Black Hills

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mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 10, 2014 - 08:43am PT

From around Spearfish.

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 10, 2014 - 04:58pm PT

Climbing the Goldstone-Kamps on the west side of on the West Side of Spire 4 in the Cathedral SpiresTake a few big pieces for the second pitch.

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 10, 2014 - 05:43pm PT

supposed to snow several inches tonight, but about a year ago on Oct. 4th we got the mother of all fall storms. We got 3+ feet in one day in spearfish and upwards of 5-6 feet in the upper hills. We ended up skiing rocky terrain after just one day of snow with no previous base. Trees took a major hit as they all still had their leaves on.

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 11, 2014 - 08:37am PT

M-Hill

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 11, 2014 - 01:38pm PT

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 12, 2014 - 07:23am PT

Looks like there must have been upwards of about a foot of snow on Crow Peak today.

ionlyski

Trad climber

Kalispell, Montana

Sep 12, 2014 - 07:26am PT

Speaking of snow Mike, when is generally the end of the rock season at Devil's? Is it the same too for the Needles area?

Is early November too late?

Arne

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 12, 2014 - 09:00am PT

Never too late at the Tower as long as the Sun is out as it is really in a desert environment so it is often quite warm on the south face if it is sunny any time of year. The needles, on the other hand tend to get too cold for me by the time the Temps don't get much higher than the mid 40's. Seems like you are often in the shade belaying and the Needles are a thousand to two thousand feet higer in elevation thatn the tower.

That being said the Black Hills are very inconsistant with when winter comes around permanently for the year. Some years it is very warm well into December with no snow and other years, like last year, we get huge storms that dump many feet of snow earlyn and it may stick around for the rest of the year which really cools thing down a lot.

Wyorock man and I are meeting up there tomorrow. Sounds like sixties and summy. Let me know if you want to meet up sometime. Check the weathere a few days to a week out, but fall is the best time to climb. Mike

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Sep 12, 2014 - 09:47am PT

Your reference to "the Tower" got me to thinking - it's kind of fat for a tower.

Wiki:
Tribes including the Arapaho, Crow, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Lakota, and Shoshone had cultural and geographical ties to the monolith before non-native Americans reached Wyoming. Their names for the monolith include: Aloft on a Rock (Kiowa), Bear's House (Cheyenne, Crow), Bear's Lair (Cheyenne, Crow), Daxpitcheeaasáao, "Home of bears" (Crow[6]), Bear's Lodge (Cheyenne, Lakota), Bear's Lodge Butte (Lakota), Bear's Tipi (Arapaho, Cheyenne), Tree Rock (Kiowa), and Grizzly Bear Lodge (Lakota).

Devils Tower, 1900
The name Devil's Tower originated in 1875 during an expedition led by Col. Richard Irving Dodge when his interpreter misinterpreted the name to mean Bad God's Tower, which then became Devil's Tower.[7] All information signs in that area use the name "Devils Tower", following a geographic naming standard whereby the apostrophe is eliminated.[8]

In 2005, a proposal to recognize several Native American ties through the additional designation of the monolith as Bear Lodge National Historic Landmark met with opposition from the United States Representative Barbara Cubin, arguing that a "name change will harm the tourist trade and bring economic hardship to area communities".[9]

Geez, re-naming Mt McKinley hasn't seemed to hurt visitation.

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 12, 2014 - 11:04am PT

All the names were given to it by a person so I guess it is arbitrary and capricious. Regardless of what it is called it has some great climbs. I think the tower part comes from the fact that it's so formidable from all sides with at least 500 feet of climbing for the most part to summit.

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 14, 2014 - 06:58am PT

hobo_dan

Social climber

Minnesota

Sep 14, 2014 - 07:28am PT

Location- it's the first sniff of the west.
The climbing is very unique and I think it's a beautiful area.
The anti bolting ethic and the run out routes turned me off to it though. It was never worth the groundfall so I left the place to others. If the locals could shed the peacock feathers and have a discussion on how to protect the routes so that they were safer there would be more than the 8 locals and the two drive through cars that make up the climbing there on any Sunday. I know you'd have to bolt it- but it could be done so it's not conspicuous. And if you need the hard rep- just climb past them and not bother to clip.

And thanks for all the great pictures Mike--you keep this place afloat.

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 14, 2014 - 12:03pm PT

The Iowa guys wishing they had started a little earlier, but showed some serious moxy by starting el mat at 6:45 and getting the first two pitches in.

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 14, 2014 - 12:30pm PT

Dan there are a lot of well protected routes in the needles. I stay away from most of the horror shows, but do a lot of routes that can have pro that is quite a ways apart but really not hard or dangerous. Also lot of cracks that have good protection especially if you bring some wide gear.

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 14, 2014 - 03:03pm PT

possible alien hunters at the tower.

hobo_dan

Social climber

Minnesota

Sep 14, 2014 - 05:04pm PT

well Mike if i get off my dead nordic butt, I'm looking you up for some routes in the needles

ionlyski

Trad climber

Kalispell, Montana

Sep 14, 2014 - 06:54pm PT

Bite your tongue Hobo. Sorry but that's really the way I feel. Rather than ignoring the bolts and not clipping them, I'd rather those that want to make it "safe" just ignore the tower and pretend it's not there.

Have a good and safe day Sir.

Arne

Ps. Perhaps we'll meet up at the Birkie if I ever make it out.

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 14, 2014 - 07:32pm PT

Arne I think he was talking about the needles, but it's not much different. There are hundreds of well protected sport combs at Rushmore. Prolly purt-n-er 1000 limestone bolted routes so plenty to do that isn't runout.