On June 19th Stan Price and I went into the Beartooths Mountains, our plan of climbing the North Face of Granite Peak in a day was abruptly ended by a storm high on the peak. So as to not waste a day in the hills our day of climbing turned into a day of exploration. We covered 20-22 miles that day and found some great looking ice, rock and ski lines. All of these lines are on buttresses and sub peaks that aren't even named on the most recent topo map of the area. There simply isn't enough time in one mans life to do it all, but we will try!
Melted out ice line, there also was a huge wet streak right of this. Who wants to go back in December? Stan was drooling over these two! Amazing ski lines, I fell through the ice up to my waste shortly after this. Corner system on the left of the picture, looks like great rock. Several good looking rock lines. North Face of Granite just before the storm hit. Stan on the plateau.
For a great alpine rock climb in the beartooths, The Tower of Innocence is hard to beat. It will give you 7-8 pitches of mostly 5.8 and 5.9 climbing, there are some short sections of 5.10 but nothing sustained. The rock quality is great and it is a short approach, by Beartooth standards. There are two other towers that lay next to Innocence, Tower of Poor Rock on the left and Tower of Incubus on the right. I have done routes on them as well and while the quality isn't as good as Innocence they are still worthy climbs. This summer I plan to link all three towers in a day, should be a great climb.
Pitch 8 Pitch 4 Pitch 3 Pitch 2 At the start of the route, waiting to see if it was going to rain. It did rain, on pitch 8!
Good day in the hills with great friends. We dropped the bikes off on Rock Creek then drove around to Lake Fork Trail Head. Climbed Silver Falls to the plateau, Skied down Misery Bowl and biked a jeep trail back to the cars. The photos of the daystart on the bottom of this post. In this top picture is Myself, Tanner, Daniel, Stan and Ari.
On March 16th Loren Raucsh and I made the First Winter Ascent of the Bear Tooth Spire. This climb was linked with a First Ascent of the lower ridge. In total we climbed fourteen pitches at a difficulty of 5.8 M5. The twenty two mile round trip ski and climb was completed in a time of twenty seven hours.
Those are the facts, but they don’t even begin to tell the whole story. My story started ten years ago, on my first attempt, with my friend, Ari Greenburg. I got terribly sick with the flu like symptoms on the ski in and we turned around. I had no inkling what I was getting myself into and all the trials and tribulations of trying to do the first winter ascent of the Bears Tooth would put me through.
Looking back, I wonder why I put so much effort into climbing that damn rock? Sure it’s a beautiful spire and it is the icon of the Beartooth Mountain range, but I put ten years worth of planning into it and fourteen strenuous attempts. Shit, one year Loren Raucsh and I were almost killed when we were swept off its lower slopes in an avalanche. Then, there was the winter Stan Price and I skied up and over the 12,000 ft. Mount Reargaurd, twice in two days, just to be shut down by bad weather on the spire. I failed in just about every conceivable way on that rock.
So, why go through all of that for a climb most people don’t even know about? In the beginning, it was pure lust for adventure, and then it became simply what I did every winter, a sort of pilgrimage. In the last couple of years, it was fear motivating me. Fear someone else would climb it first. I had a vision in my head some uber climber, from who cares where, would stroll in there, with perfect weather and conditions and send the route like it was a walk in the park. I hated that thought. I know it sounds petty and what I should focus on is the process and sharing the experience with good friends. While this is all true, it would be a lie, if I said I didn’t care about being the first to do the winter ascent. I made a decision to say “Screw the uber climber with his euro accent, this route would belong to Beartooth climbers!” And so it does.
So, what’s next?I have some ideas; however, I won’t list them here. I don’t want some uber climber stealing them.Whatever it is, I hope it humbles, tortures and obsesses me just as much as that lonely spire deep in the Beartooth wilderness has. Cheers.
