Heading North, A long Journey

After our discussions of where and what to do earlier that morning, back on the Icefields Parkway, we made to van in the evening.  I dropped Jen off, and still had time to catch the last ferry to Nanaimo, I finally arrived home after midnight to a mountain of newpapers and mail, four months worth!

I had set about having the Mountain Mobile kitted out for the arctic and to have a roof rack to carry extra fuel and a second spare tire.  While waiting for the work on the Delica I began to plan a route north.

This route has two land routes from Vancouver, one going past Smithers, BC and then up the Cassiar Highway or the other going up through Ft. St John.  Which way?

Much before this, way back when I was 19 in 1991, there was a very long morning and afternoon where I stood below this amazing snow covered mountain with an amazing vertical face.  This crazy northern BC town kept me trapped, but the view of this mountain was so drawing.  Eventually I got a ride out of New Hazelton on my way to strike it rich tree planting.

Some years later in 1997, after finishing a very rewarding contract in the Charlottes I headed to the next gig.  This time I was back in Hazelton, below that mountain who taunted me while hitch hiking and ever since haunted me, once I was introduced to climbing several months after first seeing this hill.  Our camp was situated at the K'San Campground below.  The last thing that I saw as I zipped up my tent was this face, and it was also the first thing to greet me in the morning as I opened my tent.

This mountain captivated me, while reading or fixing gear on one of the picnic tables some of the local elders took notice of my interest.  One Gitsan elder would talk to me, being the only open planter, respectful of the locals, and also being another aboriginal this elder gave me a lot of good talk.  A few times a woman and her mother would walk the river dyke and always whisper as I sat facing the hill.  One evening, these women graced me and the mother began to tell me the history of the area and to tell me of the story of this mountian in her language!  Her daughter then translated this for me.  They told me how this mountain was created, of what happened while it rose from the land, and of the treachery of ignorance and closed minds of those who fell while this mountain rose from the land.

Sitting on the grass under a warm spring sun with the burbling of the river beside, and these two wonderful women relaying this tale to me of this mountain, it was too much.  Whenever I finished a section of my book, the last stitch to a repair, or after a bite of dinner I was planning a climbing route.

I made a call to buddy back home, but got his domestic partner and then asked her to send a bunch of climbing gear.  The next part was to find someone on the crew that climbed.

Getting all the gear together worthy of a trip to the Canadian Arctic, I took a ferry over to Vancouver on a Thursday.  Jen and I would head out the next day after her work, giving us until Sunday to get to Whitehorse.  Two and a half days, we can do that.

We didn't leave until mid day Friday, but made it to Quesnel.  Then we went the Smithers route. In the afternoon we were in New Hazelton below this mountain called, Stek'yodthnx.  I was so happy to tell Jen of how in 1997 I found the only person who climbed, but with no multi-pitch experience, and what gear was sent up, one ice aze, no crampons, no stove, two helmets and harnesses, and my rock rack.  I told Jen how this other climber and I had to sweet talk the cook to bake us potatoes and hard boiled eggs to take; we were going very old school.

Stek'yodthnx

On a day off we tried this mountain.  From the peak, directly below is a large gully or couloir that trends right at the base, my line took us up this couloir to about halfway up the face, then followed the snow field to it's upper right corner; after that I found a way up the dark rockface.  This put us up on the ridge or arete, to easier ground where we continued until the arete took a vertical step, about a quarter down from the top.  Night set in, we found a bivi from the wind and freezing in a cave of sorts under huge slabs of granite.

Stek'yodthnx followed his older brother and his friends deep into the forest one day and they chanced upon a goat that somehow was wounded.  In it's hobbled state the boys took this goat into their care, to his surprise the older boys made this goat jump over fire and taunted it.  The poor goat was burned, yet the older boys laughed and continued to tease it; Stek'yodthnx comforted the mountain goat and applied a salve to the burns.  Later the boy still comforted the mountain goat and then set a plan to free it.  This happened and the Mountain goat escaped further torment.

Some time later, many of the youth from around the area heard celebration music softly carried in the air; all of this youth ran to see where this celebration was taking place.  Stek'yodthnx followed his older brother and his friends.  Eventually they came to a huge long house where they all went in to see the party.

