old routes, new eyes

by: Jeff Shapiro

By KAVU

March 19^th, 2019

blodget Canyon

One of the reasons I moved to Missoula, Montana was for the remoteness and the adventure that can be easily found in the surrounding mountains. The Bitterroot range is no exception. Rock buttresses and towers line creeks that flow out of a wilderness that if you walked into facing west, you'd likely not see anyone for weeks.

timing

My friends, Justin Willis and Mackenzie Moore wanted to go into Blodget canyon to have a look at a "classic" rock route that very rarely gets climbed. In fact, being here for more than 20 years and being pretty tied into the climbing community, I've only heard of someone going out to climb it once. The reason being, "Lee's crack" has a well founded reputation for suspect rock and for cracks that continually seep water, creating lichen and moss covered surfaces within the chimney which, is it's defining feature.

For us, this became intriguing because, as a winter route, that might mean that the cracks would be filled with ice! Classic mixed climbing in the Bitterroot is hard to come by and, because the walls are almost all south facing, the conditions, temperatures and time of year all had to line up perfectly.

Gotta go to know

We skied into the canyon which, made for nice progress over what's typically a talus or, boulder field. Once on a ledge system close to the base of the route, we put our crampons on, geared up and rappelled off a tree on the ledge to drop another 100' into the base of the 1st pitch and the beginning of the chimney. Not sure what we'd find...... we were beyond psyched to see that within the darkness of the wide chimney slot, there was perfect water ice!

No better way to start our route!

rock, paper, scissors

Justin and I "Rochambeau'd" for the first lead. Luckily, my scissors cut his paper so, I got to get us started.

The chimney was awkward and a bit physical but, really interesting climbing and really cool! To climb deep inside and then have to wiggle back out, around a roof and a large chalk-stone made for some serious hooting and hollering!

We were making progress and were amazed to find exactly what we were looking for!

I'm not sure how Mac climbed through that chimney wearing our pack but, he was a champion and is one of the best rock climbers in Missoula. Being that he'd not done much mixed climbing certainly didn't show as he and Justin came up to my belay with skill and smiles!

The next pitch also had thin ice tucked into the corner system and with a roof above, Justin skillfully made progress one move at a time, gaining us more height toward the top of the route. Carefully placing his crampons on rock edges, he worked his way out of the corner and onto some delicate face climbing. It was exposed and had tricky gear but, after some tense moments, he yelled "off belay" and we knew our momentum was intact!

While Mac and I climbed up behind Justin, some big, loose blocks of rock were dislodged that made for some heart pounding moments. This route was certainly living up to it's reputation for adventure!

kavu day

Mac lead the last pitch which was almost all rock (and a little snow). It was cool to take off our crampons off and work our way up a classic pitch of crack climbing in our alpine boots. Even though the route was only around 500', the entirety of the adventure was super satisfying and felt like a long day out.

But for me, a long day out with good friends in the mountains is about as KAVU as it gets!

it's always now

We rappelled off the route in the fading light of an awesome day and tried hard to remain present, and to remember to be grateful for our "here and now".