December in the Lith can be joyous or downright miserable. Weather is usually the limiting factor and December is certainly one of the wettest, if not the wettest months of the year. Alas we venture out in search of dry stone and sending temps.
Part#1 Dryads
Early December we were able to get a sizable crew out to the Dryads. It was a perfect day with excellent temps and fun was had by all. After warming up we headed straight toward the newly found Barely Illegal Boulder.
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Guy giving Sweet Tart a go
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| Emily scaling the excellent mod Barely Illegal Arete |
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| Sarah on the beautiful and techy scoop of Sweet Tart |
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Going for it on a proj
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Part#2 Benchlands
Weather during the middle of the month was wet. But we managed to get out at the very end of the month mostly on a scoping mission in the Benchlands. Last year we spotted a boulder at the very top and very far back of the area it looked good and its high position on the ridge likely meant bomber rock. Even though it was around 20 degrees F with intermittent snow. We were not disappointed with our finds and even got to put up some stellar new problems.
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| Smooth sailing and it's a 12" pow day at Bridger - what are we doing this for again? |
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| The Galactic Facet (named after our favorite local website http://www.galacticfacets.com/) a wild boulder with crystal cobbles, pockets and bullet hard patinas at the very top of the Benchlands |
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| Galactic Facet Traverse |
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| Galactic Facet Traverse - kind of looks like an alien skull, coincidence I think not |
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| An ancient crystalline circuit board clear evidence of forgotten technology |
Below the Galactic Facet is a boulder with super hard stone with crystal filled monos on it! The wind was picking up so we moved on. There could be some uber hard problems on this boulder - any takers?
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| Tweaky monos everywhere |
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| Close up of one of the crystal filled monos |
Since the weather was quickly deteriorating we then moved on in a direction we never went before and we found a couple nice fins with potential.
With the snow picking up we thought we were done. Then Tom spotted something through the trees. We debated on if we should even go check it out - we are certainly glad we did. What we stumbled into is definitely within the top 5 boulders either of us have found in the batholith. Steep, great stone, featured and awesome- gaze at its glory.
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| !!! |
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| !!! |
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| !!! |
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| Even though it was nuking snow I had to at least give the holds a test |
We thought that it was all over. Then we stumbled into a boulder problem that Tom and Pat K. found years ago and could not find again an offwidth squeeze called The Breather.. This is one of the problems with the Benchlands, it is a 3D maze of insanity I feel lost every time I am there. So loosing one's way or finding something again is not uncommon. This time Tom got a GPS point on the problem so we will be able to find it again. We both gave it a go but conditions and common sense told us not to push on through.
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| Tom in The Breather |
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| Exhaling in The Breather |
Then we headed out and enjoyed some awesome driving conditions on the way home.
It was a great year! Hope next year is just as good!
Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year!
L8er,
