We're continuing to explore Bozeman's local climbing. One place we happened to visit this weekend was Lava Lake--a bouldering area in Gallatin Canyon.

A bit more than two miles' hike and some minor tallus scrambling keeps this place pretty quiet--as evidenced by the lack of polished holds; even on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we were the only climbers there.

Bozeman, Montana's Spire Climbing Center held its annual Spring Fling competition on Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13.

This two-day event features an adults-only Friday evening competition and a Saturday kids comp.

Over the course of the preceding work week, staff and volunteers strip the gym's entire main room of holds. These are then washed and assembled into routes over the course of 3.5 days (Tues, Wed, Thurs and early Fri). This is done in phases (i.e. one side of the gym at a time) in order to leave as much of the gym open to the public for as long as possible during the setting process.

Because of multiple finger injuries, I did not compete--but instead I worked as a route setter. Over the course of three days, I made 8 routes--each of which took me 3-4 hours to build. (I'm guessing that's a pretty average pace.)

This year, Spire's whole crew created 69 routes. If other setters were working at a rate of ~3.5 routes/ hr, this comp represented more than 240 man hours of route setting alone. That's not to mention all of the time spent stripping the walls, washing holds, fore running and scoring routes, cleanup, etc...

Though it was exhausting, the entire project was extremely fun to be a part of. I took many pictures of the process (below), and wrote an article on the competition for The Bozeman Magpie.

Check out the article here:

http://www.bozeman-magpie.com/thebigmt-full-article.php?article_id=677

And results here:
http://spireclimbingcenter.com/main/news.htm

Mammut athlete, Whit Magro, took second place for the men's adult open category. Good job, Whit!

I started climbing in the fall of 1999 with the help of some of my closest friends. Though we were all teenagers at the time, these guys had already been climbing for years by the time I started. Members of the then young Bozeman Climbing Team, these guys already "knew the ropes" so to speak...

...fast forward 14 years. The Bozeman Climbing Team is still going strong, and many of the original team members--though long graduated from the team--still climb quite a lot.

I wrote an article commemorating the quirky Bozeman Climbing Team for a local newspaper, The Bozeman Magpie.

If you're looking for a light-hearted, quick read, please check it out!

Bozeman Climbing Team -- dirtbag hooligans and and lifelong friendships

• David got a job! And one he really likes!
• We've continued to deepen our interest in jiu jitsu... and
• We cornered a local hero into taking us out to Whiskey Gulch--a bouldering area about 90 miles west(ish) from Bozeman.

It’s funny—whenever I stop travelling, and settle down somewhere for a bit, I also stop writing blog posts. I guess that’s because, in a superficial way, life feels a lot less interesting when you’re bedded down in one location. Whether I’m living in Utah or Montana, I’m less inclined to take photos, and also less inclined to share anything on the blog.