The other day Liz and I made the trek into the Beartooths to camp for two nights and climb the spire behind us which the range is named after. It was an amazing adventure into the wilderness, not seeing another soul for over 48 hours, wishing we had more time to walk further, see more and climb higher.
We climbed The Bear Tooth Spire in 4 pitches, and descended in 6 rappels back to the shoulder above the scree covered slabs, in which we made 4 more rappels back to the snowfield below.
It was 19 total hours of hiking in and out for 2 hours of climbing and 1 hour of rappelling. The ratio doesn't make any sense, but you wouldn't understand the value if you haven't been there yourself.
The summit register was worked, it was soaking wet, smelly, old and falling apart. Liz and I decided to pull it and bring it back to town. We spoke with Marko in Bozeman and he is going to install a new one, where the old one is destine to end up with a local climber hopefully named Rusty as soon as it can be dried out and delivered.
That summit register is bad ass, quite possibly the coolest summit register I have ever tried to sign (the last page was too wet to write). Jack Tackle, JoJo, a guy named Lauren like 600 times, the FA party on the first page and my favorite entry by Derek that posted a Jim Birdwell quote, and other climbers I have heard of and some not all dated and signed.. There were many years the spire didn't receive an ascent, some years only a few and one recorded winter ascent by that Lauren guy again...He gets after it!
Hopefully the register will be preserved for the history of Montana climbing and more people will venture out and onto the top of the Spire.
"Sport Climbing is like Sport Fucking! ...a lot of fun and not very much commitment!"
Jim Birdwell
