El Chalten 2023: Off to a Good Start

It's been almost a full two weeks since we arrived in El Chalten, so it seemed about time to knock one of these out...

Thus far we've been able to climb a fair amount by Patagonia standards... already 200% more successful than my previous trip! After ~ 24 hours of travel from Bozeman we pulled into town around 10:30pm on Tuesday January 10th where we were greeted by none other than the guidebook author himself, Rolo Garibotti, who was waiting for us at the bus stop. I had been put in touch with Rolo via our mutual friend Kiff and had agreed to do a duffle shuffle of BD gear from the States to Chalten to help the local, all volunteer search and rescue group. Luckily for us, Rolo graciously drove us and our convoy of 7 bags (all between 50 and 70 lbs) the mile and a half to our hostel, the Hem Herhu, at the northern end of town. Thanks again Rolo! 

Owen entering Argentina with style! 

Ben catching up on his beauty sleep at the Calafate Aeropuerto

The impetus for bringing the amount of stuff that we did was to enable us to have gear caches (i.e. double racks of cams, ropes, tents, stoves etc.) at Niponino (the main basecamp in the Torre Valley) and Piedra Negra (an access point at the northern end of the Fitzroy Massif) thus saving our knees the stress of hiking everything to and from town each weather window; brief periods of high pressure between storm cycles which allow climbers to attempt to climb up and down these colossal peaks. The weather for most of December had been rather typical for the area (i.e. “shitting in the mountains”) but we arrived on the tail end of one of the first major windows of the season. While we debated trying to squeak out a smaller objective such as De l’S or Guillaumet, we ultimately settled on just establishing our gear cache at Niponino and headed out into the range the morning of the 11th. 

Filling up at the first spot past the Tyrolean

The hike to Laguna Torre actually felt easier than previous bouts, boosting my confidence slightly, however the approach around the south side of lake was properly sufferfesty which more than made up for the former. After leaving the trail for fear of inadvertently heading up Cerro Solo (my B), we needlessly down climbed and traversed 5th class erosion until we made it back to the trail. Once at the toe of the glacier, it was relatively straightforward walking to Niponino but it still took some concentration to pick the smoothest path up the broken glacier. In total, a journey of 19 km’s, with only the first 9 being on an established trail for trekkers… and the last 10km generally being on horribly loose moraine. 

Glacier Grande with Cerro Torre on the right

Our first views from the Torre Glacier looking at the west faces of the Fitzroy group

After getting to camp, reticence took over as we soaked in the views and wolfed down our dehydrated meals, hitting the hay promptly thereafter. Since the weather was supposed to get much worse by Thursday afternoon, we got up at 6 that morning and hiked to town, getting back to our bohemian hostel by mid-afternoon.

Early light on the Torres. Left -> Right and Bottom -> Top: El Mochito, El Mocho, Cerro Torre, Egger, Punta Herron, Standhardt, and Aguja Bifida. 

First Climbing Foray into the Mountains: The Luna-Luna Linkup

Having been here briefly during the 2018 season, I did not expect to head back into the mountains anytime soon, but lo and behold, an even longer four-day window was projected to arrive the 17th through the 20th. After a couple days respite in town consisting of drinking copious amounts of mate, sampling the sport climbing/bouldering around town, and talking shit with the fellow climbers at the ‘Hu, it was finally time to start prepping for our next mission into the mountains. We all had several objectives we were keen to get on, but ultimately it was pretty easy to get a group consensus on climbing a warmup route on one of the smaller peaks in the Torre Massif (El Mocho or Media Luna) and considering how that went, hopefully trying to climb a rock route up the west faces of either Poincenot, Rafael Juarez, or St. Exupery the following days.

The Hem Herhu hiking team before departing for the window. 

The second time hiking into the Torre Valley the morning of the 16th was orders of magnitudes better since we knew the beta on exactly where to go, had lighter packs due to our cache, and got to share the trail with friends Ethan + Elias and Caleb + Christian which made things more social.

Ethan Berkeland and I cheesing on the hike to Niponino

Round two...

We got to camp before most of the other climbers and were able to snag some of the best tent pads as a result. That evening we narrowed down our choice of route to Rubio y Azul, a 10 pitch/350m 6c up the east face of Aguja de la Medialuna. With a solid approach to the base of the route, we went to bed early although admittedly I was too excited to sleep very well.

