Durrance Route

Today we did the Durrance Route on Devil's Tower. It was one of the first routes and features a cool (but improbably) leaning pillar. We signed in around 7:15 and followed another couple up (they were far enough ahead to be out of the way though). We took the "jump across" variation, but climbed instead of jumping. Then we spent a bunch of time on the summit relaxing and taking photos (and I stepped on a bit of cactus in bare feet). It was lovely (except for the cactus that really wasn't that bad).

This is the first pitch, the leaning column - this couple was ahead of us.


This pigeon was scrutinizing my belay technique





Dawn on top of the leaning column



self portrait



people watching us



Dawn racks up for a pitch


The belay ledges were luxurious

The final scramble to the top

Feet on the summit

and our heads

cactus foot. ouch


summit handstand




Dawn scoping the descent on the south side (180 + degree panorama)

TMF part II, and Devil's Tower

Part II of the TMF trip report has been posted over at the Wend blog here.
Lots of pics to be seen there.


In other news, we climbed at Ten Sleep a few days (fun sports action) and then headed up to Devil's Tower. We did Assembly Line to the top, then rapped in the dark and a bit of rain. The next day I did Back to Montana and Everlasting with Jake. Then a rest day and we moved our tents up to the Lodge (very nice, Frank rocks).
Today we got rained out from the Durrance route, but still got in a pitch on Bon Homme Variation in the afternoon. We'll try Durrance again tomorrow.


here is a pic from near our first camp.

This is the west side of the tower... maybe in 2 days we'll do one of these routes.

Wind River climbing trip teaser

Dawn and Haystack mtn



Deep Lake, The Steeple is on the leftish, and Lost Temple Spire is hiding in the corner of East Temple Peak in the middle


Another teaser report. This one is from a climbing trip with Dawn into Deep Lake and the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range, Wyoming. We climbed Steeple Peak, Lost Temple Spire, Wolf's Head, and Warbonnet. We also experienced sun, snow, rain, exhaustion, and mosquitos. A good time was had by all.


Wolf's head is the jagged darker ridge


Warbonnet - we went up the NE face left (more of less) the middle of the upper face.



Eventually I hope to get a full trip report up, but I am busy now - time to climb at Tensleep.

Later: as promised, here is a link to the Wind Rivers Climbing Trip Report

the spot track of this trip is here

TMF 2010 part I

The first part of the TMF 2010 trip report is up now, you can check it out on the Wend blog or about the same info on my web page.

There is a mini teaser report here on this blog or on the yogaslackers blog.

More coming soon (I hope).

As promised, here are part II and Part III at Wend

Back to Wyoming

After many miles and less sleep than I normally get, I am back in Wyoming. In between I went to Squaw Valley for the Wanderlust Music/Yoga festival. It was an odd but entertaining mix of a yoga festival, a music festival, and a tame burning man, all at a posh ski resort. Among other things I did a lot of slackline, some Yoga, some AcroYoga, sat in a hot tub on the mountain, and saw Moby, Bassnectar, and the Yard Dog Road Show, and Danyavaad and the Shimmy Sisters.

you can see a small report and some pictures on the Yogaslacker Blog here.
Then after packing up the Prana stuff there, it was off to Salt Lake City to the Outdoor Retailer (OR) show. More Yogaslacking ensued as well as checking out the latest in outdoor gear developments and eating large quantities of various bar samples.

I posted some pictures on the Yogaslacker blog post
From there I went to Maple Canyon for a few days of climbing overhanging cobbles. I was pretty out of shape for that sort of climbing, so I got completely worked. It was great. I also got to see a number of friends there, which was fun. Now I am back in Wyoming, where soon I will head back into the Wind River Range for some alpine rock climbing. Meanwhile I am trying to catch up with my photos and trip reports. I doubt I'll make it, but hopefully I'll have more to post soon.

Meanwhile, the scruffy beard I grew during the TMF expedition was too much to take off all at once. I have trimmed it down to a molestache by now. It is a little frightening, and probably even more effective than my chick deflector glasses.

Too Much Fun 2010 Teaser

The Too Much Fun (TMF) 2010 expedition went to the Wind River Range from July 20-25th, 2010. 6 of us hiked in about 20 miles for our first camp near Arrowhead Peak.

Chelsey, Daniel, and Jason packed into their "tent"

The next day the rain hit when we were about to start climbing. This made things interesting. The rain continued as we recollected our stuff and headed over to Titcomb Basin. It stormed a lot that night. The next day we climbed the S buttress of Tower 1 on Mt Helen and then up to the summit.

Mt Helen from our camp

On day 4 we headed over Bonney Pass and climbed Gannet Peak, then down the N ridge and west into the Wells Creek drainage.

Acroyoga on the summit of Gannet

On day 5 we descended (a little sketchy) to the Green River and packrafted down to in between the Green River Lakes. On day 6 we hiked around the other lake and rafted down the Green River for a long ways, then we got an amazing ride back to our cars. As you can imagine, the gear and miles required for this trip meant that there wasn't a lot of room left for comfort - hence the other name for this trip, a sufferfest. For instance, we had 2 tiny shelters and 2 sleeping bags (added at the last minute) for 6 people and we took hand paddles to save weight. Good times were had by all, but not all the time.

Hand paddling down the Green River with Squaretop in the background

This is just a teaser post, there will be a more complete trip report coming sometime. I'll put a link here when that happens.

As promised, here are some links... to the Wend blog or about the same info on my web page.


link to the spot track from this trip

Windy Mountain Hike Teaser

Another Teaser, this time of a hike into the Wind River Range starting at Dickinson Park and hiking or scrambling up Cathedral Peak and then Windy Mountain (12,539). That night I bivied over 12,000 feet sheltered in a V shaped rock formation. The wind was really high and gusty though and it was cold. I was glad to see the sun the next morning. The next morning I scrambled up peak 12,490 and Mount Chauvenet before hiking back out the Bears Ears Trail. The wind kept the mosquitos at bay most of the time, but also made it cold and knocked over some trees. As usual the views were spectacular and the amount of rock is staggering. In this picture from Mount Chauvenet you can see Cathedral Lake in the middle and Wind River on the horizon on the right (the snowy peak that I climbed last year).I made it back to Lander in time to catch Tartuffe by Moliere put on in the park.


here is my spot track from this trip

a more complete trip report can be seen here