Ice Festival

Well, this last weekend My buddy Eric and I entered an ice climbing competition. The basis of it was to climb as many routes as possible in order to get the most points. They gave about 30 routes points based on difficulty and the length of the hike. Saturday we woke up around 5:00am and were driving a little before 6:00am in order to get to the parking lot by 6:30am. We packed our things for a full day of hiking and climbing in order to get going by 7:00am. When the gun went off we started hiking... then we started running... then we slowed down to a hike again... then we were racking up for our first climb.
During the day, we rarely stopped for a break. We were climbing well, moving fast, and racking up points. By days end, we had climbed 8 pitches and taken 9th place out of 13. Not great, but I don't think it's too bad considering this was our first time.
I'll put pictures up if I get some from Eric.
This weekend is studying for finals and finishing up my theory section of the thesis. After that, it's off to Cody, WY to do a few days of ice climbing before heading home for the holidays.

Rock/Ice climbing

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted something. My good.
Well, I haven't been getting out too much, and I honestly didn't think any of these deserved to be put up by themselves, but now I'll throw a couple of little day trips together.
First off is rock climbing at the Gallatin Tower. We just did a couple of routes since it was ridiculously cold. I'm pretty sure we just spent a Saturday afternoon getting in one last day of rock climbing before the ice season starts. It was a pretty good day, but man were my hands cold!
Next up are a couple trips of ice climbing. The last week I've gotten out ice climbing three times. I've been ridiculously excited for ice climbing this year and I don't know why. I shouldn't be because this was the one sport I always told my father I would never do. Whenever I'd think about it it always seemed too dangerous and well.... just stupid (in the words of my father). I can't tell you how many times I've been hit by big chunks of ice or have seen ice columns collapse. I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but I'm just saying that no matter its dangers, it's quite the experience... and it's something that makes me extremely happy no matter the danger. That being said, though, I always maintin that climbing is a mitigated hazard. All I have to do is not climb when it's too dangerous or at least find a safer route or safer protection when it is somewhat dangerous. That obviously doesn't take away all of the danger, but it doesn't make it overly hazardous. I think I have reached a point where I can objectively say whether or not something is too dangerous. This is thanks to all of the routes I've climbed, all of the high mountains I've encountered, and all of the random hazards including bad rock and ice that I've come across. But, as we all know, there will be random events that happen like weather. Oh, all the times I've been thwarted by weather...

Pictures

Life has been pretty boring lately. I've been trying to write my thesis and taking one class. The class is going well, but the thesis is not. I can write when I'm passionate about it, but when a paper is forced and extremely formal I feel as if it is bad writing. Writing about climbing and skiing is all about someone's emotions and love for the thrill... the adrenaline... the scenery. I can live through the scenes again and write down how I felt, and what I saw. Writing about mathematical analysis of prescribed fires I can't really live through again. Weird, I know.
Soon enough though, my thesis will be done and I'll actually be making money. I can't wait.
Aside from that, here's a few pictures from the past couple weeks.

Here's my sister and Olivia at Yellowstone

This is the Boerger family in Yellowstone
Jen and Jake.... how cute
My Pops through the trees in Yellowstone
Another of the Pops... I really like these ones.
A few friends in my backyard. This one is taken for 45 Seconds
Same picture, but for a minute. I think these turned out really well. Since we can't really see their faces it looks more like an art piece that is meant for us to put ourselves in and picture ourselves there rather than just seeing people. I'm going to try these again at some point and see how well they turn out. Maybe try some different angles and times.

Teton Clips

Here are two videos of the climb. This first one is a little sheltered, and hence not as windy. Plus, it's a little early in the morning, so you don't see many clouds. The next video is on the ridge proper, and is extremely windy. That's just as the clouds were hovering around us. You can hear me say I think the wind is 60mph... I was only 35mph under the real wind speed. Also, you can hear me being optimistic about the summit, but we in fact do not make it. We end up just a couple hundred feet shy of the summit.

