Sunday, September 6, 2009

And The "You Guys Are F#@*in' Nuts!" Award Goes To...

Just wanted to throw out a quick shout for the gnarliest alpine push that I've heard of this season. Last weekend Ryan Wakowski and Ben Smith finished their week of hooking logs on a Friday afternoon/evening, and decided to charge a big line in the Bugaboos. Driving all night from Missoula, they crashed out in the Bugs parking lot for a few hours and hit the trail at around 4 a.m.

They blazed up to Snowpatch spire and proceeded to climb the S.E. Ridge route - to the tune of 19 pitches! True to form, Smith dropped his headlamp into the void, but fortunately for their asses they ended up not needing it as they topped out before dark and made it back down with time to spare.


The S.E. Ridge of Snowpatch Spire roughly follows the left skyline in the picture.

Apparently, it wasn't enough to call it a day and crash out in the hut. They then hoofed it all the way back to their truck and proceeded to drive all night back to Zoo-town, hitting the valley at 5 a.m. That makes it roughly a 36 hour straight push doorstep to doorstep! From Montana. Holy shit. Congrats, guys - that's officially bad ass, and you're officially crazy.
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1 comment:

  1. rckymtntravlerSeptember 15, 2009 at 11:32 PM

    What up Phil, That makes my push up Long's looks like a walk in the park. Hey that shitty skirt you traded me probably saved me about 5 min of hardcore beatdown. I ran Gore Canyon for the first time (mostly blind) and dropped into Pyrite, on top of the nastiest hole I've ever seen. Terrible line! but the skirt imploded and I subbed out- thank god. Look the run up on youtube or just extreme colo. kayaking- although most of that stuff is out of my league.

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