View west from our camp @ Niponino. L -> R: Fitz, Poincenot, Rafael-Juarez, and Saint-Exupery

Jack on the approach to Medialuna

The climbing up to the first pillar was enjoyable enough but nothing too memorable, with crumbly exfoliating granite to remind us of where we were. Once traversing up and left to reach the main headwall however, the quality bumped up to 5 stars and the climbing consisted of splitter cracks which can only be described as cosmic. 

Ben blasting off on pitch 3 of Rubio y Azul

Views just getting better and better

Also Ben on the first 6b pitch; some powerful liebacking on less than perfect rock

Cosmic splitters on Pitch 7 (I got to lead this one hehe)

Ben on the very steep 6c crux: baggy 3s and 4s... deceptively difficult pitch.

Ben getting into the stem box and able to finally milk a rest. 

Cumbre of Medialuna! Incredible views of the Torres behind. The ultimate linkup would be to continue the main ridge in the photo and up the SE ridge of Cerro Torre but we are not Slovenian and decided to head down here :)

View of N face of El Mocho from summit of Medialuna. Might not be able to see on this low resolution iphone photo but we could see Ethan and Elias topping out on their route Frader Pisafe and were hooting and hollering at each other from across the way...

As Jack and Ben each took turns tagging the Cumbre, I began setting up the rappels which follow the route for the first few raps but then cut climbers left down the steep face. As can almost be expected on routes down here, we got our rope stuck after the second rap which serendipitously also happened to be the crux 6c double crack. The last thing any of us wanted to do was re-lead (read re-aid) the crux, but after 10 minutes of deliberation on what to do… the rope was no less unstuck, so Jack stepped up to the plate and started climbing up the pitch. Fortunately, not long after Jack left the belay, a trio of rather jovial Austrian mountain guides who had been following us up the route rapped down the pitch and freed our rope from above. Disaster averted!! 

The subsequent rappels went smoothly enough although I think it gave Jack and Ben a healthy appreciation for the seriousness and dubious quality of anchors on the descents around here. One 20+ year old 2cm, single, spirit bolt anchor on a clean, blank slab of granite with no cracks or seems around to put in any pitons for backup was particularly memorable and only made my skin crawl slightly.

Same photo as before but this time with the shadow of the Torres dominating the foreground.

Jack and Ben beneath the N face of El Mocho on the way back to camp.

Aguja Medialuna. The route we climbed starts up the red streak just right of center before traversing left at the top of the first pillar up the headwall and into the curvy chimney to the top!

While on the summit of Medialuna we spotted our buddies Ethan and Elias on the top of El Mocho after having climbed the route Frader Pisafe up the north face of the wall. They stumbled back into camp 20 or 30 minutes after we did telling tales of loose blocks and multiple stuck ropes on the descent… oh joy! Given our collective fatigue from the outing (and the hike in the day before), we all elect to treat Wednesday as a rest day and indulgently sleep in until the intensity of the sun’s heat forces us out of our tents/bivy sacks for the day. We cold water immerse ourselves in one of the many water holes close to camp and chat with Ethan and Elias, ultimately deciding to approach to the base of Chiaro di Luna that evening, and party climb the 750m, 6b+ route up the west face of Aguja Saint-Exupery the next day. 

Polacos camp: due to frequent episodes of rockfall we elected not to camp here although there are plenty of large boulders to hide behind...

Chiaro di Luna starts 30 meters up the black dike which cuts diagonally left to right across the west face of Saint Exupery (center right in photo).

Ben enjoying dinner

With quite the view...

Owen and Jack stoked!

Pano from my bivy with Elias and Ethan visible also settling in for the night.

The morning of the 19th we got up from our bivy at 4:00am and after a cup of instant coffee and some Stroop waffles, started the remaining approach to the route. We were not the first party to get to the base of the wall however the way the other party is going does not seem right. Trusting our gut, we go up a different way and end up on the correct route and in front of the forming congo-line for the remainder of the day. 

Sunrise over the Torres. I don't think this will ever get old tbh

Since Ethan and Elias were obviously only a party of two, they take the lead dealing with all the route-finding difficulties, which Jack, Ben, and I were all extremely grateful for! 20 pitches later and after some of the best crack pitches I have climbed anywhere, I pull through the final chimney pitch and am treated to two condors dive bombing and playing with each other in the updrafts created amongst Aguja Poincenot, Rafael-Juarez, and Saint-Exupery… an incredible sight to experience and the cherry on top culminating a fantastic climb!  

