Cracks for small, cracks for All

Tom, Jeremy, Katie and Buster came over to wander "Gunshot Alley" for the hillside and ridgetop goods to be had--Ladd even found some cracks to practice on and master...

This one's just above the trail, and definitely NOT for kids! :-) ...

A feeling...

Sunday was a scorcher for Montana standards especially in April.  80+ degrees are you kidding me!?  Despite the temps I decided to check out an area that I had walked into a couple weeks before- just because I had a feeling.  I was somewhat skeptical that I could even find them again but I walked right to them somehow- guess I am finally getting good at this maze walking.  The weird part was all that I missed tons of climbable blocks.  I must have walked right passed it.  Here is a small sampling of some of the blocks that I found.

The Fine Boulder

Par for the course - lotsa stuff out there

A rare Batholith overhang with a long rail and features

The Porpoise

I then returned to one of the boulders I had found previously The Porpoise and finished a nice crimp problem The Flowers of Edo.  After scoping out more and more I realized there is some great potential here.  Then I walked along farther and found a real gem.  I have been trouncing around in the Batholith for a number of years now and this block is surely one of the nicest I have found.  Feeling vindicated...

Superb Boulder

Upped on Isos

Despite a grim forecast the sun decided to push the clouds away this Saturday. A larger crew than normal headed out to the Isos to scope some more of the upper area. The Isos continue to be the gift that keeps on giving. After warming up on the fantastic Highlife Arete we ventured East and sessioned on a nice group of blocks that had been scoped out before. This first group of boulders yielded at least 12 new problems and a couple projects.

Steve on an Upper Meadow Project

We then ventured farther and stumbled onto a sweet shallow crack Whitmore sent and dubbed Citrus Crack. This crack is thin and tangy with an exiting knob and crimp finish yet another multi-star problem in the middle of nowhere- awesome!

Whitmore on Citrus Crack

Continuing on farther we stumbled into yet another zone with a large boulder with some very nice cracks splitting the face. Quickly all of the major lines were sent. It was a pretty successful day with somewhere around 20 new problems. It appears or at least feels that we are starting to wrap our heads around the extent of this zone.

A fine section of a National trail

The further one travels up the trail--the deeper into the maw one becomes...



































Re-discover the Continental Divide Trail !!!!1111

Spring Sessions

The last few weeks seem to have flew by. The brotherman and tower crew was around for a bit, and made some significant finds out exploring on the west-side. I was able to head out with them and check it out. We warmed up on a beautiful wall (lacking photos) containing 4 wide cracks and a couple thinner ones. The 4 OW/chimneys went fairly quickly, at 5.8, 5.9, 5.10 and a nice slightly overhanging 5.11 flare. Pat hiked the harder two while I warmed up on the easier two...A great warm up wall for the wide!

Meanwhile Trevor and Ty roped up for a nice looking hand crack up hill, and Andrew, Zana and others scoped for more bouldering potential in the area

Ty on a fresh hand crack

 After the warm up I headed with Pat to check out the major find...an overhanging wide beast....just overhanging enough to have to invert...with a very awkward size....It's a very big sit up off a hand/fist stack to get started...and that's just the start...the remaining shuffle seems to be crazy hard.

Peanut gallery hanging out in the rain

The Brotherman and the beast

The sporadic rain didn't help matters...while Pat gave a number of very strong goes, and came excruciatingly close, the beast remains unconquered...hopefully we will have a chance to get back on it soon. Personally I wish I gave it more attempts...the initial slap down was a bit much for me...though I'm ready to head back for more.

Near the project was a chimney that Trevor climbed up earlier in the day...as the day winded down I decided to head up as well. Good times

Last week I ended up in the Isolated boulders again...finally starting to piece it all together...quite the forest out there...

Back at the Lazy V

Got a good session and some good planning in last night at the Lazy V...details to be revealed soon.

Cheers!

Last Temptation of Stone

Yeah :-)

A small but highly significant Zone find...

This place nearly has it all--good featured granite, close to town (well, Butte), parking lot and trail already put in on public land; what more could you ask for?




















I suppose some folk out there may want to know where these new play pebbles are?


All you have to do is ask :-)