Tetons III

I need to let you all know that I did have a previous trip to the Tetons a few weeks ago, but it didn't go well from the start, so we didn't even do any climbing... hence it's not up here. But, I did just get back yesterday from another trip down yonder to the motherland of alpine climbing... THE TETONS!!!!
I had been planning this trip with Loy, who lives over in Oregon, for quite a while. She was going to be in the area for a previous engagement, so I suggested she come climbing with me. Since she loves mountains as much as I do, she was in from the get go.
Well, we met in Jackson on Monday night and woke up bright and early (4:30am) to get to the ranger station and get our permits for camping. After that we spent the rest of the day walking around town and drinking a couple beers. You're right, we really should have been drinking water rather than beer, but there's a microbrewery there; we can't resist that temptation. So later that evening we had dinner with some friends of Loy's father. After that, we started packing all our gear to get ready for the hike in the morning. Since I was carrying the tent, I had to wait until morning to pack because we were sleeping in the tent that night. That being the case, I was a little late in the morning. I thought I could pack faster than I really could. I wasn't too late, but late nonetheless.
Well, our permits were for the Lower Saddle camping area between the Grand Teton and the Middle Teton. This is the highest camping area in the Tetons at 11,100 feet. It's a good 8 or 9 miles from the trail head, so we took off early. The hike in was a good hike and both of us were making good time.
When we got to the Lower Saddle, we set up the tent and got everything ready for the next day. Drinking water from the snow melt and cooking some food felt pretty good after the hike. Luckily this hike isn't real long, but it definitely is steep. A fair amount of vertical is had over the last half of the hike.
We would be leaving for the Grand Teton at 5:00am, which means we were getting up at 4:30am. It was dark, cold, and very windy. Ridiculously windy we would later find out. Well, we started hiking and before long we were at the start of the route. The had picked up even more and I was a little worried about the climbing. It's not really exposed, but gusts of wind this high do make a person nervous when clinging to a rock at 13,000 feet. The first pitch is a short traverse to the ridge proper, but has some really good exposure under your feet. A good start to the route really. After this pitch it's roughly eight pitches of climbing with a little scrambling here and there. We were climbing well and made a lot better time than I had expected. Part of this was due to the fact that I didn't place a lot of gear for protection. This means I don't place much gear and it also means Loy doesn't have to take it out. It's all about efficiency.
Almost every pitch, Loy would come up to meet me and ask if I was getting really cold, e.g. hypothermia; and I always said I was fine. Apparently I thought my shivering wasn't visible. She was being a good partner keeping tabs on me. Even if I wasn't answering her properly sometimes, I didn't want her to know I was pretty freakin cold, she still knew how I was doing.
After quite a few cold pitches, we were getting closer to the top and the wind was getting faster and faster. We could also see the cold front moving in. There was a layer of clouds almost level with us heading straight in our direction. As we moved on to the top, we were essentially sitting in the clouds. Visibility was decreasing, both of us were cold, but I still wanted Loy to touch the summit (this is what they call summit fever). Luckily for us, she was smarter than I was and suggested we go down for safety reasons. I had to agree, but it sucked turning around about 200 feet from the top. It takes a bad situation and a good mind to recognize this.
Well, we started rappelling and the wind felt like it was going to throw us off the mountain at times. It would literally knock you over and push you around. Luckily we only have two rappels to do, then we hike the rest of the way. As we got further down we could see we were walking out of the clouds, but not the wind. We were both a little worried that our tent was going to be gone. Winds this high were definitely making me nervous, but I really thought we'd be okay.
Once we got down we could see that our tent was waving in the wind a bit more than usual. Not a good sign. When we got up close, we could see the tent was completely collapsed! It was a disheartening sight. If we couldn't fix the tent with what we had with us, we would have to hike all of the way out. Mind you, we were pretty tired by this point. Well, we look at the tent, and it has holes all over it. Some of the seams are torn, the poles are bent, and there are some good holes. At least the holes in the rain fly weren't too bad...
well, we taped a few sections of the tent, and the poles went back in and luckily held. At this point I'm more than a little nervous that this thing is going to collapse again. I was putting money on midnight. Then it would be dark and make everything harder. Good times. Luckily it held that night and we made plans to hike out the next day even though we had permits for two more nights.
The hike out proved to be very fast and everyone was amazed that we had been up there the last day. "Well, the winds were pretty high, but was it really that bad that these people are amazed?" It was that bad. When we got down we went to the ranger station to ask the rangers what the wind speed was up there (they have a weather station up there). When we drove over there I dropped Loy off and asked her to go in and check it out while I waited in the car since there weren't any parking spots. Her conversation went a little bit like this:
Loy: "We were up at the Lower Saddle yesterday and we were wondering what the wind speed was."
Ranger 1: (amazed look on his face) "Hey guys, we've got a survivor from the Lower Saddle in here." A few other rangers poke their heads out from the back room and all give her a surprised look.
Ranger 1: "Well, it was 50-60 mph constantly with gusts up to 95."
Loy: (amazed look on her face) "Really?! That's crazy."
So, my tent's breaking point is apparently 95mph.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around town and showering over at the friends house. We went and had lunch/dinner over at the brewery and had a couple beers. Quite a relaxing afternoon after all that went down. We had been cold and shivering and bearing 95mph gusts and now we're in a brewery having a couple beers toasting the successful climbing experience. Successful in the sense that we didn't die or get injured.
Loy took off on Saturday morning and I stuck around town for a little bit just taking it all in. I sat at Jackson Lake Lodge in the park and started thinking "when do you really start to question what you're doing? Is it when your tent collapses from hurricane force winds?" Maybe, maybe not. I always wonder when climbing will take me too far, but I imagine I'll never fully get myself away from it. No matter how tiring and crazy it may seem sometimes, pushing your comfort zone of what's possible always puts a smile on my face.

