The Heap

On Sunday morning, we got up early and headed out of town to Lolo pass near the Idaho border.  The climbing guidebook suggested that there were a few good sport routes in this area, we were going for a place called the Heap. 

We drove through some scenic country - rolling hills forested with pine and most of the way the road was accompanied by a river.  As we got closer, we saw more and more granite outcroppings.  That is what we were looking for. 

We ended up at the turnout indicated by the guide book.  The road we needed was closed by the National Forest service, so we needed to park the van at the bottom of the hill.  It was scorching hot outside.  I downed a cold can of soda in seconds.  Since we weren't sure exactly where this wall was, or how far it was, we decided to get out the mountain bikes and scope out the area.  

It was pretty fun biking on the forest road, it was nice and shady.  We ditched the bikes a few times to hike up some promising looking trails.  Eventually, after meandering around the woods for a while, we spot a promising looking outcropping.  Joey sees a giant vulture perched on the top - so we decide to get a closer look.  We scramble uphill through some thick grass and slide around a bit in some loose sandy dirt and finally make it to the rock.  The glitter of steel on the rock rewards us - we had found the Heap! 

After walking around the rock a bit, a couple of other climbers head up a trail to the rock.  We double check this is the place we were looking for and tell us the trail is the next one past where we had ditched our bikes.   We race downhill excited to have finally found the rock.  We scoot back to the van, pick up our packs and pedal back uphill to the Heap.  

Joey led a 5.9 to start off the day - appropriately named Temperature's Rising. It was a long climb, 100' as listed by the guidebook.  Our rope was too short for me to lower Joey - but you can walk off of the Heap.  Basically the rock was like a huge boulder smashed into a hill.  We were climbing up the side of the boulder to the top - a nice perch and a nice view - and then could walk around the side back to the bottom of the boulder.  We decided to have Joey sit at the top and belay me from the top for my climb.  

I was excited!  I hadn't climbed since Cougar Canyon where I had hurt my ankle, and my fingers were itching to get on the rock.  It was a pretty easy climb - pretty slopey - but you manly had to rely on your feet.  There weren't too many great hand holds.  I had a little trouble at the crux, you need to reach for the hold and I was a little short, so I went around to a nice crack feature.  Success - a clean ascent! 

Right next to the 5.9 was a 5.6 called Dike's Edge.  I was feeling good, and decided to try my first ever lead climb!  Woo!  It shared a start with Temperature's Rising (which was pretty tricky) that I had just climbed, so I at least knew the begining of the terrain.  Joey stick clipped the first bolt for me, and I headed up my first lead.

This isn't me, but it's the same climb: 

Mountain Project's description of the climb.

Dike's edge is appropriately named because splitting the face in half is a seam of crystals in the granite boulder.  The crystals were formed in such a way that they resemble a mini-staircase heading up the face of the rock.  Essentially the climb was to follow this mini-staircase (the dike) up to the top of the rock.  No problem, I can climb stairs.  

I headed up the climb, and clipped my 2nd quickdraw, and my 3rd quickdraw.  It was a bit nerve racking being above the anchor - but I was pretty confident in my position throughout the climb that I never felt I was at risk of falling.  After all, I was standing on the mini-staircase.  This climb was equally long - we had checked out the anchors when we were at the top of the other climb, and they were pretty much right next to each other.  As I got past the 8th quickdraw, I looked around and didn't see my next bolt.  

That was weird, the bolts are usually placed about 5-7' apart, and I could see everything in front of me.  The granite just sloped upward.  At this point I could pretty much walk.  I told Joey the situation, to let him know I was looking for the next bolt, and walked up the face a bit further.  I was about 10' above the last bolt and still didn't see anything.  I could see two ways up - one looked like I could scramble up - and the other was a face.  I decided to scramble up to my right towards Temperature's Rising where I could see a bolt to clip into.   

I ended up being pretty run out - I had scrambled up 10-15' past my last bolt to get to the bolts on Temperature's Rising.  I ended up finishing my first lead on Temperature's Rising a 5.9.  I got to the anchors we had used before, and belayed Joey up Dike's Edge.  He agreed that last section would have been pretty hairy on lead, and congratulated me on my frist ever lead climb.  We both kind of wished it was better protected, but it turned out alright.  

We headed back to Missoula to meet up with our friend Graham, whose friends we had been partying with for the weekend. He had ended up in Montana the same weekend as us to go to a wedding - what luck!  We geeked out and watch the Mars Science Laboratory landing on Nasa TV.   I had a first ascent on lead, and JPL had a first decent on sky crane.