There was much rejoicing and partying, all was happy.  As the happenings were going on, this goat with salve approached young Stek'yodthnx, whispering to him that when all shakes and despair and horror fill your heart and mind, do not despair, to stay devote and sing your prayer songs and to wait.  No matte what, not to open his eyes.  Soon after the long house shook, rumbled and began to collapse.  The older boys panicked and ran from this collapsing structure; they all ran off the face of this mountain.  All died, including his brother.

The goat rewarded this boy with a pair of hoofed slippers such that he could hop from ledge to ledge lower down and eventually go home.

Our cave bivi was about four feet high, six feet wide and another twelve long, all under these massive slabs and blocks of granite!  It almost looked like a granite room had just toppled sideways.  It was a very calm space out of the cold and wind.  Deep in a restful sleep I was woken to these crazed cries from my partner who was swinging his ice axe about, sparks lighting everywhere it struck rock.  A few times it went right over my face!  "They took all of my things!", he called.

I talked him down, content that we were in the long house, having been chosen to hear it and not him now his contemporaries with their brash attitudes and poor reception for aboriginal culture.  I would find his things at day light.  Day light came, found his gear, a marmot or two seemed to have dragged anything shiny or good smelling away.

We tried the final steep section, it was a .10+ and the day before I had cracked bones in a foot, and severed the rope half way through from a dislodged rock!  I was set on getting us safely back down.  We left the finish for someone else, and tried a ledge system for ten pitches, but wound up returning and descending.  I saw rain drops go up into the sky at one of our rappels of faith.

There even another time in 2003 where I was fortunate enough to be there both scouting and leading hiking programs for the Aboriginal YouthFIRST program.

It was so much fun to show Jen this mountain for real beyond the aged photos that she has seen.  I love introducing her to areas of old stories.

Later that night we missed a gas station and then drove further north with our reserves, and eventually made it to Stewart BC, just this side of Hyder Alaska.  We were about a half hour too late so spent the night in town. The next day we finished the Cassiar and then made our way to Whitehorse.  We found the best and only hostel to stay at, the BeezKneez.

We made it from Van to Whitehorse over the weekend.  On Monday I got a hair cut and some more supplies and left town heading north.  Later that night I made Dawson, and it is a town where you really would expect to see Yukon Cornelius looking for Silver and Gold.

The following day I started up the Dempster, not sure whether the highway would be open beyond Eagle Plains.  This highway is so magical any time of year, if you have the chance to enjoy it you should drive and explore it.

Overlooking Tombstone

Enroute to Eagle Plains the temperature dropped so far that the engine was having trouble, so I made a quick wind block.

I had a late lunch at Eagle Plains then continued north.

Eventually I made a fun mile marker:

North of Rock Cr.

The weather began to get cold, but as the much as the day went on, the day began to stay light out!

Nearing the Border

Once at the NWT/Yukon Border it was pretty well posted!

Border

A few meters further:

270 Km More

The next 270 took some hours in these conditions, there were only 8 other vehicles on the road all day!

The canyon

It was bright out to well past ten PM!

Ice Hwy across Peel R.

After crossing the MacKenzie the road leveled out, and the sun began to set...for over an hour and more.

Polite trees, they are down in front

As I approached Inuvik at midnight the sun was well set and about to finally go down.

Midnite Sun

In Inuvik at 12:30 there was no fuel to be had, nor any easy car bivies, and the locals were out in force going from bar to hotel party, with what appeared as anonymous gravity, pulling them this way and that, and apparently affecting their voice modulator such that they were that sort of funny but not actually funny.

I relocated to the air port and slept there, it dropped to below 30 over night.  Welcome home!

Ice on the Parkway

So after our wonderful time at Amon Rudh in Wyoming we drove back to Bozeman for some more ice.  On that drive back the sunsets were just amazing as we passed back to Montana.  During one section we had a nice roadside picnic at a pullout with a nice view of a valley and on the other side you could make out old sluice troughs or very rustic irrigation troughs.

