By Justin Harkins, on December 16th, 2009 Adam and Jason rack up at the bottom of "Hangover" – Hyalite Canyon
The Bozeman Ice Festival was last weekend. The festival – like its counterparts in Ouray, Cody, Valdez, et al – is organized to celebrate the local ice climbing culture, bring climbers together, and introduce new people to the sport. On the schedule for the weekend were two competitions (a pro invitational on Thursday and an open on Saturday), several clinics, slideshows, movie premieres, gear expos, and, of course, beer specials.
On Thursday, the day of the pro comp, I drove into the canyon with Jason and his friend, Adam, to get in a few pitches before the weekend rush. The recent frigid temps left the ice hard and dry, and we wore ourselves out on four- and five-swing pick placements on brittle flows. The tough ice conditions and near-zero temperatures chased us after just a few hours, and we were hiking out with plenty of time to clean up and change for the movie later that night.
When we got back to the parking lot, though, we were met with a troubling scene. Several somber-looking climbers were milling about, surrounded by trucks and snowmobiles emblazoned [Read More]
By Justin Harkins, on November 25th, 2009 The climbing world, like any subculture, operates with a unique vocabulary, and it’s important that prospective climbers gain a firm grasp of this language before they embarrass themselves (or worse) at the crag. Words like “pitch,” “draw,” and “deck,” after all, will conjure up entirely different images at Camp 4 than they will in an architecture class. Of course, the aforementioned terms at least have some sort of meaning to the population at large; the aspiring climber will eventually have to distinguish between a number of otherwise incomprehensible labels (the Seussian pink point, red point, head point, and dead point come quickly to mind).
Jason enjoys leashless freedom on Genesis II — Hyalite Canyon
The climber’s apprenticeship period will cover such subjects as Mallory’s highest position and the benefits of swinging leads, and advanced pupils might be able to show you which finger, hand, or fist size corresponds to which color of their preferred cams. Finally, once fluency is achieved, the enterprising youngster will be marked as a real member of the climbing community, free to enter into age-old debates about bolt-chopping and hold-chipping, the merits of the multi-pitch GriGri, and whether or not “crusty old sport climber” [Read More]
By Justin Harkins, on November 12th, 2009 Took us twice the time we thought it would, but the view was nice…
There’s been a lot of action in Montana this week.
Last time I checked in, I was about to embark on a three-day trip with Jason, a local climber who answered my online personal ad. Jason has been climbing ice around the country for more than a decade and moved to Montana five years ago for the same reasons that I have come now.
On his suggestion, we loaded up my truck and drove three hours southeast to the Beartooths – a range Jason reveres as “very white, very tall, and very infinite.” The range occupies the area just northeast of Yellowstone and, as part of the greater Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, boasts some 900,000 acres in northern Wyoming and southern Montana.
The plan was as follows: get up early on Monday morning and drive into the mountains; knock out one route that afternoon; drive to another part of the wilderness that night; catch a few hours of sleep in the truck; get up around 3:00 am on Tuesday for the 5-mile approach to that day’s route; finish the climb and get back to the car [Read More]
By Justin Harkins, on November 5th, 2009 Fifteen minutes down the road, all was well. Robert Earl Keen and lemon-lime Gatorade had me in a fine frame of mind, and I was cruising down the road toward certain triumph. Yet again, however, the snow was to get the better of me. [Read More]
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