Mt. Cowen Video

Here's a video from the ridge over looking the climb. When you see the highest peak, the North East ridge is going down it. The video follows right down that ridge about halfway through.

Mt. Cowen

Anyone that knows me well enough knows that I often have a "fun" time on my trips. By fun I simply mean that everything is stacked against me. Cowen turned out to be one of those. Good times.
Last summer Tom had suggested that we go climb Mt. Cowen out in the Absarokas/Beartooth Wilderness. This peak is only 11,209 ft. But what it lacks in height it makes up for in pure intimidation. I never expected to feel like I was walking into the Tetons for the first time again. That was pure intimidation. This turned out to be the same.
Since we never got this trip together last summer, I just started making plans and told people I was going and then I would see who ended up going with me. It worked out well because Brandt and Tom ended up coming. We were heading out Friday afternoon when a torrential downpour and hailstorm rolled through. At that point we were all wondering if we should actually go because the streets of Bozeman were actually flooded. We apparently went against our instincts and still decided we would make it. We left Bozeman at 5:00pm and got to the trailhead a little after 6:00pm. We had 8 miles to hike.
We threw the packs on and started hiking at 6:30pm. About a half mile into the hike, it started raining again. We all stopped and put on our pack covers to keep our gear wet, but didn't put on our jackets because we were sweating enough that it really didn't matter. We were trying to hike fast so we could make camp before nightfall. We tried... but it didn't work.
About 2.5 miles in we were going up switchbacks and walked over this crest only to see a grizzly bear just a little ways in front of us. The bear looked at us and then went running off. This area is known to have a lot of bears so we had two cans of bear spray with us in case we did get attacked. Eventhough we did have the spray, it was pretty simple to have the bear just go running off. Couldn't ask for an easier confrontation really.
Well, we kept on hiking, finished the switchbacks and eventually rolled up and over another ridge crest where we got our first glimpse of the peaks as they broke through the clouds for an instant. Just imagine a rough granite peak poking out of the darkest most ominous looking clouds you've seen. We all stopped for a minute and tried to take it all in, but our time was forever getting shorter to make it to camp by nightfall.
We kept on hiking and before I knew it my feet were getting soaked. Oh right, it's raining. Blisters forming... feet getting sore... keep going. We were all getting tired by about 9:00 or 9:30 and just kept on hoping we'd be making camp before long. Carrying camping and climbing gear was just a little too heavy to move fast enough to make it before nightfall and before we knew it we were putting our headlamps on. But, before we got the headlamps on we came upon a little excursion that made us even more tired and possibly a little desperate.
Just as night was falling we were met by the trail going in two directions. One direction looked as though it was closed and the other went across a river. With such a good snowfall year, the river was still high enough that it had taken over the trail and we were forced to cross the river to the other drier side. We walked across a couple downed trees and made it to the other side where we put our headlamps on. We found the trail on the other side, but it soon disappeared. "I'm cold, wet, and we're lost." Not how I envisioned this going. We backtracked, crossed the river again and started hiking next to the river. After about 45 minutes we finally made it back to the trail. It's now about 10:45. We've only got a half mile to go.
We keep hiking along the wet trail and come upon camp a little after 11:00pm. We should have been here about two hours ago if we weren't forced to start late because of a hail storm and we wouldn't have gotten lost. We're searching in the dark to find a place to camp and eventually just put our stuff down in the best spot we can find. We throw the tents up, get our food and start cooking. I start to filter water while Brandt and Tom start to eat. I'm absolutely starving now staring at the lake we're next to pumping water into our Nalgenes. "This could have gone a little better. I think we should have just called the trip off from the get go." Oh well... we're here.
When I'm finally eating, I ask Brandt what time it was and low and behold it's 12:20am. "Wow, this pasta and cheese tastes ridiculously good!"
We pack all our food into a bag and go to find a tree to hang it in. I grab my p-cord and tie a rock on the end to toss the rock up and over a tree branch. I'm way off. Possibly a little too tired to be doing this. Brandt suggests "maybe you should toss it underhand." Alright, here we go. Didn't get it again, but you know what let's just see if we can haul the bag up off this branch. We tie the bag on and start to haul the food. I'm standing underneath holding the bags off the ground while Tom starts hauling the bag from the other end of the cord and the branch comes down right on my head. "Well, this is fun." Luckily a different branch held it and now we're hauling the bag up and tying it off. Finally.
