Jackson Mt Bike Ride - August 14, 2010

Our sleep spot for the night. It was 2.5 miles of bad dirt road on Grand Teton National Park land and then we got to 500 ft of National Forest Land so we could camp. You can see the Park Service fence in the background. We rolled into Jackson in the morning and made a stop by Teton Mountaineering and wouldn't you know it they were having a sale and Anja found some half price Patagonia dresses. After that we headed over and found Lane at work. Anja was so excited to see Lane! Lane recommended a bike ride up near Teton Pass so we headed up there while he finished up the work day. We rode up the Old Road to the Phillip's Connector, then down Jimmy's Mom to the Crater Trail. It was a fun quick 1.5 hour ride. Anja riding up the Phillip's Connector Trail
The views from the trail got pretty nice.

Enjoying the ride!Anja coming down the Crater Trail.

Koa and Yellowstone - August 12 & 13, 2010

August 12 we stayed at a KOA and on the 13th we blogged in the morning while it was raining and then headed of through Yellowstone to Jackson to see Lane. Once we got to Yellowstone the weather got a little better and we visited Mammoth Hot Springs, the South Rim Drive of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone hiking down to Uncle Tom's Point, and saw some wildlife in the road.
Anja is hiding out in the van from the rain.
Mammoth Hot Springs - Lower Terrace
Mammoth Hot Springs - Upper Terrace
Sometimes in Yellowstone the road belows to the bison!
South Rim - Upper Falls Overlook
South Rim Drive-The 328 stairs of Uncle Toms Trail
Down canyon
Lower Falls
Lower Falls from Artisan Point

Gallatin Canyon - Skyline Arete on Skyline Buttress 5.6 - August 12, 2010

Since we had a great day climbing on Gallatin Tower we thought we'd try another Gallatin Canyon classic called Skyline Arete, a five pitch 5.6. Since another party was on the first pitch of Skyline Buttress, we opted for an alternative 5.9 start on Ashes of Stone buttress. Anja was grumbling about climbing a 185' 5.9 on our rest day, but in the end she took the lead (the bolts were too enticing).

Skyline Arete was a beautiful, casual climb up a series of juggy towers. Ken led the crux pitch which required squeezing out a small hole at the top of a chimney.

Below: Ken on the crux pitch.


Anja squeezing out the hole.




Anja traversing the ridgeline to the summit.
Summit photos! While technically it wasn't an alpine climb, it had that feel. We had such a great time that we kept thinking "too bad its so cold in MT". Otherwise it wouldn't be a bad place to live!


After the climb we headed north to check out Bozeman. There was a street festival going on from 6-9pm called "Music on Main". Apparently, this is held every Thursday night at least in the summer. The music was great, drinking $2 pints in the street was even better, and we had a lot of fun people watching. MT definitely has some interesting folks, and in some ways seemed like Burlington, VT.

Gallatin Tower - August 11, 2010

We did the standard route 5.8, 3 pitches on Gallatin Tower, which was considered to be one of the best climbs in the canyon. Ken led the first two pitches 5.7, 60' and 5.8 150'. The second pitch was amazing! Definitely the best pitch on the climb. It was steep but offered jugs on the face, stemming options and good jams. Anja led the final 100' 5.7/3rd class scramble pitch. She was underwhelmed by the large loose rocks at the base of the steep chimney. Near the top we climbed past "BBQ ledge" which indeed had several BBQ's which was kind of neat.

Ken leading the first pitch.
Ken high in the corner stringing on the second pitch.
Ken on the summit setting the first rap.
The view from the top was amazing, but it was also a bit chilly. We descended fairly quickly via two rappels and moved on to some 1 pitch climbs.
The summit shot.
Ken climbs a 10a that probably would have been 12a at ten sleep? He placed his own gear though, so I guess that's why it was only a 10a. :)
We top roped a 5.9 and another 10a, and then Anja led a 5.9 that we missed the anchors on. Fortunately, the anchors for the climbs that we top-roped were only about 20' to the left.

Yellowstone Lake and Old Faithful Geyser, August 10, 2010

In Cody we stopped at the Sierra Trading Post Bargain Barn and Anja got some great cords for $2 each.
We stopped at a lake just outside of the East entrance of Yellowstone (near Cody, WY). At this point we were desperately in need of showers and toyed with the idea of going for a swim, but it was a bit too cold!
Yellowstone is a huge park! It was about 65 miles from the park entrance to Old Faithful, and we were going about 30-40mph. The sunset on Yellowstone lake was gorgeous, so we stopped for a few photos.

It was dusk when we got to Old Faithful (though it looks a bit darker in the photo), and we had impeccable timing. There were folks sitting on benches waiting when we arrived, and shortly after we sat down the geyser went off! It was a bit of a surprise to us as there is typically 45-120 minute intervals between eruptions. We'd thought it would be at least 45 minute wait. We were also treated to a pretty good one, judging by remarks from others who had seen previous explosions. Our guess is the eruption reached about 30-40 feet above ground. We went for a short hike around the area, but it was getting too dark to see much without a headlamp. We hope to see more of the park on our drive to Jackson, WY.


There was still another couple hours of driving -- 44 miles in the park, before we found a camp spot. We settled on a spot that was about 25 miles south of Bozeman, MT and about 2.5 miles up a dirt forest service road. It was a bit tough finding free camping in the canyon, especially without a detailed topo map of MT. We went to sleep around 1am! It was a good spot.

Ten Sleep, WY Climbing - August 9, 2010

Anja felt pretty exhausted from climbing Devil's tower the day before, but Ken wouldn't let Anja pass up Ten Sleep's limestone sport climbing that was just off the highway on our drive to Yellowstone. The cliffs were clearly visible from the road, and there were several convenient pull offs beckoning us to park and climb. Ken was also excited to check out a new climbing area. We climbed at Antarctica, Zappa Corner, and Metropolis.

Antarctica had a really cool looking 11b that Anja very much wanted to climb! Well, ok, maybe just the last 15 feet which was pretty steep. But overall it was a pretty amazing looking climb, and it seemed quite popular.


Antarctica also had fairly tall wall with four climbs labeled "5.10/5.11" in our guidebook. We did two of these and then moved on to Zappa corner.

Ken led a steep 5.10-, which was ok but reachy at the top.
Then we moved on to Metropolis wall which had several bolted cracks. It was a bit odd to climb bolted cracks, because there was certainly gear. Ten Sleep is apparently 100% sport climbing. After leading a "5.9" corner (that Ken said was 5.7), Ken moved on to finessing a "5.10d" crack climb. Ken said "it never got narrower than hands or wider than fist. I guess sport climbers have no idea how to rate cracks. It was probably only 5.9 many places." I guess it would be 10d if you didn't use the crack for a single jam?

Both climbs were a lot of fun -- Anja favorite climbs at the crag -- and we had fun with the grade inflation. If it hadn't been dark by the time we finished the 10d crack, Ken would have moved on to his first 12a. :)