Picnic Lunch View

We must have done some more climbing and exploring while in Bozamen.  We discovered a few of the ice regions around and were rewarded for those efforts with either ice or scenic beauty.  The creeks in surrounding the area were just amazing, you really just want to take up a fly rod while you are around them.

Splendor above Hwy 89

We checked out some areas south of Livingston, a town east of Bozeman, that backed onto the Gallatin Nation Forest.  In some of the valleys that we looked for ice it was a journey and adventure to find the correct road behind all of the farms and properties.  If heaven on earth were anywhere, it is sure south of Livingston.

Where Heaven is on Earth

After a nice days' climbing and a good feast at one of the local restaurants back in Bozeman we put our feet up and turned on the television as a moment of mind distraction before discussing our next move.  We discussed how much time we had before my sea kayak guide season would start and when I would be needed out in Ucluelet, BC and what other areas we wanted to visit back in the Canadian Rockies for ice to end our road trip with.  Then for whatever reason in deepest Montana a Canadian channel was playing, and it was a documentary of some sorts, the footage playing was of definitely northern kids on skis, some of the place names were from Aklavik and Inuvik, then we figured that it was of the two Canadian skiers, of Sharon Firth.  This documentary became even more interesting, this many time Olympian was very much still active and tapped into sport programming in the north.  I thought that it will be nice to track her down later in the year after the guiding season to talk about the potential to get some youth oriented kayak programming up there going.  But so much would happen before then as we still had a few more weeks to climb and a whole season of guiding and goofing off back on the Island.

The next evening saw us back in Lethbridge, and of course we found ourselves back in Waterton Lakes National Park for more ice.  Waterton is about two hours out of Lethbridge, and the drive is a very easy one back and fourth.  I needed a few things for the van and while Jen was working online I did our chores, in this case I hit the local Canadian Tire for opening, so I could get everything taken care of before she finished allowing us an early trip for ice.  I thought I was pretty crafty to get there early, but as I pulled into the lot there were all of these horse carriages, the Amish were chomping on the bit to get in there!  

The fun part of our drives to Waterton were the coffee to wake up, audio books, and the scenery.  We were finishing a binge on Tolkein and were just finishing the Children of Hurin, a sub story from the Silmarillion, which we had listened to earlier and as well as the Hobbit.  First seeing the Rockies from the plains those mountains do seem to fit into the world of Tolkein.  

Back in Waterton Jen led some more ice, as we were trying to visit wonderfully fun and historically significant routes for her to feed and foster her skills of leading ice.  Her choice, her leads, her decisions, her triumphs.  It was a lot of fun.

Ice Romping In Waterton Lakes National Park

The conditions for ice on the other routes around Waterton were poor, with several actually falling apart before our eyes when we hiked into them to assess them.  We tried finding some of the others up near Pincher Creek, and we explored the myriad of dirt roads behind there.  On a few occasions while out hiking we both had that sensation where the hair stands up on the back of your neck from the presence of something very much bigger than you.  We later learned that as it was calving season, the ranching community and department of highways and wildlife got together and established several "feeding stations" where road kills were both saved and then dumped to feed the newly awoken grizzlies to deter them from wondering out onto the ranches.  We wish that there signs to the effect!

Things were the pits around Pincher Creek too so we decided to head to the most wonderful youth hostel on the planet, back in Lake Louise, again!  We have use this location in the past and on this extended adventure we must have spend close to a month there with day trips to the many ice climbing areas around it, even as far as Jasper.

Just outside of Banff is the community if Canmore and there is a the ice climbing area called the Junkyard, just below the Nordic Centre.  This is an easily accessible ice climbing area suitable for instruction and those first leads, and it also has a very short approach of about twenty minutes if that on a trail!  The routes here range from one to two pitches of run rompy ice.  Earlier we had been here in addition to other areas around there.

Jen lead a fun route on the right to wake us up.  Two and a bit pitches of fun, and she chose the steeper path with the most funkiness of ice formations to play on just for fun.  We may have rapped back down where she lead us up another line parallel.  Then after a bite I lead the steep corner to the far left so that we could set up a top rope to play on the steeps here and over the cave.

