Soldier Mountain Backcountry

Just a quick post to drop the link for the video from Saturday. I'll post more about the conditions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDMnovLQWSY

Christmas Eve Dawn Patrol

We have skied Freeman a couple of times and other than the brushy skin track down low, the upper section is great. There is some instability on the steeper angles, but we have had no problems on the ridge or lower angle glades.

We have also constructed an igloo to serve as a warming hut for all that tour up there. It is located on the main ridge at about 7200'. The entrance is on the North side and in line with a dead tree, in case it is snowed over. The first video is the construction of the igloo and the second is Christmas Eve's dawn patrol. Click on the video twice to open it up in YouTube.

Hell's Canyon

I wanted to get out and do some climbing this last week and wanted to get out of town. So we went to Hell's Canyon to the limestone and solitude.

There are so many routes here on the beautiful limestone. You can show up with about 20 draws and a 60m rope, everything is bolted. We set up camp with a great view of the river and the limestone.

We went up and climbed on Glass Wall. It's a great place to start since it's close to camp. The weather was nice, but cold. If the weather would've been about 15 degrees warmer, we would have gotten in more climbing.

Glass Wall

Glass Wall has about 8 routes on it. They start at 5.9 and go to 10c. The arete on the right is a classic 10b, which we didn't get to do. The climbs are about 60 feet and are bolted and have great anchors.

On Sunday, we climbed on Big Bar Buttress. It was very cold and I knew we wouldn't be there long.

Big Bar Buttress

Climbing on Big Bar

Chillin' (literally!) while I set up the anchor

Alex Lowe Duathlon

Steve House said that in remembrance of the passing of Alex Lowe on Oct 5th ten years ago, that we should do something difficult. So I planned a "duathlon" on Sunday. Then I recruited another glutton for suffering, Chris. I wanted to do Heinen and Kepros in the same day. Heinen is a 10 mile hike/run with 3,000' of gain and Kepros is almost 10 miles with a lot less gain. The plan was to hike/run Heinen and mountain bike Kepros. Everything went according to plan, since we had figured that we would have to "hike-a-bike" on Kepros.

Heinen has many false summits and a large headwall to start. Once you make it onto the ridge, the going is very pleasant.

We made it truck to truck in 5 hrs 15 min. Not a great time, but we knew that we would only be half done so we tried to pace ourselves. The downhill didn't do my knee any good, either. We fueled up on Chris' legendary turkey-tortilla wraps. Then we drove to Blacks Creek summit to start the biking leg.

Kepros in the distance

The start of Kepros was as expected with us taking the bikes for a hike. On the top of the ridge where it splits to Three Point, it became rideable. Well, somewhat rideable for me. Chris is really good on the bike and teaches me a lot. He was able to ride down some of the stuff I had to walk. He was giving me a good lesson and by the mid-point of the ride, I was doing a lot better on the downs.

Terrific single track!

The ridge turns into a road in a mile and a half. We met a jeep scouting for deer. The jeep drove all the way to the summit.

Trail meets road (me pointing back to start)

Looking at Heinen from Kepros

The ride back went even better because we found a trail that went around the ridges we had ridden over. We made it back to the truck in 3 hours 30 min. So the total time for our homemade duathlon was 8 hours, 45 min. The real purpose was to feel a little enlightenment through exertion...

Swan Falls Bouldering

Swan Falls has more bouldering than you could imagine! Even with the cold today, we went down in the canyon for some bouldering. The rock is bulletproof basalt and there is plenty of steep and overhung stuff. I stayed more on the vertical side due to my non-bouldering weakness!

There is even an abundance of cracks to boulder on. There was a boulder with a 20 foot tall splitter hand crack.

Too bad it is mostly a slab! If it were vertical, it would be a blast. It was still fun and the arete to the left was cool. Grab your shoes and head on down!

Bouldering Gym...

There is a new bouldering gym in town and it's awesome! It's called The Boise Front. We went to the grand opening along with quite a few other people.

The walls have a lot of angles and transitions. There was always room to get on the wall and try a problem. I don't think that they will have a problem accommodating a large number of users. Which is very nice since with Winter coming on, I think we may join up. We have a home wall, but it's not even in the same stratosphere as this place!

The roof section is impressive. I didn't give it a go, but Kaden tried it and said it was hard! There were some animals there that cruised it.

The wall angles back to vertical and has problems that everyone can enjoy. I really liked how they were set. Not just crimpers and dynos. You had to have good balance and your footwork dialed in. I like to figure out sequences and this place didn't disappoint.

They have a separate area for kids and others. They have a nice top-rope rig set up in that area also if your kids don't like dropping from 20 feet up.

They even use the wall that divides the climbing area from the hallway for a traverse wall. I love a good burning traverse!

Pocatello Pump

We enjoyed ourselves in Pocatello and at The Pump. I didn't compete this year, but the wife and kids did. Everyone did their best and Sierra was 2nd in her division.

The raffle was great! Rope rug, Acopa shoes, water filter and more! This was our second year going and I think it's going to be a tradition. I have gone before, but I was really young. Great event and great people!