idea man

Will somebody please buy a warehouse on the Northeast side of Bozeman and open-up a bouldering gym? It doesn't need to be a teen center, just somewhere for the dirtbags to get after it.

I'm pushing the idea to Ramos at the moment (he needs something to do).

Why you ask?

1. I want to walk/bike to a gym after work, then grab a beer. Or vice versa.
2. I don't want to pay $65 per month or $14 (I hear its going up) per visit.
3. Bozeman has enough "climbers" to afford two plastic venues.
4. After skiing at Bridger Bowl why not just stop by and pull on a few holds
5. Hours of operation: 8am-11pm. Paying a couple employees $10 a hour should do it.

There are many more reasons.

Come on, its okay.

There is space right next the the BBC available.

Delmoe Base Camp

The location that I will be headquartered out of for the next two weeks, providin'...



I'll be checking in at the Butte house often, but not necessarily daily, for messages and supply runs, and staying out at the trailer (can sleep 4 more adults, if one on the floor/crash pad if any body wants to play on the pebbles and hang at base camp:-)

edit: I chose spot #1 and it is the vintage single/axle cab-over bumper-pull alone above the road in view with Butte Plates and a Mammut sticker on it; in between the 8 and 9 mile marker on the Delmoe Road...

Escape to Ten Sleep

After bagging the idea of doing some skiing and scoping in the Beartooths Zana and I headed down to our favorite sports climbing destination: Ten Sleep, WY. For some reason we decided re-enact our 20s and drove down at 11 pm on Friday night. Interesting.

Beautiful climbing as always in Ten Sleep, plus being the off-season we saw virtually nobody. My power and endurance are very low due to the massive amount of skiing I did over the winter combined with virtually no climbing. As much as I love the climbing in the Batholith it just doesn't prepare one for 100' pocketed endurance routes. Nonetheless, we got 3 solid days of climbing in with 2 days at the French Cattle Ranch and the first day exploring Leigh Creek.

We ran into Fruh and Rose down there the first night and climbed a little bit with them on the second day. Fruh seems motivated to climb again as demonstrated by easily sending Hellion .13c at the Supererratic Wall.

Fruh cruising Hellion




On a side note. It seems in the quest for 5.14s the keepers of Ten Sleep are going to resort to "grid-bolting". In the past couple of years more and more squeeze jobs keep going in at some classic zones such as the French Cattle Rance and the Supererratic. With miles and miles of beautiful stone at their fingertips it does seem a little harsh to be putting bolt lines within 4' of each other.

Makes me want to grab my rack and wander off.....

Spring Sun

It was a great day out exploring and climbing in the lower Isolates. Guy, Kalah, Kevin and kids joined in for some pebble pulling. Kalah made an impressive coop of quality moderates as well as finding an impressive boulder with a number of possibilities. Guy and I cleaned the overhang as well as a nice crack traverse...

The Isolates continue to give, the amount of problems to be done is crazy...























Well, Kalah and I are off to Jamaica for a bit to celebrate her commencement...hope y'all are out enjoying the spring and capturing the joy.

Cheers,
Tom

Close to the car

After "discovering" a drivable (legal and such) road into the southern end of the Isos, the kids and I took advantage of the nice weather and short walking distance to the pebbles for some play time.

Volume 2: The Bourbons (COMING SOON!)

Just thought I'd let folks know we are still cracking away at this project and it's coming together really well! It's due out mid to late summer and should contain ~300 problems(possibly more depending on what we end up including...)

Not only that, but we're working hard with the Homestake Lodge and the SMCC to put together an outdoor bouldering festival/competition to be held in the Northern Bourbons, August 14th...so clear your calenders and get psyched!

Here's some pics from the Bourbons and Northern Bourbons to help get that psyche going...






























Cheers!

A brief meeting...

A call from Andrew and Zana was all the motivation that I needed to go out to the lower Isos and play a bit on the stone. My rookie nephew Craig came along to sample the action--he did not disappoint in the ways of the boulder.

Quattro de Mayo

Just another afternoon spent playing on the pebbles by the ATV intersection (SW corner of zone) in the Isolations. The last photo shows a decent mid-level V grade problem, IMHO...