Late December Bouldering

With the holidays in full swing, I managed to take some time to head over to the Boulder Batholith for a bit of exploring and bouldering...


Right around the solstice, the brotherman and I headed out for a day of exploring. We ended up exploring the east side of the Halfway Creek draw, being lured in by clusters on the skyline...while the boulders were somewhat sparse, a few gems lay waiting in this area...though the 5-10 minute uphill walk is a bit far for typical approaches out here...so they may have to wait for a bit longer...


good rock though...


Perhaps the best looking one in the area, with a couple of great looking lines possible.


A decent traverse just uphill


evening light on the King..


On Sunday we headed out towards Whiskey to see if the Doom Wall was dry and to jump on a couple problems...unfortunately a combination of a semi-late start and a couple exploratory stops on the way in, we were already somewhat strapped for time...

We abandoned the idea of hiking gear in only to find the Doom Wall dry and in the sun and most of the boulders wet with snowy top-outs...about 4-6 inches of snow on the ground as of the 26th...We ended up on the Popes and after a couple refresher attempts I was working my way towards the wet top-out...only to 'stub' my finger slapping(over tossing) my way up...DOH!...so close only to botch my finger and end my day early...

a couple shots






All and all though, some good days for late December in the Batholith...it's been a while(2007) since I've bouldered at Whiskey, so it was nice to be back and get on some old favorites...I certainly didn't miss that extra hour of driving though and seeing 6 inch rookie stripes everywhere is a bit sad (please clean up your messes folks)...we'll probably wait a bit before returning as there are drier/closer areas around Butte to climb and explore currently...though the Doom Wall is calling out to us...quite the siren...

Cheers
Tom

X-mas snow cover report

Driving to Bozeman with the mojede4, and passing Mr. Bill Dockins (and family) en route, got me motivated to post some conditions for snow around the Batholith. Without any further adieu...

-----Resort Rocks: 80% (or more) free of snow on the top-outs, 95% bare dry ground

-----Land of 100 Cracks: 90% (or better) free of snow on the top-outs, approach about 80% (or more) bare and dry (if done right, staying on the West side of the drainage).

-----Benchlands: 75+% free of snow on the top-outs (melting quickly), with mostly dry ground once crossed over Homestake Creek.

-----Desert and surrounds: Not directly observed, but one could expect 80-90% snow-free top-outs with snow accumulated in shady/Northside areas.

-----Ringing Rocks "area": Bare and dry on the large, broken, crack-laden face; expect snow the closer one gets to the Ringers.



Consider all other areas to have significant snow on the ground, AND on the tops of the boulders :-(





I am anticipating a solo mission to photograph some of the cracks in the Land of 100 area--STAY TUNED, IT will be my last photo post of the year :-)

Random Cell Photos

Recently I upgraded to a new phone, so in the process I dumped all the photos I took over the last couple years off my old rig...and edited some up to post here...


Mid-Benchlands...near Trengel



Finger crack roof in the Northern Desert






Choss above Welch Quarry



Short face in the upper Isos



Cloud Nine






Aframe at Resort Rocks


So many boulders...


Halfway Creek Dome Solo


Trailers...


Mile 3






Cilley Roof, Dockins Roof to the right




Isos


an early OW list...


Corner Proj, Coyote Flats


Butte Special


Thin line




Isos







Delmoe Lake




Isos


Mojede4


Cloven Hoof photo op


Hideout Ridge possibility


Hideout Ridge


A new one...


Midnight tepee





Clay's gym


Cheers!

The Desert and Benchlands

Saturday I headed out with Ares to the Desert...the snow was considerably less...with about and inch of patchy snow, and most of the top-outs were dry. After a warm-up on the Mastodon, we we sessioned 'Ron's Crack' and worked on 'Analogue Movements'...unfortunately my balance wasn't cooperating and I was spat off repeatedly on the later...we rounded out the day with a fire by the Bullet Boulder...

That evening the Brotherman rolled back into town...so the next morning we rolled out to the Benchlands...driving by the Desert, which looked even more melted out then the day prior...the Benchlands on the other hand had a bit of snow to tromp through...but undeterred, we set about on a long walkabout, and as usual found a number of interesting problems, and once again we were stumped on locating 'The Breather' a problem established a couple years ago...lost somewhere on the top of the hill...all and all a good day exploring and a good weekend of climbing.

a few pics


~15' roof crack...hands to fingers to flair



New project...



Looking out at Sally and other mid-bench problems

Cheers!

Sunday in the Desert

If I didn't get out it'd be 3 weeks without being in the Boulder Batholith, 3 weeks without being on real rock...all Bozeman partners were unavailable or MIA so I said f-it and went solo...While gassing up I shot a call over to Pauly in Butte, a psyched Buttian, and we ended up meeting out in the Desert....

With 3 inches of snow on the ground, but the sun shinning, Paul nor I were deterred, and we set about with a walking tour...I wasn't sure what we'd be getting on, but Paul saw the OW invert project on the BLM Boulder and suggested we work it...snowy inverts in the shade...pretty cool to meet another psyched to suffer! I busted out the Koflachs and we went to work...while it still remains a project, we both made good progress on it, and experimented a bit with one foot inverts/swing-thrus...pretty wild committing on a single heel-toe, but it may turn out to be the preferred beta for this one...

We then went down to the Bullet Boulder, Pauly made short work of 'Thug Life' and we also worked a line just right of it...save for the top-outs which were a bit too snowy...

Afterward we did a bit of driving and scoping, heading out to the Isolated Boulders to find about 4-5 inches vs the 3" in the Desert...I think it's proximity to McClusky must play into that...overall a good day and very cool to meet Paul in person.

With foretasted temps in the upper 30s and lower 40s for this week, I'm hoping most of this snow will be gone by the weekend...either way I'm sure I'll there...

Cheers,
Tom

Outta the deep freeze and into some new hightops

After two weeks without some real rock I feel like jumping out of my skin...fortunately the temps have become better in the last few days and by this weekend things should be climbable across much of the lower eastside of the Boulder Batholith...first session to the Benchlands may even be order.

Earlier this week, Conrad stopped by the office and gifted me one of the coolest pairs of hightops I've ever seen. In the mid-90s Koflach made a prototype rock boot to go inside their alpine boots...while the combo idea didn't pan out, the resulting hightop is pretty badass.



Here's a comparison to the Mega



I'm pretty psyched on giving them a go...quite the armor for the ankle and shin. Thanks again Conrad!


On a side note, if you're in Bozeman tomorrow evening (Friday the 3rd), stop by the Filling Station and check out the Archers Mob/MOTH show...Gonna be an audio/visual extravaganza

Cheers!