Ice Fun

The weather was warm and some of the ice had wet portions on top but overall it was a delight to play on.  At the top Jen wanted to see how to make Abalakov ice anchors, where you drill two intersecting holes through the ice with your ice screws so that you can then thread the V-shaped tunnel of ice with cordage or webbing, and in good ice these anchors will outlast most of the gear that we carry in an impact!  So since it was warm I was glad to show her with two to make in-line anchors as screws would warm and melt on top.

As I was twirling one of the ice screws out from the hole at the end I accidently flicked it off the route.  It was pretty funny actually, you are going to both break and drop or otherwise "loose" gear while climbing.   Jen caught it on video, but it somehow seems to have been lost!?

Making Abalakov Ice Anchor

On the rappel down I put in a few directional anchor pieces that let you "drag over" the rope to either the left or right below the top anchor such that a pendulum swing is averted if the climber on top rope falls while they are way out to the left or right.  Clipping these on rappel can be a difficult.  Down at the base I quickly undid my rappel and began looking for the ice screw that I "chucked away" a little earlier, I wanted to find it to recycle it.  I think that the sleazy guys that I yelled down to look out as the screw fell may have grabbed it, that is poor karma for them, I know the history that I created in that screw.

Down about fifty meters from the base of the route  I heard this horrific squealing of ice under crampons and a very brief pause then the sound of metal, gear, plinging and planging!  Jen had a minor accident, fortunately we use a backup Prusik knot on rappels.  We short roped down, with some sliding sections on rope lower.

The only human resources nearby were a pair of Scottish climbers swearing and slandering one another back on the easier slabs, so I ran to get their assistance.  In another five minutes they met me back down with Jen, where they helped her out to the road.  Jen and two Scottish climbers!  Can you imagine the humour going around.  Back at the Mountain Mobile I thanked them, and they just said it is their part of the climbers karma fund, time to give back.  Jen improved and we got her checked out.  

Jen faired pretty well, sore and slowed up for a few days.  We call these accidents for a reason, Jen has never had a climbing incident and has been to some pretty hard and dodgy locations in very horrid conditions before and never had a booboo, you don't plan for these so that's why they are called accidents.  While she was healing we were able to actually able to be "tourists" something that we have not been able to do much on our travels before.  It was a lot of fun, we visited Moraine Lake and the Lodge, and the Banff Hot springs for the medicinal properties and had some wonderful dining in the various restaurants in the area.

Tourist In the Lake Louise

Another day while Jen was on the mend we went out for a drive along the on the Icefields Parkway.  It is so wonderful there and being able to check out the conditions of routes for later in the week is always a good thing.  On our way back at mid morning we decided to head out to some of those areas where I had previous found information on my ancestry through someone east of Rocky Mountain House.  Along the way we came across this mountain that years before Dave P., and me had gone out to try an accent on this awesome winter rock wall.  As it was this route gave us loads of climbing worth of several hours until things heated up from minus 26 to above freezing and the couloirs on the the similarly steep terrain around us were being swept by avalanches, and we were being dowsed by numerous spindrift avalanches; and then we traversed off this face to this massive gully below us.  Digging a few pits it seemed safer there for snow, so we began this amazing half hour crazy carpet ride down it to the base.

It was nice on this whole trip to point out places that were just lore and references from climbing stories and tales that she has heard over the years from the lads and other friends.  Now she has her chapters in those.

Once Jen healed up again she was off leading ice again.  She did some routes in Maligne Canyon outside of Jasper.  There were a few nice restaurants that we would visit after a trip up from Lake Louise, and especially after a day of climbing.  A Cheeseburger, Salad, Fries and Rings, and a Pint seems to be the standard after a cold day of climbing.  

Hiking Maligne Canyon

Maligne Canyon in the winter follows a frozen creek through these water worn and formed amphitheaters, well a place of magic on earth.  Exploring this area was so much fun, if you have the chance go and check it out, and if you want trained service personnel to guide you through the area that is also available.

Crystal Chandelier 

There were so many frozen waterfalls seeping over into the canyon.

Gorgeous Ice 

Jen found a fun and thin route to try a harder lead on!

Making a Way

We also spent a few weekends on the Icefields Parkway itselft to play on ice.  On it we saw a lot of climbs and places of old stories, and places to play.  Above all the scenery on this connector from Lake Louise to Jasper is beautiful and picturesque.