Jack styling the crux of Chiaro di Luna, 6b+

Getting higher... pic of the boys while they follow pitch 7 or something like that

Simul-climbing terrain on pitches 9-10, which takes the climber from the west to the northwest face of Saint-Exupery

Looking north toward Rafael-Juarez and the massive south face of Poincenot.

Ben blasting off on pitch 12

Owen belaying at the phallic chockstone near the top of the chimney pitches (2 pitches from the Cumbre)

Cumbre!

Jack riding the hog

After tagging the Cumbre, everyone becomes a discernable amount tenser. The summit is, after all only half-way and the true crux of the day remains ahead: the descent! We keep our schedule of block leading for the rappels, being very intentional in our decision of either doing 30- or 60-meter rappels down the face. Incredibly, we don’t get any ropes stuck and don’t have to leave any gear along the way… one advantage of choosing such a popular route... When we touch down into the gulley between Rafael-Juarez and Saint-Exupery, I breathe a sigh of relief and am thrilled that there is still an hour or so of usable light. But the journey is still far from over as we carefully make our way down a horrifically loose gully. Eventually it truly is all over and by the time we get back to our bivy, it is completely dark and sleep comes quite easily. We don’t wake up with any haste the next morning but eventually we know we have to hike across the choss gulley between Rafael-Juarez and Poincenot on our way back to Niponino, and eventually then all the way back to Chalten.

Looking back up after descending from our bivy to Polacos

Angles, angles, angles... Ben finding the one angle while hiking out on the Torre Glacier where Exupery looks almost as tall as Fitz Roy and Poincenot 

The Laguna Torre Tyrolean. At this moment we ceased to be climbers and were transformed into very smelly, very haggard trekkers :)

When we finally get back, we are greeted by Hugo, the hostel owner who is firing up the grill. Unbeknownst to us we had stumbled back right before an asado! We gorge ourselves sufficiently while swapping lies with the other climbers before fully crashing. Despite our summit ecstasy, it is humbling to hear of an accident involving three Basque climbers who were swept in a point-release avalanche while descending the Brecha de los Italianos on Fitzroy. One of them miraculously survived but the other two unfortunately are deceased; another sobering reminder of the highest of highs and lowest of lows that the mountains can provide.  

Maxitranqi vibes at the 'Hu

Over the past week, it has been quite stormy and snowy in the mountains but it looks like there may be a brief window to try something early next week! Currently, we have been laying low in town catching up on sleep, calories, wifi, with the occasional bouldering session and some debaucherous, all nighter, climber bacchanals thrown in for good measure! Regardless, the stoke is very high and life is good down here at the tip of the world 😛

Vignettes from Montana Climbing

    After spending the month of May in Yosemite with the Bozeman Toprope Association (BTA), I spent the rest of the summer mostly back in Bozeman working and recharging. I feel like that particular Yosemite trip did a great job of highlighting all of my weaknesses, so instead of writing a post about that trip I decided to sit on it for a while and focus on the local community, areas immediately surrounding Bozeman and also on trying to get stronger. Suffice it to say there were a lot of great days on rock with the homies and I feel like I really got to explore Montana climbing and embrace what is it all about which is the motivation for this post. Below are a sampling of photos from a variety of Montana (?) crags as well as a few excerpts from a couple of profound and fruitful trips!      

Aki or Jonah photo of Owen on The Fugitive, .12b Gallatin Canyon.  

Owen on the gaston crux. Apparently there used to be a crimp at this crux that Timmy Cheesesteak broke off... so now it is probably a little harder :-) 

Jonah building his nest before launching off into a spicy 5.11 down climb which is immediately followed by a pumpy corner (circa pre-bolt). 
 

Neil doing Neil shit while exploring Natty Bridge.

Maddy heel hooking for glory on Run to the Hills, .12 boys.

Lauren stoked while sending the second "Red Arch Pitch", .11+.

The boys enjoying a lovely afternoon on the roof.

Blodgett Canyon

    This past June, I spent a couple of days climbing in Blodgett with my friend Eric. We ended up having a great time and also got to spend two nights with Eric's friends Josie and James in Missoula which was super nice. We played croquet, ate really good but really spicy food, and played Catan. Thank you for the hospitality Josie! It also allowed us the opportunity to shower each night after climbing since over the course of the first day Eric and I removed a total of 20 ticks off of each other... it was disgusting. 

Eric following the crux and final pitch of Timbebinder, 5.11 (bit of a sandbag tho IMO).

