Living The Low Life: Watch Your Cornhole!

The War On Gravity continues! All right, so I haven't put up anything in several weeks, but thats because the climbing season has been kickin' right along. Its hard to believe its almost March already. Well, long story short, the weather's been good and the climbing has been sick - it's been an unbelievable February. I'll let the photos do most of the talking:

I finally got the chance to lead the classic Green Gully in Pine Creek. Long and sustained WI 4 equals mean forearm and calf burn towards the top.

Eric Skinner on a seriously fat Blue Gully right next door to Green.

Gas station Aviators represent at the Unnamed Wall. Yeah Baby.

Blaine Heavner swingin' in the sunshine on The Fat One, WI 3 in Hyalite.

President's Day weekend saw myself and buddies Ben, Pete, and Jeff skiing yet again into Black Canyon Lake deep in the Beartooths. And while this time around I came armed with skis and food that wasn't all Snickers bars, I couldn't help but wonder what the hell I was thinking. We were chasing some ice lines on the north side of Mt. Rearguard that we had spied on our last trip in, and as I lifted my way-too-heavy pack, I knew that we were probably in for another rough weekend.

First Ascent? Who knows, who cares... But we're calling it Watch Your Cornhole anyways.

After skiing up the long, easy trail in beautiful conditions - great snow, packed out trail, bluebird skies - I thought we might be in for a surprise with the weather for the weekend. Wrong. Skiing up and over the steep glacial moraine into the Black Canyon is like entering a different world. Apparently, that world is constantly miserable in the winter. Looking down-canyon for the rest of the weekend you could see clear skies and sunshine, just out of reach. For the next two nights we would be pounded relentlessly by 0 degree temps, snow, and steady wind gusts of 40+ mph.

The beard says it all... Ben Smith freezing his nuts off with massive Beartooth Mountain in the background.

No one really wanted to get out of the tent on Saturday morning, but after some determined effort Smith and I began the long slog up a typically brutal Beartooth gully/scree field toward the base of the route. Jeff and Pete took off to check out the first line, which coincidentally had been soloed the week before by Stan Price in an 11 hour car-to-car push (he's got legs, and he knows how to use them). Damned impressive.

Roping up at the base, we realized we were in for some heavy duty punishment. Every time we had to use our hands for just about anything, they were pretty much already numb. At the top of the first pitch I enjoyed one of the worst bouts of the screaming barfies I've ever had. When Smith arrived at the belay, he sat there for about 10 minutes tucked into the fetal position while his hands went through the excruciating re-warming process. We both admitted that if we could have, we probably would have actually cried.

Not much besides rock, ice, and very cold hands and feet. Smith working up a sweet case of the screaming barfies on the second pitch of Watch Your Cornhole.

We finally topped out the ice line in a boulder field not too far from the summit of Mt. Rearguard. With the wind still whipping, we began the descent, which like the climb itself ended up taking forever. Struggling with finding good v-threads, tangled ropes, and my dumb ass dropping my belay device into the void earlier in the climb meant that we hit the base of the route just as night was falling.

The morning of the hike out, we opened the tent door to find boots, food, and cookstoves covered under about 6 inches of fresh snow that had blown into the vestibule. Pete Dronkers doing some rescue digging.

With headlamps out and the snow and wind blowing hard, we descended the 1000+ feet to the tent. Unfortunately, Ben was dealing with some cold toes that he was never able to fully rewarm, leading to some minor frostbite (who needs those big toenails, anyways?). Sitting in the tent listening to some tunes courtesy of Pete's speakers that he had hiked in, we decided that if the route didn't have a name, we should probably call it something along the lines of Watch Your Cornhole - mostly because four of us dudes had somehow decided that shivering closely in a tent on the backside of a mountain called Rearguard was a good way to spend Valentines Day. Just another example of when keepin' it real goes wrong...

Smith more than happy to be heading for the truck after a gnarly Beartooth sufferfest.

The next morning we high-tailed it out of there, dreaming of warm trucks and non-dehydrated food. And sure enough, as soon as we had descended into the main canyon, the wind died down and the sun came out. Don't get me wrong, both of the ice lines up on Rearguard are really cool climbs, especially if you could somehow score some good weather (probably in the Spring). They're both quality multi-pitch ice lines in the WI 3 range in some of the most stunning alpine settings the Beartooths have to offer. All I ask is that someone slaps me if I talk about going back there anytime soon...