Mountain Views

And more views.

Such Scenery

One of these outings we drove south of Jasper to Tangle Creek and spent the night there.  How hard can it be to be out in this brilliance.  We woke early and enjoyed a nice fry up of bacon and eggs, and a couple of shuttles of coffee before considering crossing the road to climb.

Tangle Creek Across The Street

Jen does as she does and between courses of breakfast was knitting!

Working the Math

Here is a glimpse of a finished knitted bit of gear that I use in my sock system.  These outer socks were knit around my foot ensuring that there are no folds or places to create blisters, and above all are just comfortable and warm.

Across the street we hiked a whole minute or two to the base where Jen had selection of where she wanted to lead her climbs.

Jen Leading Ice

Once on top she makes the anchor and then brings me up, then we rappel back down.

Rapping down or coming off

After a few leads she had her fun and then I moved to the right for some steep ice and lead this.  It was nice to jump on something vertical and it is always fun to see Jen play on something more than her leading comfort zone.  At the top of this pitch there was still rolling and funky ground up and over to the rappel station, so as Jen seconded she grabbed some gear then took the next lead or pitch to the rappel anchor.  Here is a glimpse into a "belay tie-off" to make a safe hands free and releasable knot:

Munter Tie-off

We had a lot of fun along the Icefields Parkway.  Almost behind us is one of the most iconic ice climbs in the Canadian Rockies, Slipstream a ice route that is a kilometer high and has you finish with all that air visible below your feet.  

Slipstream

There are other significant climbs all along the parkway.  Another significant route is the Weeping Wall that is fun and tough, sadly it was both falling apart and running with water when we approached it.  Jen would love this.

Weeping Wall

The game for us was to find routes that were well frozen and formed, with an acceptable avalanche risk as possible and the same for the approach.  You want to always be able to come next year, right.

One evening we set up to ski into Bow Falls, climb it the next morning and enjoy our ski tour back out.  We had a wonderful early morning breakfast of coffee and out meal fortified with scoops of butter, it was cold.  We began the ski across the lake and saddly I was having a duel with my ski bindings, and kept popping out after every several glides.  Not much fun, especially since Jen was so keen to try Bow Falls.  Even after tweaking all the adjustments to these bindings I still kept popping out on the flats!  Eventually I MacGivered something.  Back at the Falls we had a nice little picnic, marking that this was Jens' first ever ski tour, in the Canadian Rockies!

First Ski Tour Ever, In the Rockies!

We earned our dinner that day and skiing out was fun with our packs full of climbing junk.  You can always judge the success of a trip by the laughing.  We laughed all the way back to the car park, even each time my binding popped.

The following weekend we departed Lake Louise and drove back up to the Icefeld Parkway and were about to set up an alpine ice route.  The days leading up had suggested great weather, stable snow conditions in the area so we head out.  We were going to have a look at the north face of Mount Athabasca, a nice long ice face with some fun stuff at the top. 

Mt. Athabasca

The route was going to be up the middle of the face, just to the left of the rocking bands 3/4 way up, then either off right if the snow was good or down left along the ridge.  We hiked up to the base to sort out a path the next morning, when we would be hiking up in the early hours after midnight, and to see the conditions of the glacier for that approach.

Mt. Athabasca NF Behind, Left, Approach Glacier

The scree and moraines were fantastic below the face, everything is a Tiger Ice Cream colour all black and orange.

Tiger Stripe, Baby!

We found the only place to park the Mountain Mobile, below the summer Visitor Center, behind all of the Snow Coaches.  We had an early night, ready for an early start.

Delica Bivi

Sometime around a little after midnight a huge system set in over top of us and began to storm on us, it was minus 26 with winds that approached 100 coming off the glacier.  We awaited the alarm and then just through the blankets overhead for a nice lazy lay in for the morning, this route can wait.