Eric on the approach towards Flathead Buttress (circa tick season).

   The next day, we ultimately ended up rapping from the top of pitch three on My Mom's Muscle Shirt since that is the last place with fixed anchors and I was pretty tired from leading all of Timebinder the day before. Already super impressed by the initial 2 pitches which climbed mostly splitters, I was psyched to come back at some later date (hopefully when the ticks situation was more manageable) and finish the route to the top. 

    That opportunity finally presented itself the other weekend when I was visiting my friend Jonah for his 30th birthday party in Polson, MT (an hour and a half north of Blodgett, right in the heart of the Flathead Valley). That Saturday we pressed cider, bbq-ed a pig, drank beverages, sat in the sunshine, and celebrated the start of a new decade with some wonderful people... all culminating in an epic glow in the dark Bocci game and a bonfire to boot! 

    The following morning, my friend Rob and I woke up in the grass of Jonah's front lawn and immediately started the drive towards Hamilton, MT, taking a quick pit stop at Starbucks in Missoula along the way. We got to the parking lot at around 7:30 A.M., and started hiking in a bit after first light which was perfect because there was still a slight nip in the air and I like hiking in the cold...          

Sunlight hitting the south faces of (from left to right) Flathead Buttress, Shoshone Spire, and Nez Perce Buttress.

Beautiful fall day in the Bitterroot!

    Even though I had already done the approach before, we managed to screw things up and ended up on one ramp system too high from where we wanted to be to get over to the base of the south face. After two rappels off of trees (one 30 meter and one 60 meter) we were at the base of the route and amping to start climbing! The conditions were perfect, a dusting of snow in the higher mountains but bone dry rock and tee-shirt climbing temperatures. Rob lead the first, third, fifth, and eighth pitches and I lead pitches two, four, six, and seven. We probably started climbing around 9:45/10 and topped out the formation at a 4:00 which made for a comfortable day start to finish. Furthermore, I was able to send every pitch which I was pretty stoked on (the crux was power-liebacking reminiscent of pitch 4 of Velvet Hammer). Rob sent every pitch he lead which included a wide 5.9 OW which was badass, especially considering he has never climbed a wide crack before!    

Owen in the awkward, left-slanting crack on pitch 7

  

Vibing and recharging after getting the speaker connected and bumping Beyond by Daft Punk.

Rob choosing his own adventure on pitch 8

    The only thing to note beta wise is that we found a pretty major discrepancy between Steph Abegg's descent and ours. It's kind of a running joke in my friend group that if there is a Steph Abegg topo then the route will go seamlessly. While this indeed was the case for the ascent, where Steph notes 3 double rope raps to get down, we ended up doing 6 including redoing the same two raps that we did in the morning before starting the route. I think there probably is a way to get down further skiers left and hike back to the trail which is maybe what the SA beta is referring to but just wanted to give folks a heads up.  

    Additionally, with regards to something that I am coining (for lack of a better word) the "retro-onsight" I am curious to survey public opinion on whether this distinction is important or not.... I've had a similar situation happen once before on Positive Vibrations at the Incredible Hulk this past summer climbing with Fiona. We made it up the first six pitches but bailed at the base of the crux pitch due to lightning and a snow/rainstorm. We waited out the storm under a shitty bivy cave which we dug out under a boulder since we cleverly decided not to bring the rainfly for the tent, and climbed the whole route to the top clean the next day. Technically speaking, either scenarios require onsighting and then once again redpointing every pitch at some point or another without falling, but I get the argument that a true onsight is harder because with a retro-onsight you are more familiar with the climb. Either way I guess it is a flash right?

While this debate is pretty small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, I do think at the end of the day climbing is a sport of semantics so as long as you're honest with what you did I think that's all that matters. Either way, My Mom's Muscle Shirt is a quality line and it is pretty wild that we have something like it in Montana. I would even say a must do if you climb the grade... way more classic pitches than Tower of Innocence in the Beartooths.    

Beartooths

    This fall, the stars randomly aligned last minute for my father to come out to Bozeman for a few days on his way back from visiting our cousin Nate during his NHL rookie playoff game in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was really great to show my pops around Bozeman, introduce him to the BTA crew, and have dinner at Blackbird so he could meet the work fam. Over the weekend that he was in town for, I though it would be fun to do a big hike somewhere and the beaten path quickly came to mind. Seeing as we weren't able to find another group to key swap with and that my dad was coming from sea level and is turning 60 this November, we decided to just hike up as far as we felt one way and then turn around which ended up being perfect!

