Bitterroot Mountaineering

Casey went first, traversing a cliff face and setting gear while his girlfriend Helena was belaying him and I was watching.

I hadn't done anything like this before so I'll try to explain so you can imagine.  When we were climbing up the rocks the first person set gear as they went to protect themselves in case they fell, then set up a belay at the top so it was impossible for the other two climbing up behind them to fall more than a foot or two.

Casey doing what I just described

However, when climbing sideways on a cliff like we were at that moment it's a little different.  Even if there is a belay, the distance between you and the next piece of gear determines how far you fall.  If you unclip from a piece and the next one is 10 feet away if you fall you'll swing on a 10 foot long rope until you're directly under the next piece of gear, and at least 10 feet down from it.  Scary, right?

Helena coming across part of the traverse

Casey was taking a lot of time time to set extra protection because the traverse was a little tricky and exposed.  At first Helena and I were giving tentative suggestions that maybe he was using an excessive amount...but when I got out to where he was climbing I could see why he put in each piece.  Afterwards he said, "The whole time I was thinking, if I were my sister, and I unclipped from that piece of gear, where would I want the next one to be for me to feel safe?"  Now I would have actually BEEN safe with probably half the amount of gear, he wanted to make sure that I FELT safe.  I was so touched, as I am every time I come to visit him, at how much he cares.  I'm so lucky to have a brother like that.

I remember back when Casey actually felt like my "little" brother.

*Side story!  I was telling my mom about this, and she said, "It sounds like Casey loves his little sister!"  And I was like, "Mom...(waiting for her to realize what she said) I'M HIS BIG SISTER!"  Even our mom forgets that I'm older than him apparently*

He would bug Annie (my older sister) and me to no end, getting us in trouble occasionally.  In retrospect I think that was because it was so hard for a little brother to know how to be a part of this older-sister-basically-twin thing that Annie and I had going on.  We had the obvious advantages that we were bigger and older than him, AND there were two of us.  Observers would remark, "One day he's going to be bigger than both of you!"  I think they were implying that we should be nice to him or we would have to pay for it some day.

Thankfully for us, when Casey grew up (and he definitely has) instead of taking his long deserved revenge he became the sweetest brother anyone could ever want.

I have gone to visit Casey in Missoula several times in the past few years, and every time I go the adventure we have is even more amazing than the last one.  This time Casey decided we would backpack up to a lake and then do the climb to the summit behind it.  I have climbed a couple of peaks but this was my first 'technical' one (which means you gotta have skills and ropes).  

The first day we were planning on leaving but my foot was hurting from the Ragnar a week before.  We decided to stay local and do some straight-up rock climbing (see what I did there?).  This provided a super fun but also restful day for my foot as rock climbing with three is 30% climbing, and 70% sitting.  Casey bought me climbing shoes for my birthday and this was the perfect time to use them before spending the better part of a day in them as we would on the mountain.

Casey and Helena are SO patient!!!  I'm a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to climbing and it takes me a long time to work up the nerve to do moves sometimes.  They coached me all the way up a few routes, helped me get a better handle on stemming, smearing, and taking a few more risks that I generally do (still super safe because I'm top-roping, I know I know...).  It was great preparation and confidence building for the mountain trip.

 Casey and Helena are great climbers!  It was fun to watch them and learn from them.  I think we all conquered a route that was challenging for us and came away feeling great, then made DELICIOUS pizza for dinner on the barbecue (yes it can be done).

If you look close you can see me at the top!  This was a grade up from what I usually climb so I was pretty proud of myself and made Casey take a picture even though he said you couldn't really see me.  He was right.

Casey belaying Helena from the shade

View from where we were climbing.  Why don't I live in Montana again?

The next day by some miracle my foot was feeling better, and we did the 8-ish mile hike up to the lake below Canyon Peak.  As we got to the top there were HUGE granite slabs and exposed faces with waterfalls pouring down them.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  It was also hot...and buggy.  We had a great time but I don't think any of us slept very well sweating to death in sleeping bags we didn't dare unzip for fear of being eaten, and bug sprayed shirts over our faces.  My low point was having a mosquito bite my lip in the middle of the night and having it swell up like I got sung by a bee or something.  Very weird experience, but really, not too low for a low point.

You can kind of see a huge waterfall rushing down the rock face just to the right

The peak from where we camped

The next day we left our packs at the lake and brought our climbing gear up to the saddle where we changed from hiking shoes to climbing shoes.

The view from almost the saddle (and kissing, ew)

The climb up was not too hard and a lot of it was scrambleable, tying in for the more 'high risk' parts, meaning though it wasn't too hard, if you DID fall the cost would be high.

Helena on belay

Helena scrambling

Good example of 'high risk'

Meet the Bitterroots.  Those mountains...

Reenforcing the anchor at the top

We were planning on a simple rappel down but it turned out the person who had set up the rappel stations had a rope that was longer than ours so our 'raps' were not matching theirs.  This meant we had to find out\r own way down.  We rappelled twice, then did a long traverse over to that outcropping of rock on the right, then rappelled another time down to the highest rock outcropping in the snow with trees on it.  The last rappel was off that onto the snow. We had run out of water on the top and had expended a lot of time and energy downclimbing, setting up ropes and anchors, and thinking about the best ways to get down (at one point having to climb back up something).  We were dehydrated and ready to be off the peak, but there was still a lot of steep snow below us.

Mountain anatomy

Helena on the first rappel

The fastest most obvious way to get the rest of the way down was to slide on our bums!  Technically I guess this is called a glissade and I'm sure there are technical things about it, but my raw Alaskan butt sliding skills did the trick. It was a looonnnggg way down and WAY better than a roller coaster!

The hike down was cake, topped off  by cold drinks Casey and Helena had so cleverly stashed in a cooler in the car.  I learn so many tricks from them.

Beat up legs post mountaineering, with bonus Ragnar tattoo sunburn, the outline is still present today.

I think this weekend squeaked by Ragnar as the new top weekend of the summer.  The best part of it was spending time with Casey (and Helena of course).  They are so caring, and thoughtful, and smart, and adventurous, and brave!  I feel like I could never deserve to have a friend as great as Casey, so I feel so lucky that we were BORN into each other lives.