In the morning we talked about our options and timeline.  We even had a fantastic anniversary at the Royal Tyrrel Museum in Alberta a few days before.  What next?  The weather was going to be the pits for the next week, and temperatures and snow conditions were also going out the window on routes that we wanted to play on.  We took stock of our situation, we could get to Vancouver before late, then I could hit the Island the following day, leaving Jen time to do family stuff and access for work, while I get the van serviced, and fitted for a two week trip up north to Inuvik!  I would gather gear and pick her up in a few days, as once said, "look for me on the sixth day at first light".  

The rest is all history.

Winter 2008 Adventure to Amon Rudh

After playing in Bozeman, ice climbing and exploring the many different nooks and crannies of the area we set off past the Crossing of Teiglin out to the distinctive hill jutting up, to Amon Rudh.  Perhaps we'd be rewarded for our graces and come across Turin and Beleg.

On this journey we drove from Bozeman all day passing many areas, and went through the area near Custers Last Stand, where he had his comeuppance and was out maneuvered, out strategized, with well disciplined forces; I guess you quickly soar to the top of peoples to do list if you order a massacre on innocence.  Looking for fuel we strayed into and area that certainly reminded me of any reserve that I have been on back in Canada, and while driving around looking for that station we chanced across a few local youth who were vigorously chunking rocks at a bee hive!  Really, the bees were a stout cloud all about, expanding towards them.  I wouldn't want to mess with the folk who's children throw rocks at bee hives.

The lights on the Mountain Mobile gave out just as it became dark.  There I was again monkeying with the "falcon" making big sparks in the dark, yelling to Jen to turn it off.  Making a bypass on the hydospan we were off on our way with only a fraction of our low beams.

Finally we rolled into some crazy town, and as we drove through town looking for a motel we noticed that this town was different, everyone was in cowboy hats, lots of males chest bumping, and loads of bars.  Welcome to Sheridan.  Backtracking we found the best place that wouldn't break the budget, and it looked great until we pulled around to our room.  Across from the motel there was a large housing building or project, and running around were all in white tank tops, shaved heads, no parental supervision, with very erratic behaviour, and emphasized gross motor group actions...these juniors where smoking crystals.  This scene reminded me of an episode of "Cops" and yes there were enough of them driving around.  I unloaded the van and then slept in it hoping to be a deterrent to anyone who might have the idea of breaking in.  We were driving the next morning at first light.


Wyoming is very sunny and open, without the snow on the ground in places looking out the window you'd think that it was hot out.  We found parts for the van at the next town some hours later.

Open and sunny Wyoming

Continuing on the way we saw something off in the distance, the faintest outline of Amon Rudh poking above the horizon.  In this area where it is so flat the horizon can be a long, long way off.

Amon Rudh in the distance

The best part of the Delica is all the space you have and since it is diesel it can haul a lot, which was a good thing on this road trip aside from ski touring and climbing gear we had a full pantry which Jen was often able to whip up lunch with the amazing sandwiches of the freshest ingredients and sometimes soups while on the go or at a pullover.  This way it was common for us to travel several hundred kilometers a day, either heading out to a climbing or skiing area for the day or to just cover distance.

Winter farm in Wyoming

One of the best things  about traveling is that eventually you do reach that horizon, or at least get close, soon we could get the occasional glimpse of where we were headed.

Amon Rudh

Our plan was to camp near Devils Tower National Monument for several days to give us time to climb and see the area.  So we pulled into one of the nearby towns and found some local organic sausages and restocked our fresh foods.  Since the prospect of grilling these sausages over a fire was in mind I looked around for a place to pick up a few beers for our dinners, as it turned out the only place to buy this in Wyoming through a bar.  In our case it was at the back of a bar, like some dingy speakeasy I guess that is what you get for looking for that in the middle of the afternoon.

Devils Tower sure looks an awful lot like Amon Rudh

The one campground at the base of Devils Tower National Monument had not opened yet for the season, we did manage to find a wonderful spot just moments from the park at Tower View Campground and Restaurant.  This spot was run by the most hospitable family the Cages, who set us right while we were there.  As for restaurant they had local meats and food and cooked some fantastic food, there was a burger with home made potato chips!  Then there was the biscuits and white gravy on the morning menu!

Bison burger and homemade chips, the best ever!

While were there we had the best view in our car camping spot, sure there were others with spectacular scenic views, but we liked the view of of the Tower.  The days were warmish and the nights dropped to minus 20C, something that we would soon learn would be our new normal.

