Yankee Jim and the Bitterroot

About time for my bi-monthly blog post…  Well, it’s been a pretty nice spring here in SW Montana.  Had to chase the good temps here and there but nothing to complain about (except ticks!).  A few weeks ago I was pretty psyched on Yankee Jim.  I managed to put down a couple fun new-to-me problems that I’d never climbed at the Locomotives – Mr. Leslie and Lightweight, both V6 and both highly recommended.

But, the main event was across the river – Montana’s Most Wanted.  This amazing problem is on the far west side of the Campground.  It was a fairly under the radar project for a long time before somebody climbed it a couple years ago and officially opened it to the masses.  Pat Dyess may have done it first but he’s a ginger so he is not to be trusted.  I spent one perfect day figuring out the moves and trying it from the start for a few hours.  By the time I figured out the moves I was already worn out so I couldn’t quite put it together.  But, I came back a few days later and put ‘er down first try.  One of the best around!  I finished up the day by climbing a new problem put up by Tony Chang in the talus west of MMW – Genghis Tron V5.  It’s another great problems with an awesome landing thanks to the hard work of Tony (and possibly others).

Lightweight V6-ish

Lightweight V6-ish

Crux move on Montana's Most Wanted V7

Crux move on Montana’s Most Wanted V7

Genghis Tron V5

Genghis Tron V5

 

Last week I was able to get out of town for a couple days.  I’d been wanting to go somewhere all spring with the top choices being Lander or Cody but I’ve been really busy so they never quite materialized.  I decided a quick trip to the Bitterroot was in order.  One day in Lolo, one day in Lost Horse, three goals – Hooray for Boobies SDS V7 (Lolo), Lock Off Lichen Lips V6 (LoHo) and Big Chuck V6 (LoHo).  With a lot of sweat spent and a lot of skin lost (mostly at Lolo) I was able to climb all three problems!  Big Chuck is good, Lock Off is better, and Boobies is another one of the best.  Hooray for Boobies SDS is a couple moves into the best dyno ever followed by one of coolest mantels ever.  What more could you ask for?

Snagging the dyno on Hooray for Boobies SDS V7 (Lolo)

Snagging the dyno on Hooray for Boobies SDS V7 (Lolo)

trying Succubus V7 (Lolo)

trying Succubus V7 (Lolo)

Lolo Rock

Lolo Rock

Big Chuck V6 (Lost Horse)

Big Chuck V6 (Lost Horse)

 

Lastly here a little vid I put together of three Montana classics (mentioned above) that I climbed this spring – Montana’s Most Wanted, Lock Off Lichen Lips and Hooray for Boobies SDS:

 

-EC

One response to “Yankee Jim and the Bitterroot

  1. Hey! I’ve been anxiously waiting for another post. I was probably out at Neat Rock a day or two after your last post. Glad to see/hear of someone getting out bouldering. I’d be psyched to get out and go with you some time! I used to work on V5-7 a lot (and send sometimes), but now more realistically I’m in the V4 range. However, I’m always psyched to try hard and I have 2 pads! I’d be psyched for exploring new areas as well as climbing on the established stuff. Hit me up!

    ~Ian

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s