| The Bitterroot Valley offers quite a bit of climbing opportunities, and the rock walls up Kootenai Canyon are especially well known and used by climbers from near and far (we talked to some climbers from Colorado on this climb). Kootenai's many rated and named climbing routes are featured in the book, The Rock Climber's Guide to Montana. This is where we spent a recent weekend morning, progressing along on our new climbing challenge. :)  |  |
Megan and I tackled "Practice Rock", a 35-foot climb. While it is Kootenai's lowest rated climb at a 5.4-5.6, it's definitely more challenging for beginners than the name implies.
Finding good holds you can reach while pulling and pushing yourself up a rock wall is quite challenging. It always looks easier from below than it actually is on the climb.
The higher Megan goes, the more spooked of heights she gets. Especially if she looks down. But she did great pushing herself to get to the top and coming back down.
With motivation and guidance from below, Jamie took on the challenge of conquering this 50-foot, 5.7-rated climb known as "Classic Crack".
We're working on learning and trying all sorts of things. On this climb, Jamie works her way up the crack of an inside corner. She was pretty excited to make it to the top.
A little chipmunk comes out near Practice Rock to see what all the commotion is about.
I definitely enjoyed my weekend morning out climbing in the mountains, challenging myself to do something I never thought I'd do. I really encourage you to find blocks of time you can use to do the things you want to do in life, too. Life is too short to let it pass you by while waiting to find time. Break your time into chunks and decide what you want to do with it. Yes, work and other responsibilities takes a large amount of time. But a day consists of morning, afternoon, and evening. And a weekend has double. Pick out one of those chunks of time as often as you can and do something you enjoy with it. :)
