front of the main chunk. 'Incessant' goes up it with one bolt (crack to the right is useless for pro) then bomber cracks through right side of roof and to the top. 'Wake up Call' starts behind leaning slab with wide gear to 3 bolts up to left side of roof and gear to the top. 'Fugitess Crack' is just around the corner of this slab facing left.

Two slabs pictured here. The right one has a route 'Its pronounced Eye-gore' with cracks to one bolt and gear up to anchors. The left slab with the large boulder on top starts with one of the best lieback cracks in the Village then you stem that gap you can see and there are 2 bolts to get you to the anchors 'Weed Stems'.

The Roadside Ramps as seen from the road. Too bad you cant walk straight to them!

'Mushrooms are Good for Sundays' 14 bolts to one small cam to anchors.

Open Day rifle season.... success! Again!

The elk gods were on my side...... again! 3 years in a row I have been lucky enough to harvest a big beautiful bull elk on public land (last years was on sign-in block management so essentially public land with regards to hunting). This year was eerily similar to 2 years ago. I got them both on opening day, shot from pert-near the same spot and they both died within 100yds or so of each other. I have a great spot; its elevated so you can see and it creates a topographical funnel for animals to go through. Im a big fan of other hunters too. I didnt find this heard, someone else did and got them moving. I have patterned them enough in this area to know where they run to; right by my 'crows nest'. So thanks other hunters for being great bird-dogs! One thing that really struck me this year was a rainbow that I initially saw touch down maybe a mile away but it moved and touched down right in front of me! I could literally see the end of the rainbow touching the grass! I tried to take photos but they didnt capture it very well. But get this, my bull showed up (and passed away) right where that rainbow touched down! Its not quite a pot of gold but Ill take it! Luckily, down at the truck, we drank an extra beer or two and discussed how to get him out because extraction two years ago was a ton of work. We decided to walk up a possible new way down and thank goodness we did because we pretty much walked straight to him and had no uphill on the way out. No uphill is HUGE when you're hauling a mature bull out. Thanks Harry D, Wood B and Fat B. for the help getting him out. Again.

Heres the rainbow touching down right (~100yds) in front of me. Just past the large tree but before the tree line below.

One of 3 Black Bears spotted that day. Too small to tag.

He face planted in some little trees.

My first mature 6 point. Its amazing to see how much larger a mature elk is compared to an adolescent. Atleast 18" taller at the back and 24(?)" longer! His stomach could hold a whole square bail!

I have had that 30*6 since I was 12 and it has put atleast a thousand pounds of meat in to my families freezers.

Hunting is team work. Its something to be shared. When you hear 'elk down' without hesitation I start working my way there with any gear necessary and a little jealousy but NO animosity. I know one of these years ill be paying back these guys for all their hard work. But for now, Ill stick to the winning streak! P.s. that orange game cart with the inline wheels made in Libby MT is worth its weight in gold; we put the entire elk (minus guts, lower legs and head) on it and got it out in one trip!

Revenue Village: Proud Face; Climb day (Last of the season?)

Thinking that it could be the last day of the rock season (at least out at the Village anyway) Sam, Terra, Cady, Manfred and I braved the cold wind and got some climbing in. Trying to find the easy way up to the rock, took us of the normal route and Sam found an awesome obsidian arrowhead! Less than a mile from where I found the mortar pestle. Eventually, we got to the rock (which is the hardest and furthest to get to in the Village) in about an hour. With too little time to clean any of the routes, we deemed top-roping the fastest and safest way to climb. Leading unclimbed routes in the Village is not something I recommend. The rock has tons of feldspar(?) crystals which simultaneously makes for fun but potentially dangerous climbing. Some of the crystals will, and do, break. Breaking holds usually results in a climber fall. Therefore, I like to swing around on top rope and get rid of the bad holds and scrub off the lichen where needed. Not to mention get the dirt out of the cracks. The motto of my area is 'trust the crystals' and it is so much easier to do when you know the route has been cleaned. Anyway, Sam and I got to climb 'Proud Face' 5.10d(?) and 'Proud Face Crack' 5.8 while Cady only got PF Crack. Terra and Manfred opted to stay in the sunshine which we were all very jealous of. Sam moved the rope over to 'The Fugitess Crack' and we both got burned out real quick. I was hoping it would go at 5.12 and now Im pretty darn sure it does! The Village needs some hard routes and this one is worth the walk. I didnt want to dream about it all winter with no attempts so luckily I got some. I put that curiosity to bed. I grabbed everything out of the cache that I dont like to leave through the winter, loaded up the pack and we hiked out as the sun was setting. The views from the ridge in any direction at anytime of day are spectacular, but the sunsets are particularly beautiful.

Me post traverse on Proud Face

Me figuring out Proud Face Crack. The trick for this wide crack is to stay out of it!

Fugitess laps. Hard. Steep. Cold this day.

My cheer squad!

Sammy sailing through Proud Face faster than me.

Proud Face shares the splitter crack start but traverses left at the first bend in the crack. PF Crack finishes right (out of sight) of the upper arete.