Mountain Mobile and Amon Rudh

The night before our climbing day I stayed up sorting the rack and getting our kit ready and was rewarded with such a great light display in the sky that wouldn't be rivaled until coming north.

What kind of encounter is that?

Devils Tower as it goes, as far as I understand it, used to not be there in the long ago.  It was not until one day that seven sisters were out in the woods picking berries, gathering other forest foods when a big grizzly chanced upon them and chased them.  In this frantic moments the girls raced for refuge and found a large boulder to climb up from this bear.  As fait almost seemed against these sisters this bear turned to be bigger than it appeared when it stood up almost able to reach and claw one of them down!  The sisters   followed traditions, making offerings and prayers while fending off this creature and their calls were answered, from the heavens this boulder began to rise up from the reach of this transformed bear.  However as much as they were lifted from it's reach this empowered bear too, also grew in size allowing it to claw at them.  The bear scraped and clawed the rock all around them away, hoping to pull one of the young women off, it was a most desperate moment!  Further prayers were made and then from the powers that be, the seven sisters were lifted up from that rock of refuge and carried into the sky above!  Here they can be seen in the winter stars as the constellation Pleiades, directly above Devils Tower, and this is how the columnar structure of the tower was formed from the claws of the bear.

A most powerful place!

Devils Tower is the prominent feature for as far as the eye can see in all directions so it is now wonder that it plays a significant role in the various traditions and traditional knowledge to the surrounding groups of native Americans.  Evidence of this can be seen if you take the walk around the base of the monolith where offerings wound in satchels have been place on the surrounding trees.  In this area, if you have the ears for it you will notice that it is a very powerful place indeed.  Some that have visited it would even go a saying that it is hallowed!

When we set out to climb the morning cold had lifted, and the route that we intended was on the lee side.  We were set to begin the Durrance Route, that was originally established in 1938 the second "established route" after that set up in 1937 by Fritz Wiesnner, et al.  The area of the Durrance Route also has fame from the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where they make a pretty realistic and plausible mock up of it.  We however were about to begin one of North Americas Fifty Classic Climbs!

We actually tried an alternate start and were looking for the 5.9 variation, and what I got was a very hard variation that used alot of my experience to not grease, or fall off, which was good as my gear placements were well spread out.  

View from midway, out over Wyoming

The views were fantastic.

How is that for a view?

Playing on this monolith was great.

Setting up on the Durrance Route

I am not sure whether if it was a lingering heebee-jeebees from the car accident, the spirits, knowing that the group ahead of us would hold us back, that gut feeling that you know you're not going to summit in style or before daylight, or listening to a premonition but "it didn't feel right", and I have played enough in the hills to know that when this caution light comes up it is time to listen up, there have been many, many times where I did and saw others go on and get hurt or worse.  Soon after that photo we discussed it and called it a route.  I down climbed the pitch to Jen, where we had one of the most wonderful sun lounging moments you can get in winter.  Sunbathing on a ledge way up in a micro spot of sun warmed rock out of the gusting wind!

Wild Turkeys

We learned that the area was about to open up for the Turkey hunting season.  These guys were all over the place, several times I had to jam the breaks or swerve to avoid culling several in a bowling strike fashion.  The funny part is that we also learned that loads of people come to the region for this hunt and shell out several hundred dollars alone to hunt a turkey!  

Back at the camp were had another wonderful dinner, and yup I took the opportunity to have more of this American culinary treat of white gravy. How can a plate of seared steak, garlic toast with that white gravy in homemade mashed potatoes be wrong, yum.

Home cooking out of the home

Devils Tower is a very picturesque and powerful place, if you get the chance to head there in an off or shoulder season to avoid the crowds you'll will be rewarded with your own adventure.

Northern view

Amon Rudh was the house of Mim the dwarf, where Turin and his outlaws sought refuge, later as Beleg came upon his friend Turin a rivalry between the dwarf and Beleg ensued.  From Amon Rudh, Turin and Beleg were able to keep the dark forces of Morgoth from crossing the region until the treachery of Mim betrayed all.

Amon Rudh