The West is Heaven

My dreams of moving west are once again reignited after a brief visit. I spent the last 10 days in Montana, just north of Yellowstone and the Wyoming border. First, Wade, Erin, and I attempted to climb Granite Peak, Montana’s tallest peak, then we did a little climbing around Bozeman. Taking a shower has never felt so good.

Granite Peak is 12,799 feet. It presented us with a formidable challenge. We camped the first night at roughly 7,000 feet in a nearby valley. The second night, we camped at roughly 12,000 feet on the Froze-To-Death plateau, where I got my ass kicked by the elevation. A few advil, several hours of sleep, and lots of water later, I felt good enough for our early morning start. The third day, our summit attempt, started at 3am. We hiked the last mile or two to the base of the mountain and began our ascent. At the notch just below the triangle snow patch, Erin got sick from elevation so we watched the sunrise and then hiked out.

From Granite Peak, we moved further west to the Bozeman area for some rock climbing. We spent the first two days climbing in Hyalite Canyon at Practice Rock. I did my first trad lead there! As the rock’s name suggests, we got some really good practice. A bit of rain sent us further south and west of Bozeman to Gallitan Canyon for our last two days of climbing before retuning home to Minnesota. In Gallitan Canyon we surprised ourselves by climbing two big multi-pitch climbs: Gallitan Tower and The Waltz. Gallitan Tower was a 4 pitch climb to the top of a pinnacle overlooking the river and canyon. We did the first 2 (of 3) pitches of the Waltz which is a three tiered cliff across the river from the Tower. It was awesome. For more technical information on the climbs, the Falcon Guide’s Rock Climbing Montana is very thorough.

So my writing does little justice to the overall amazing trip, hopefully the photos that I get uploaded will do a bit better.