Anyone up for a cruise up Shoshone?

[Bug]

Anyone up for a cruise up Shoshone?

I will be in Missoula March 14-18. I will bring the rope and rack and lead every pitch if you want. This is open to anyone who can follow 5.7 with one or two 5.9 moves. Blodgett classic. I can also regale you with the climbing history of the canyon on the way up. Or not.

I don't want a huge party, just one climber.

Cheers!

Bug

 

[Bug]

I tried to enter a TR here but when I was just about done, I was zipped back to the CC entrance. Lost the whole thing. So just imagine Blodget in the spring. This really sucks. Is there a time limit or something? It wasn't even ten minutes.

[Bug]

Ahhh, Montana in the springtime!

It didn't take long to find a partner for Shoshone. There were a couple other interested parties but they didn't commit. Joe was clearly into it from the start. We arranged to meet 10 AM Saturday at my camp below Shoshone. I got up there Friday afternoon and walked to the top of Nez Pierce to re-take in the view after about 20 years. I did a lot of climbing in Blodget and the rest of the Bitterroots back then. It was really nice to be back. The`ticks were still there and it didn't help that I was following a small herd of mule deer up the gulley. On the way up, the end of ice climbing season was signaled by the collapse of the Swan slabs iceflow. The rumbles filled the valley. One-ton chunks crashed through the brush in the alluvial fan at the base.

The next day dawned clear and warm. Before Joe got there, a couple of climbers wandered by camp on their way to My Mom's Muscle Shirt and beyond. We talked for awhile about the activity level in the Bitterroot and the local climbing community then and now. They saw one guy at the trailhead so I figured it was Joe. I canceled my solo plans and it was a good thing. I was way out of shape and out of touch.

Joe showed up about 10:15 after being bluffed off the trail by the resident moose and her calf. I liked him right away. He was casual and upbeat. Besides that, he was clearly in good shape and was an experienced climber.

We walked up the talus and skirted the base to the southwest corner where the classic route begins. Joe led up the first pitch climbing smoothly and placing good pro at wide intervals. He seemed to be having a good time. The sun was shining and the wind was light. It was a classic Bitterroot spring day. I followed with a little too much effort and after a short 4th class pitch we coiled the rope and scrambled to the base of the main wall. Again Joe led up through the "crux" pitch and belayed me up.

He was cruising and I was feeling slow so Joe took the lead on the rest of the pitches as well. He followed the cracks up the left side.

The cracks are mostly consistent with a few surprises here and there. My grip was faltering here and there but I was able to climb for the most part. We topped out and ate lunch between Flathead and Nez Pierce with a nice buffer between us and the creek.

The wind had picked up and was blowing the smell of wet snow down from the divide. This was how I remembered Blodget. It will not be 20 years until the next time.

 

 

Standard rack to 4"

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/503/medium/March_17_2007_Blodget_036.jpg[/img

Edited March 20, 2007 by Bug

[Bug]

Hey. Some edit job. I must have been bit by one too many ticks. Or maybe its giardia. Or both. Shit. Don't go there. Its a Frigin toxic waste dump.

[lunger]

thanks for the pics, i dig the climbing in that canyon. have also been forced to detour around a mature moose en route to a.m. climbing there--intimidating creatures!

[Bug]

I never argue with moose. My father used to work for the Forest Circus. He and a very overweight associate were riding little Honda 90's into the "proposed" Rattlesnake wilderness to assess the recreational value. A moose decided she did not like scooters in her swamp and the trail was too narrow to turn around quickly. Dad climbed a tree easily except for busting a gut watching his 350lb friend shinnying up a young lodgepole pine. The scooters lost the arguement. They walked home. Dad said that he was glad it happened because he didn't think it was appropriate to ride the scooters in there in the first place. But the other guy wasn't about to walk.