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.