As we down climbed moderately technical terrain in the South Fork I casually mentioned to my much younger partner that Reinhold Messner preached the importance of being able to quickly descend technical terrain. The youth responded “who”? Thinking he obviously didn’t hear me I responded back “Messner”. With a blank look he asked “Who is that”? For a moment I thought he was joking then I quickly realized he had no idea who I was talking about. “You have never heard of Reinhold Messner? How about Buhl, Bonatti, Scott, you know Doug Scott, the Brit, the Ogre epic, Shishapangma South Face with MacIntyre and Baxter-Jones”? Nothing but a blank stare and a slight smile that said what the hell are you talking about.
I said nothing more about it, but I felt frustrated, these names represented to me not just men but ideals, dreams and inspiration.
One of the climber’s active today that I admire is the Swiss Alpinist Ueli Steck. Ueli is the fastest and boldest climber on the planet today. With solo speed records on the Eiger North Face, 3970m in 2:47; Grande Jorasses North Face, 4208m in 2:21; and Matterhorn North Face, 4477m in 1:56. I try to emulate the training Ueli does and what the others used to do, but honestly it’s hard, if not impossible. I readUeli runs 3 hours a day. By my estimation that is close to a marathon every day and that is just his cardio work. What about his strength and climbing workouts? And Messner once said, “Every morning I run 1000 meters up hill on my toes and every afternoon I ski tour above 3000 meters. My doctor tells me everything that I put in my body, he says I am superman”. No shit your superman, but some of us have jobs.
This all brings me to a climb I did Friday morning called California Ice. I use the climb as a mental and fitness test to measure where I am in my training and to see if my training is working. The California Ice approach takes fast parties 2 hours and involves a lot of WI2 & 3. The fastest I had ever done the approach was last year with the physical mutant Stan Price, we did it in 1:45. Yesterday, I did the approach in 1:24 then soloed up and down the first pitch of the headwall, WI4. Then, down climbed all the WI 2 & 3 of the approach, about 2,400 ft., and made it back to the trailhead with a car to car time of just under 3 hours. It may pale in comparison to what a Ueli or Messner could do, but for me, a mere mortal, I was happy with the result. With more training I know I can do the entire climb to the plateau and down in a very fast time. However, nobody gives a damn what you can do, it only matters what you do.
MONDAY-5mile run, Mixed Climbing Workout (pull-ups 5x10, dry tool traverse 1 lap x 3, figure four traverse 1 lap x 3, leg raise 20sec. x 6, ab roller 3x10)
TUESDAY-Ice Climbing Hyalite (5 pitches of ice climbed)
WEDNESDAY-Iron Jim Session 1( ab complex 3x30, row complex 3x30, close grip pull down 3x10) 2(ab crunch 2x25, stutter squat 3x10, lunge 3x10 each leg, single leg press 3x10, glute ham raise 3x10, heavy bag squat 3x10) 3( flat dumbbell press 3x10, Arizona shoulder press 3x20, blast strap pushup 3x failure, triceps extension 3x10, triceps pushdown 3x10) All three sessions where completed in 35 minutes.
THURSDAY-7mile run
FRIDAY-5mile run, Mixed Climbing Workout( pull-ups 7x10, dry tool traverse 1 lap x3, figure four traverse 1 lap x2, ab roller 2x25)
On June 19th Stan Price and I went into the Beartooths Mountains, our plan of climbing the North Face of Granite Peak in a day was abruptly ended by a storm high on the peak. So as to not waste a day in the hills our day of climbing turned into a day of exploration. We covered 20-22 miles that day and found some great looking ice, rock and ski lines. All of these lines are on buttresses and sub peaks that aren't even named on the most recent topo map of the area. There simply isn't enough time in one mans life to do it all, but we will try! 
Melted out ice line, there also was a huge wet streak right of this. Who wants to go back in December?
Stan was drooling over these two!
Amazing ski lines, I fell through the ice up to my waste shortly after this.
Corner system on the left of the picture, looks like great rock.
Several good looking rock lines.
North Face of Granite just before the storm hit.
Stan on the plateau.
