Since Brent left all of his climbing gear in my car, Christine and I hit up the blacktail butte yesterday. A few locals were already climbing on the rock face that we had hiked to, but they insisted that we climb the route neighboring theirs. They told me it was an easy 5.9* climb with the crux* at the beginning two bolts*. It was Christine’s first time belaying* a lead climb* but I trusted her since the climb looked rather simple.
After completing the beginning 40 feet of the climb, I searched for the following bolt and didn’t see anything! The closest bolt in view was nearly 20 feet from the one I was clipped into. And if you’ve ever lead climbed, that means forty feet of falling, which I (and Christine) where not prepared to take. Although the climb was easy, it was such a relief to be able to clip into the proceeding bolt. But then I got to the top and there is only ONE top rope, being used by our neighbors. I yelled down to see what I should do but they didn’t seem to care. Nonetheless, I jimmy rigged a top rope and waited to climb again until the two guys had left. I couldn’t believe that they would suggest I lead climb the route. It was practically asking to get hurt, on friday the 13th nonetheless!!
*Here’s some climbing terms explained, that might be gibberish to you!
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Today, Christine and I decided to lay off the climbing and go for a hike on the Blacktail trailhead. We ventured to the top and enjoyed the beautiful weather and view of the Grand Tetons. We found a trail that headed down the backside of the mountain, so we took it intending to sweep the valleys, wrap around the mountain, and head to the parking lot. The trail turned into a horse path that led us around to the front side. Off in the distance, there was a small heard buffalo. As we took the corner, a single buffalo was grazing about 100 feet from us. We kept on the path and didn’t worry to much about the animals… BUT then we came over the crest of the mountain and five or six buffalo were thirty feet in front of us, blocking our path. There were baby buffalo in the group, so Christine and I quickly changed our route and headed up into a valley, cut across a field, and followed the main road back to the car. It was definitely a scary situation.
On our trip back to the village, we saw a Moose and her calf eating through the fence. Unfortunately, there were loads of cars surrounding the area and people flashing cameras and holding camcorders out the windows of their Oversized SUV’s. It was a pretty sad display of disrespect, so we went around the crowd and headed back to the Hostel.
*Here’s some climbing terms explained, that might be gibberish to you!
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