Twin Falls again!

Since I didnt do any leading yesterday and since my buddy Jeff had never been to Twin, we decided to head back up there. I got my first lead of the year in on Twin Falls Right using 8 screws. I was stoked on how smoothly everything went. Left was pooky the day before and I had no desire to climb it again so we stayed off of it. Its pretty much just a snow ramp with crappy ice climber's right. It will be fun when it gets a little more ice. We only got a pair of laps in apiece; Jeff was trying to make it back in time for the Seahawks game. We did not even come close to making it in time. Sorry Jeff (not really, we were climbing!).

Jeff following

Me belaying

ATCs with guide-mode are a must and my are favorite!

The penis-shaped bizarre chunk of rock right in the middle of the photo is called Cleo's Gargoyle. 

Jeff on the left coming down and a very good looking mother of 3 on the right going up. Do Hyalite ice climbing bunnies really exist? 

Left and Right

Gotta love a happy, hippy trail crew!

I'd buy you a beer if I knew who you were!

Theres nothing like climbing for hours and then coming back to the car to find your beers still there and rocky mountain cold! Two of their brothers ended up being used to thank some climbers from Helena for retrieving my tools that I left on top of the climb. 

First Ice of the Season!

Nick and I hiked up to Twin Falls for my first ice climbs of the year. It was also my first trip to Twin Falls. We got a nice early start and spent the entire day up there. We top-roped Left twice and Right once. It was eerily warm up there; good for the climbers, not for the ice.

Cleo's isnt quite in yet. While climbing on Twin, we heard what sounded like a bomb going off from one of the daggers falling off and shattering on the belay platform for the second pitch. I actually told Nick to expect something big to fall when we walked past it cause the sun was shining directly on it and the water was rigorously flowing over it.

Im going to come back and climb that killer looking dihedral through the chimney to the top. Pretty sure it will go.

Twin Falls Right

Looking down the valley

He goes by the name 'Nick"

The Right flow

Too pretty not to photograph

Opening day rifle season

Met up with my ol' man and two of his friends from Great Falls for opening day of rifle season. We knew where a large herd of elk was hanging out on private ground so we set ourselves up on the perimeter. We had a beautiful morning and some of my party had some luck but really long story short, the bull that one of our party shot and killed was claimed by another hunter, from out of state. Lame, I know. Sometimes you just have to pick your battles though and that confrontation had the potential to go down hill very quickly. Said thief has the guilty conscious, not us. My dad and I went out on Sunday and got into elk but once again we were fowled by private land owned by out-of-staters (Texas!).

Great spot to watch the sun come up!

Thats Wood Butcher, Hairy Dingus, and #3 (code names). 

Thats about half the herd, on the wrong side of the fence.

Driving out, we found a giant herd of goats; 17. 

~15 of the 17 were Billies! Two of which were giant, giant, goats. 

Taking advantage of some great MT Autumn weather at Squaw Creek

The sunshine was just beckoning Bozeman's climbers to get out so thats exactly what Travis, Manfred (who refrains from climbing for personal reasons; he plays the "Im too short card"), and myself did. We warmed up on 'Pretty Polly 10D' with a lead and then a TR. Then we moved over to the Pillar and Travis climbed the 'Pillar Route 11D' so we could TR 'Pillar Crack 12A'. I got up the crack a lot quicker and more confidently than I expected... but I was on TR. Travis had to climb the thing in the dark but he sent it too. 

Pretty Polly is the weakness right in the middle of the photo.

The Pillar with the 11D sport route on the left side and the crack on the right is a 12A trad line.

Manfred wasnt feeling the stoke so he opted to hang out and give us moral support.

Night climbing!

I absolutely love this photo. A massive, ominous chunk of rock with a headlamp beam and a climber. Could almost be an Alpine start photo.  Far from it though. We proceeded to the Molly Brown and attempted to drink them out of booze. But we couldnt so we tried the Hoff and we couldnt drink them dry either. Needless to say, not a lot of work got done the next day. 

Bear Canyon Bottomless Pit

After a MUU alpine start, which was meeting for mimosas at 10am, Lucas, Trace, Trevor, Travis and I cruised out to Stacy's Bar in Gallatin Gateway to re-group and get some more liquid courage. I think it was 2pm-ish by the time we got out of the truck and started walking! Lucas wanted to collect some more fungi too. All we knew was that the cave is on the southern aspect of Wheeler Mountain (plus a couple more details but those are not to be posted on the internet; you'll never find it without them). I peeled away from the group and found a cave, not the one we were looking for however. I crawled in there as far as I dare without somebody knowing where I was and it keeps going! I marked it on my GPS and will be back for further investigation. I got a call on the radio and the crew had found the pit so I followed their tracks to the Bottomless Pit. There was another sink hole encountered along the way which looked like a wonderful mountain lion home and was clearly being used due to the numerous tracks everywhere in the snow. The Bottomless Pit is about 25-30 meters deep with a massive ice plug in the middle that you can just barely wiggle by to get to the bottom. Im sure the true bottom is unattainable when there is winter snow. I didnt go down to the bottom proper because I left my helmet in the truck. It was atleast a 3 mile bushwhack there.

I would call this the trail head, but there is no trail, only a parking area.

The cave I found and crawled into and out of sight before turning around.

The Lion's Den (probably)

The Bottomless Pit. Notice the bridge. 

Trevor rapping down. The bridge is the top of the photo.

It seems bottomless cause you cant safely get close enough to the edge to see the bottom.

Here we are standing on top of the snow bridge/ice plug a little over half way down the cave.

I have been knuckle deep, ankle deep, elbow deep, and knee deep in things before but never shoulder deep! Runoff created a sweet little perfectly round hole in the ice which Im sure is there year-round.  

Lucas brought my camera down to the bottom where they actually found (and collected) fruiting body fungi!

When I ascended out, I got to see an incredible hot pink sunset. But by the time Trevor and Trace got out, it was black.

Im not sure we would have found the truck if it wasnt for our tracks in the snow.

A long exposure looking down into the valley.