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.

More Beehive Basin

Beehive Basin

Before I update you on the Beehive Basin trip, I need to inform you of other events also. The first one was doing a triathlon with my Pops back in Rapid City. We decided to do a team event where I would swim, my friend Dave would bike and my dad would run. Dave and I weren't necessarily well prepared for this sort of thing since we decided to do it about a week or two before the race. Not exactly good training time. Pops, on the other had, had been training for a while and was in better shape than us. We just need to get him swimming like mad and he'll rock these triathlons in no time. Well, we ended up doing pretty well in it and actually got second place in the team category! Not too shabby. Next year we'll get first.
Next up was a little bit of time spent in Big Sky for the annual Western Agricultural Economics Association's meeting and conference. This would be my first time going to a conference of any sort, nonetheless an economic one. It was a sign that I should be growing up and making progress towards a career. I feel like it's coming right up. I'll save that for some other time though. Well, the conference was actually pretty good. Good food, good speeches, and an excellent area.
This is a fairly big conference and had people from all over the U.S. I ended up meeting quite a few people from different areas. And I can now say that economists might actually be a little more dry than accountants. I know you'll like to hear that Pops. It was quite the realization. At least I add a little bit of excitement.... kind of. Mainly professors just try to ignore me when I come in with a bloody face....
Well, to get on to the good stuff; I went to Beehive Basin right next to Big Sky and did some climbing/skiing. It was pretty amazing and for once had some really good weather. There was barely a cloud in the sky. Tom came down Friday night after my conference was over and we camped along the road taking in the amazing scenery of stars that night. It was amazingly clear. We woke up at 5:00 am, finished packing the gear and took off on the trail by 6:00 am. We were carrying our skis, ski boots, ski poles, ice axe, crampons, rope, climbing gear (cams, nuts, quickdraws), and some food and water. The night before we decided the 12 mile round trip, a climb up a couloir, a 6 pitch rock climb, and a ski descent of another couloir would take us about 12 hours on the upper end. We were a little off.... with food, water and time.
When we started hiking at 6:00 am it was fairly light out. A somewhat welcome sight. It was good we were hiking in the light, but it was not fun hiking that early. As much as I like alpine starts, I do enjoy at least sleeping until 8:00 am. The initial hike up was pretty straight forward and didn't offer any surprises. It's an easy hike with not much incline the whole way on a good dirt trail. The trail goes right next to the river draining the area and offers a nice subtle background.
Of the 5.5 mile hike up to the base of the climb/couloir, only about 2 miles was on dirt. There was still enough snow that we hiked about three miles on snow! When we got up to the base of the South East Couloir, we got the rope, crampons, and ice axes out to start the climb. It wasn't too bad of a climb, but it was just a little bit icy since it's in the shade most of the day. When we got to the top, we were sitting directly on a knife edge ridge. This thing dropped off on both sides of you making for a lot of exposure. While the climbing wasn't necessarily hard, having skis and ski boots on the backpack and having that much exposure did make the climb very interesting. While we were switching the snow gear for rock gear, we started to put the sunscreen on because it was beating down on us. We had been in the shade most of the day, but now that we were on the ridge, there was no hiding from it.
When we set off on the ridge, the climbing was very straight forward. We had no route description nor had either of us climbed it before, but we just kept on going and hoped everything would work out. We managed to get ourselves scared a couple of times because of snow on the route and because we thought we might be off route because the climbing was getting harder. That wasn't really making us feel any better, but we did manage to stay on route as best as I can tell. Aside from the climb, we had awesome views from every vantage point. We could look in every direction since we were on top of the ridge. Absolutely great sights!
Once we made it to the top, we made our way off the back side and heard that this was a scramble down a couloir. Well, because of all the snow and ice, this was not an easy scramble. We downclimbed a little chimney into a snow chute, and then scrambled lower to a snow filled couloir. That downclimb took us a very long time.
Once at the bottom of that couloir, we made our way another 200 feet to the ridge and looked down into the South West Couloir we were going to ski. It felt great to finally make it to that point! The packs were so heavy and hiking and climbing all of this in one day was quite a chore! With a little food and the last of our water, we sat staring at the couloir and getting ready to ski. Tom went first since I lead the other couloir. When he dropped in he immediately set off a wet slab. He turned right into it and I thought he was going to get taken down by it, but he skied away from it. We both sat there looking at each other surprised that this wet slab was as big as it was. It took quite a bit of snow with it, and while he skied down the rest of the way, he was still setting off other sections. When he got down it was my turn and I did the same thing! The slabs weren't as big as his, but we were setting these things off constantly! I had never seen anything like it.
Once we reached the bottom, we could keep skiing out for a couple miles until it turned to dirt again. By this point we were absolutely famished from having eaten a couple clif bars during the day and we each had two liters of water... which had been gone for a little while. While heading back you hear the roar of the water draining all of the snow melt down the valley. It was a horrible reminder of how dehydrated we were. After putting the skis back on the pack, I finally succumbed to temptation and drank straight from the river (we didn't bring a purifier). Luckily I am not sick, but that could have been a bad scenario if I did.
Well, we finally made it back to the cars at 8:00 pm. 14 hours later! It was something else to go that far and do that many things. I did enjoy all of the climbing and skiing, but I was absolutely spent by the end of the day.