If it wasnt for Hollowtop Mountain, I would say Ward Peak is the most iconic mountain in the Tobacco Roots.

A walk with a pad through Pipestone

While Cady was dirt biking with her friends, Manfred and I walked around the vast expanse of boulders that is Pipestone and actually found a couple to climb. The 'actually' that I just stated is heavy sarcasm in case you have not been out there before; you dont have to walk 50yds to find a rock to climb let alone the mile or two I put on. I wanted another shot at the Druthers Crack so thats where I went first. I havent seen all the boulders in Pipestone and definitely never will, but the Druthers Boulder has to be one of the best boulders there. If not in the state. Quintessential crack climbing on a house sized boulder. Well, I didnt get it last time and I didnt get it this time. We walked around for a while longer and found one possibly unclimbed boulder which I sent in just a couple of tries. I did find quite a few quartz crystals again this time but none of them were the huge ones that we found last year.

I dont remember what this bouldery boulder is called.

The Druthers Boulder with the obvious Druthers crack.

An SDS and some great hand jamming get you up this guy pretty quickly.

Revenue Village: Proud Face day 1

I finally got to go back out to my home away from home for some more new-routing. I finished putting chains on Manfred's Rock and moved the cache over to a buttress I call Proud Face. I began on the main face and started work on two routes. These two routes share a start. One or two pieces of gear sets you up to traverse out on to the face where 6 bolts will take you to the top. Or you can stay in the crack all the way up. I still need to scrub the face and clean the crack though. I installed some more anchors to the right and started another traversing route. Again, a couple pieces of gear will get you to a point where you can traverse on to the face. This route, however, traverse horizontally right for 2 bolts before you reach the arete and clip one more bolt before you reach the top (supplemented with one more medium cam before you reach the anchors). I still need to clean the crack and scrub the face. Running out of time and trying to kill my drill's battery, I installed three more anchors before she pooped. I found The Fugitive Crack's (Gallatin Canyon) doppelganger. This crack might not hit 5.12 but I instantly remembered The Fugitive when I saw it and I havnt climbed The Fugitive in 6 or 7 years! Once again, just like every buttress in the Village so far, I cant wait for this one to be done so we can climb it! I hope to finish it before the snow falls. It should produce 7 or 8 more climbs.

If sleeping was a sport, I got your Michael Phelps right here.

The Fugitive-esque crack

The Proud Face. Left of center is too bare for a McAlpine route.

Proud Face is a system of adjacent ramps. Theres one more on the right side.

This will have routes going through the left and right sides of the roof.

This will have a couple more.

The main slab of Proud Face. About midway between grass clumps, you can traverse left to the big shady hold and go up from there. Or you can stay in the crack and follow it as it rounds the corner to the right and up to the top.

Labor Day Weekend

I had plenty of ideas of what I wanted to do on my long weekend but the forecast didnt want to cooperate. It looked like we might get one nice day to climb so Lucas, Bailey, Manfred and I hiked up to South Gorge lake; the basecamp for Mt.Tweedy. Tweedy is the tallest in the Pioneer mountains and I have hiked to its summit before. This time, like last time, our goal was to climb the North ridge 5.7. We awoke to decent weather and hiked up to the base of the climb. Lucas is known more for being able to do a lot with a little, i.e. usually not the most prepared person in the world, but this time he was the only one with a winter puffy jacket. Bailey and I hiked up with all of our clothes on and had nothing to add once we reached the windy, brisk ridge. Im going to go ahead and say I bailed because I was cold. The weather would have been fine for climbing but I would have been miserably cold the whole time. I deem that climb not worth suffering for. I may be putting my foot in my mouth by saying this but I doubt anyone that has climbed the North ridge of Tweedy has gone back to do it again. It looks like its worth doing once but you probably wouldnt come back for a repeat. I think my two attempts are about all Im giving that ridge. There is plenty of other semi-immediate climbing in the area that, to me, seems more desirable/worthy. We hung out at the lake long enough for Lucas to catch 1 Westslope Cutty and 2 Cutbows for a tinfoil-in-the-fire lunch. Mmm. We hiked out and proceeded to Elkhorn hotsprings for the evening. I was feeling a little better than my compatriots Sunday morning so I left with Manfred and went rockhounding at Crystal Park. I found a ton of little guys but couldnt find any of the big ones on this trip. I bumped in to Lucas and Bailey ~4ft under a tree's rootball digging for crystals with a mountaineer's axe and watched them struggle for a while. When the rain started, I admitted defeat and went home.

Bailey, Lucas and Manfred. Did I mention it rained on the hike up?

Backcountry mixer! Vodka + Water + flavor concentrate (I like lemonade) = good time! Plus you're drinking a whole cup of water with every drink so no hangovers.

I threw in some glow-sticks for shits and giggles. The hike is short enough to bring pretty much everything.

How to stay warm when its cold: see above fire (size). You know its hot when you cant sit within the first couple feet of it!

South Gorge Lake

Lucas fishing for fish.

The section of the North ridge that is climbing.

Crystal Park could be straight out of the movie 'Holes'

For being a rockhound, Manfred failed to find one crystal.