robertm

Yes, I did climb with MVS. I know we ran into each other a couple of times. VW in Redmond and maybe the Bugs...

Dan, I live in Bozeman (lived in Seattle for 20+ years). I agree with what others have said here... I haven't spent much time in Driggs/Victor except on my way to/from the Tetons. I would say that Victor/Driggs area is really up and coming. They (Driggs) just got a new climbing gym that looks nice. You are close to skiing at JH and GT & Tetons!. Close to Yellowstone and the weather is probably a lot more mild down there then up here in Bozeman. With BZN being a college town there is always a lot going on here - both good and bad. Lots of climbing -- ice & rock minutes from town. Skiing is great -- in general you need to like winter to live here. They are long! We get our first below zero cold snap and snow in October and snow sticks around from October usually through April. Bozeman (or BozAngeles as locals are calling it now) is getting very pricey -- even the restaurants are charging Seattle prices. not sure what is driving our popularity -- but usually a couple of winters here creates some turnover. Happy to talk specifics if you shoot me a DM.

That descent from Sherpa to Argonaut col cost me an unplanned night out too. Very long descent with lots and lots of rock ribs that you go up, over and down. I think the best bet in hindsight is to descent down the 3rd class gully directly from the summit to the west towards Ingalls creek. Descend this until you are below the major rock ribs -- probably 1500 feet. Aim is to be about 200-500 feet BELOW the col (targeting around 7000 feet to contour). This looked like it was the best path after experiencing the alternative. I think Peter Croft stayed close to the crest from what he recollects but he did say that that traverse was one of the slowest that he encountered.

sweet. I need to get mine done... I heard Black Diamond will just resling and not clean / lubricate

Nice! Bear is a lot of work... I can only imagine how much worse the "trail" is from when we did it back 10+ years ago!

Amazing photos! Thanks for the inspiration.

Trip: Inspiration Peak - West Ridge Date: 7/29/2015 Trip Report: Climbed Inspiration and McMillan both up their west ridges on Wednesday 7/29. Glaciers are in rough shape -- needed to approach Inspiration from far western (left side) of the glacier. Moat proved to be the crux getting into the gully with much loose and minimal protection. Upper three pitches are spectacular. Wanted to get on the east ridge but large bergschrund and several slots blocked the way. Access appears to be possible by a committing rappel from Mac/Inspiration col. Current view of Terror Glacier - we needed to access from far left edge of photo at 6500' straight across to west ridge. The Money Pitches Looking back at the west ridge gully and route. Crux was accessing the gully from snow finger across moat. Gear Notes: Glacier gear, small rack to 2" & some extra webbing. Approach Notes: Trail in great shape. We took 6 hours to high camp with several breaks.

Anyone been up to Inspiration lately? How does the glacier look? Headed for the East Ridge -- any update would be helpful.

No snow on the ridge and you won't need crampons or Axe to get to lower ridge from Goat Pass but you will have to go down the loose dirt moraine.

Depends what you mean by "in" -- it will go. Two chockstones on the route require some mixed climbing with marginal rock pro -- 5.6 or so. Some mid-waist wallowing interspersed with firm two dagger action. Lovers Lane is mostly drytooling. Summit pitch is dry rock to corniced ridge with two raps down the SE side.

I was up there on March 9th and climbed The Kone -- maybe one of the few winter ascents :-) . We had to stop the low clearance car due to snow about 4 miles from the trailhead up to 3 O'clock rock. (there was about 3 feet of snow on the road) The rock was bare and dry once we got to it... it has been a few weeks so I am sure that you could drive much further in now... maybe to the TH. From what we could see of the road it looked good. There were a couple of smallish trees across the road 3 miles in that could be taken care of with a Ax. All Culverts looked good.

Eric, check your PM(s)

I am leaving Seattle early Sunday -- probably ~5:00 AM and driving up to WA Pass to climb Liberty Bell. Plan is to meet up with the first ascentionist and climb the route. PM me if interested --

Thanks to Hamballs! Ice Axe Found!!

there was plenty of wire there last week with a full lot -- they built two newish bins and it had piles of it along with new fence posts. Thanks for snagging my Ice Axe when you are up there :-)