Yellowstone/Tetons

Well, I have somewhat disappointing news. I know, I know, not what you wanted to hear, but I'll say it anyways: I didn't go to Utah. I ended up calling the trip off because I was extremely unmotivated to do anything after I took my exam. So... instead of going to a marvelously warm climate, I decided to go to an even colder one. Not the best decision I've ever made, but I did have a blast.
My initial intention was to go by myself and spend a few days taking pictures and wandering around, but there was a bit of turn of fate. Brandt recently moved up here and has been unemployed. By choice. He's just having a good ol time wandering around and doing nothing. Much like I was about to do, so I told him he should come along.
I took my comprehensive exam on Friday and left for Yellowstone that evening. I'm currently living in my car, so it's very easy to pack. I drove down that night and was instantly greeted by passes being closed because of avalanches and avalanche danger. I realize this sounds crazy... and that's because it is. When it's June there shouldn't be so much snow that avalanches are running across the highway. But on a lighter note, global warming's a myth. There I said it. I'll expect comments from everyone on their take. Pro or Con. Just put down something short.
Well, After spending all of Saturday sitting in the same chair next to the fireplace at Old Faithful Lodge, we decided it might be time to move on. So Brandt and I went down to the Tetons with hopes of better weather.
Even though the Tetons are South of Yellowstone, that doesn't mean anything... apparently. It was still cold and snowy and rainy. It was a smidge warmer, but that really didn't matter. It was cold enough that the couple degrees warmer it was really didn't do anything to make me or Brandt feel warmer. But, we did get a little break in the weather for a morning where I got a few pictures.
When we initially got down there on Sunday, we went all the way to Jackson to go to Snake River Brewing to have a couple beers to celebrate Brandt's birthday! It doesn't get much better than that. Having some good beer with good company is one of the greatest things ever! And I was that great company for Brandt, as was he for me. That night we kept the tradition together and stayed at this pull-off I've always stayed in in the Tetons. I point it out to everybody. It's almost my home away from home. I mean, I've been there every summer at least for a week. Same spot every time. I do switch it up once in a while and stay at the climber's ranch, but for the most part I stay at the pull-off.
On Monday we had some good weather in the morning, so we took off to the park to take a few pictures. It didn't last long, so we went to the Jackson Lake Lodge and had a few drinks... and then a few more... and then we ended up being there for about 9 hours! I don't know what happened in all that time, but we did have an awesome waitress that we talked to a lot when there weren't many people in the bar. So we ended up spending a lot of time reading, drinking, and chatting with the waitress. It was quite a day.
Finally on Tuesday we decided it was time to head back to Bozeman because the rain and snow was really getting annoying. I kind of wanted some spring weather. Or, oh I don't know, some summer weather... since it's summer. When I was driving through Yellowstone heading back to Bozeman, there was a little break in the weather and I got a few pictures. Not too many pictures but I got a few.
All in all a very good trip to get me relaxed before I dive head first into my thesis. Oh yeah, I passed my comprehensive!!! Now all I have to do is finish the thesis and get the heck out of here to actually make some money. Probably won't happen until January or so, but it's at least something to look forward to.

Devils Tower - Not This Time!!

Well I tried as hard as I could, but sometimes the weather wants nothing to do with it. This is one of those times. We initially went to the tower and were greeted by snow. Yes, it is May. You wouldn't guess it from the snow coming down though. Our next attempt was thwarted by rain. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that wherever I go an epic adventure will unfold where weather is definitely a factor. Stupid weather.
Since we couldn't climb the tower we went over to the Hills. We still climbed through the snow there because we were clipping bolts and not placing trad gear that would slide out because of ice. It was so cold that I would lead about half of the pitch, have Jason lower me, and then he would climb up and finish leading. It took a long time just to get one route done. Quite monotonous, but we got a few climbs in nonetheless. The next day was amazing and we actually had good weather. We decided to not go to the tower because I thought the cracks should have a day to dry out just to be positive they weren't icy. The last thing I wanted was to climb up, place a piece of gear and have it slide out because of ice. Not fun.
So we spent what time we had climbing in the Hills and not at Devils Tower. Oh so very depressing. I was really looking forward to climbing there, but when you get shut out you get shut out.
I'm now back in Bozeman studying for my comprehensive exam. I failed it the first time, but I'm determined to pass it this time. Passing it the first time would be great, I know, but I didn't... so here we are. So I take that on June 6th. If all goes well, I'll be taking the next week off and going to Utah to do some climbing and canyoneering with old firefighting buddies. I'll keep everyone updated. There are going to be some good trips this summer.








This is Jason coming up on pitch three of White House Wall. This climb is directly behind Mt. Rushmore. I'm taking the picture and we're about 400 feet above that road you see below.