RRC Archives

it's suckin' here right now. rain and storms daily. expect full winter conditions with rain/snow. snow level is at about 9500' and all the routes will be snow covered and soaking wet. have fun. bring skis or snowshoes as the snow is sloppy and not set-up for kicking steps.

forecast looks a little better for next week. We're expecting a late start to the climbing season. use the link captain static posted to keep up with conditions... the blog is from the jenny lake climbing rangers.

it is beautiful here in bozeman and the gallatin is running over 4000 cfs! come here jb, my friend you climbed with in zion is here too - remember danforth?

dmw, ask danforth about the falling knife incident on iron messiah. scary.

also, wild iris is good, local crags are good, sinks is good, just waiting on the mountains to clear out. some friends kicked steps up warbonnet last week, and skied another peak in the area, so it's all good. bozeman sounds good though, we'll have to come for a visit sometime! ya'll should come down here come mid august when the bugs are gone and the routes are dry!

lol i heard about it already. fucking nuts.

do tell

yes - do tell. I want to tick that route next time in the area.

Three of us on Iron Messiah... at the hanging belay after the first crux pitch and where the route has a couple pitches of chimneys... buddy Ryan (zion fire crew guy) is getting into the chimney and happens to have a knife in his back-pocket. Well, it not only works it's way out of his pocket while he's chimneying, but also opens. Then it falls right down the dihedral at Aaron and me at the hanging belay. We think it's his nut tool falling at us so I reach up to try and grab it, realize at the last second what it is, slap it instead of catch it, and it bounces off my hand, then Aaron's leg (hilt first) and then we watch as it spins down 200 more feet to a ledge.

We just stared at eachother for a second to let it soak in, then tried to laugh it off and had a blast on the rest of the route.

It is definitely one of those stories that could have had a MUCH different ending.

Iron Messiah is great, straight forward, you can run some pitches together, and the cruxes are short. The first crux (10c) is not perfectly protected, but the second one (10b) is. The chimneys are protectable and the rock is good except for the last pitch. All the other pitches are 5.8/5.9 so it's fairly consistent and fun. You rap the route, so the descent is pretty obvious. We did it in the dark with one headlamp... yet another story.

any survivors? ski descent?