Owen and Nick posing for a quick photo at Elk Lake. 

     The whole morning consisted of hiking past beautiful alpine lakes, with towering walls seemingly as far as the eye could see! Before this trip, I had done some climbing in the east rosebud area and some skiing leaving from the Cooke City area, but really hadn't ever ventured into the heart of the Beartooths before. It was special to see a glimpse of some new, beautiful wilderness areas and share that moment with someone who I love dearly.

Took a quick dunk in Rainbow Lake and then turned around for a burger and a beer at the Grizzly Lodge.  

Walls, so many Walls! As some one who grew up predominantly rock climbing in the north east, this reminded me a lot of Cannon in NH for some reason and is about the same height too...  

One of countless gullies encountered throughout the hike, all of which look to contain good rock and natural crack features. 

The iconic Bears Face with the still unclimbed Giants Foot to the left above it.

The mighty Lower and Upper Doublets (For scale: the Lower Doublet's face in the photo is ~1,800 feet).

    Seeing the walls in the flesh after hearing all of the lore surrounding the climbing in the area definitely triggered something in me because the next weekend I had plans to meet up with Nathaniel who had just moved back up to Bozeman from Durango for the fall. We had a couple of ideas about where we might wanna climb but after doing some of the beaten path with my dad, all I could think about was the Abbey-Shock route on the Upper Doublet (queue "The REM Cycle"). 

    After feeling satisfied hiking up to what I believe is Rainbow Lake, we decided that we wanted to go see the town of Red Lodge and also dine at the Grizzly Bar in Roscoe MT; two things which I had not done yet since moving to Montana in 2019. After fueling up at the Grizz, we quickly drove through Red Lodge and onwards over the Beartooth Pass. Oncoming traffic, roads with zero shoulder, hairpin switchbacks, and moments of pure blindness due to the setting sun certainly made things tenser than they needed to be on the drive to Cooke City... but we were able to stop at the top of the pass and look over at the ski tow lift and the Bears Tooth tower. Such a trippy landscape being high up on the plateau, certainly one of the more special areas in this world. Glad I got to share it with my dad... 

Pops with his cup of tea and faded pink shorts, somewhere close to the top of the Pass.

The REM Cycle, w/ Nathaniel 

     As alluded to earlier, the following weekend Nate and I end up leaving Bozeman Friday afternoon with the goal of climbing the Abbey-Shock route on the Upper Doublet. By the time we got to the trailhead, it was already zero dark thirty and the original plan of making it to the mushroom boulder near the base of the route seemed unrealistic. After hiking the first couple of miles on the Beaten Path we peeled off in an attempt to find the climbers trail, but in the dark, success escaped us and we ultimately decided to just bushwhack uphill for another hour and find a place to bivy. 

Missed this dude! Nate and I at Treeline, in our element, doing our thing, vibing.

    After a solid uphill push, we realized we inadvertently cliffed ourselves out and elected to spend the night there with a 4:20 A.M. alarm set for the next morning. Longish story short, we both slept through our alarms the following morning and didn't rise until 8:30 A.M. (Whoops).    

Our bivy spot, which ended up being pretty exposed slabs in the daylight with a waterfall coming down it.

Still deciding what to do... dreams of climbing the Abbey-Shock all but distant memories after realizing we had overslept our alarm by ~ 4 hours. 

First light hitting the walls of the East Rosebud. 

    Despite the brevity of plan A, that morning I think we were both genuinely content to just be there in that moment spending time with each other in an incredible place... By the time we ultimately rallied out of bed, our tentative plan was to just get up to the base of the doublets to check out the approach for a future mission. As we were simul climbing kinda legit slab pitches getting out of the drainage which we spent the night in, our eyes were drawn to two features which looked appealing from a distance and our plans quickly evolved into a desire for adventure. The first feature was a phallic looking tower which was enticing, while the other was a ~ 500 foot rock outcrop with nice looking rock and a prominent dihedral system up the middle of it.    

The Upper Doublet (center) with "the Throne" to the right.

    Ultimately we decided on the latter feature, and after leaving all of the bivy kit in the packs, marched off with a few snacks, water, rack, rope, tagline, and a renewed enthusiasm for the day. Our mantra from the get go was simply keep going until we aren't having fun anymore (but with Nathaniel that very rarely happens :). We also had a full rack of bootied stoppers and webbing and the fact is, the throne is not that tall so we were confident we could bail at any point with 3 raps max to the ground which kept the mood light, at least for me...   