We all go to bed and decide we'll get up at 6:30am and be off hiking by 7:00am. Wouldn't you know it... we didn't get up until 9:15am. What just happened? Well, you need to start the approach for alpine climbs like this one very early because the hike, the climb and the descent will end up taking all day. Since we didn't get up early enough, the climb was out of the question. The last thing I wanted was to be on the peak only to get caught in a storm. While I may be stubborn and try to do things beyond potential sometimes, I do manage to get a good decision in once in a while.
Well, we ate breakfast, looking at the beautiful cirque we were camped in and decided to hike the approach just to look at the climb. So we all grab our cameras and make off for Mt. Cowen (which you can't see from camp). We start hiking up a steep scramble and come up over the ridge and see a couple beautiful lakes sitting in a tight cirque. We are taking things slow since we've got all day and manage to take some pictures, have a bite next to the lakes and then keep moving on up the valley. As we're getting higher, we're coming upon more and more snow. We scramble up snow and rocks, and go past small waterfalls. Brandt stops about halfway up because his knee is hurting him. We leave him right next to one of the waterfalls and Tom and I keep hiking up to the ridge to get a glimpse of the route. As we near the top we start to see Cowen over the ridge and realize the route is still another short valley away. "You mean we would have had to climb two ridges just to get to the route?" Tom looks at me, "I guess so." Then he lets out a great chuckle that signals the full extent of how massive this thing would have been to climb today. If we did get up in time to climb it, we definitely would have been extremely tired by the time we got to the summit and we would have had a pretty big descent to do after that climbing down a snowfield and through a couloir then down to scree and boulders. Fantastic.
We take some pictures and a little video and get the heck off the ridge. We end up basically skiing in our boots down the snowfields and make the descent in about 10 minutes compared to the hour it took to get up.
When we get back to camp, we lounge around and finally realize how tired and hungry we are. We fire up the stove a little before 6:00pm, eat, and are in bed by 8:00pm. You never quite feel like a real man until you are in bed before your niece who isn't even a year and a half old.
We wake up the next day to more clouds and a little rain on the hike out. Luckily it wasn't raining right when we woke up so we could pack our tents while they were dry. When we put the bags back on, we all wince a little bit at the weight and the sore hips from the hike in.
For the most part, the hike out was uneventful, minus Brandt's hurt knee. I was starting to get worried we might have to split up Brandt's weight so he wouldn't have to have weight on his knee, but luckily he made it the whole way out with a little hobbling. When we were most of the way out, we were met by a little rain for the last couple miles. Start in rain and end in rain. Not so bad. It kept it cool, but it also gave me a couple bad blisters from having wet feet.
When we made it back to Bozeman, we pick up some steaks and potatoes and go grill at Tom's place. Oh, don't worry we're basically making the early bird special (4:30pm). That's dinner time right?
We might try this again in a couple of weeks, but we'll see. Not too stoked right now to have another go at it. But, as people know, I'll keep going back for more... sore muscles, blistered feet and all.

Hyalite

Last night I went up to Hyalite reservoir to take some pictures of this waterfall. They turned out pretty good for my first time doing longer exposures. It basically has to be night to take these and then the exposure times were around 20 to 60 seconds. Enjoy!

Yellowstone II

For the fourth of July, Amanda and I decided to spend a few days running around Yellowstone since she had never been there before. She's spending this summer working here in Bozeman with MSU. She works with and helps out farmers around the area. Mainly smaller farmers. She's on a crew that will go help pick various crops, but from the sound of it mainly potatoes. The whole thing sounds pretty good for farmers to get free labor.
Anyways, we went to Yellowstone to take pictures and relax. I was initially a little scared we wouldn't be able to find anywhere to camp, but we ended up finding a spot in the northwest area just south of Mammoth. A good time was had, and most of all, we had good weather.

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