Death gulley between the two doublets. 

Hail to The Throne!

    Reaching the base of the formation was simple enough, with the only real technical bit being transitioning from the death gulley to the slabs beneath the UD. We quickly deduced that the gulley between the throne and the UD was a viable descent option (if we were to make it all the way to the top) and thus set our minds to carving a path up the virgin terrain.

Nate styling pitch one with the the UD looming above.

    As we got closer however, we could see that the left facing corner we first identified was guarded for 50 feet at its base by a band of less than desirable looking rock. Rather than faff around trying to get to the good rock in the corner above we decided we would climb the slabs on the left and traverse into the face higher up. I think we roshambo-ed for the first lead, but either way Nate took us up a full 50 meters to a small semi-hanging stance at the base of an arête. A fun, somewhat balancey 5.8+ pitch on decent rock; while following this pitch I happened to hear several large rocks ricochet down our descent gulley but was able to compartmentalize that information for when it might be useful later.         

Nate following pitch two with East Rosebud Lake in the background.

    I take the lead and traverse right past a super clean but super steep open book style corner which looked 5.12 from the base. I didn't really even entertain the idea of going up the corner so I traversed onto the face proper and ended up doing some fun 5.10 moves to establish myself on a sloping ledge below a confluence of overhanging finger cracks. When Nate got to the belay, he was rightly a little bitter that I lead such a short pitch so I agreed to take the next lead as well. 

Unfortunately the only photos I have of the 3rd pitch are screenshots from videos.

Another still from a video. You can see the intersecting finger cracks pretty well in this.  

    The third pitch began by pulling the overlap right above the belay. From here I actually traversed further out right on knobby face holds with a descent red C3 and a marginal brassie to another stance where I fiddled in a .2 X4 in a solid but flaring crack. I then proceeded to attempt boulder problem-esq moves to pull the small bulge. After several iterations going up a little, going back down to the stance, going up a little etc. I finally commit to the moves and end up taking a 20 footer onto the .2 which thankfully held, allowing me to remain super gripped but unscathed. 

    It takes me two more tries and two more falls but I finally refine the beta and calm my nerves enough to execute the sequence which puts me roughly right above the pitch 2 belay and clocked in at around .10+. Above me lied a finger crack feature which was split in two via a large, questionably attached flake. Feeling emotionally spent from the previous whippers, I resort to delicately C1-ing through this section pulling on a green and purple C3 respectively and build a belay in a corner. We end up hauling the pack for pitch 3 allowing Nate to try hard for the send which he executed beautifully... Nate called it 5.11 a/b which seems about right. Psyche was high!

Nate hanging out after snagging the first free ascent on the third pitch. 

    Nate continued up the corner, traversing right to avoid a false summit and ended up deciding to move the belay real quick to get to a better stance which I certainly appreciated. He then headed up through a loose chimney feature which I managed to fall on while following... and built a belay right on the top! 

Nate leading us towards summit glory.

Well, actually one more pitch...

The final 5.9 pitch chimney which tops out on the summit of The Throne. The top right steeper bit is where I took the whip following, but luckily Nathaniel sent!

Nate steezin.

Bonkers!

Nate about to begin the descent while being dwarfed by the massive Southwest face of the Upper Doublet.

Summit Selfie

#sorrynotsorry

       

    After reveling in the sun and enjoying being surrounded by massive mountains, we continued on with the descent by traversing skiers right which funneled us into the gulley which we noted earlier for our descent. We were able to scramble pretty far down into the gulley but ultimately it seemed prudent to build an anchor and rap the final 50 meters into the gulley proper. On the way down, we ran into a local who was most likely the cause of all the rocks we heard pin-balling down the gulley during the day (see videos).   

Nate rapping into the gulley.

    Without any hiccups, we quickly got back down to the base of the route where I had stashed my hiking pole and continued following our friend back to where we had stashed our packs. 

The REM Cycle, 5.11 a/b 150 meters (First Ascent: Nathaniel Bowen and Owen Silitch, First Free Ascent: Nathaniel Bowen). Something to note: we later conferred with active Beartooth climber Justin Willis and learned that the name of the formation was called the Throne and that the big corner was climbed by Chad Chadwick "way back in the day". 

    To Nathaniel and Goat, thanks for the memories dawgys... A day not soon forgotten that's for sure! Had a great time out there livin' with you guys.  

Peace