Cowen Cirque

Mount Cowen from paradise valley. The NE arete is the left skyline.

Brad Stanton and I just returned from a fun weekend trip to Mount Cowen in the Absorka range of Montana. This beautiful peak (cirque) has great rock and breathtaking vistas. As Marko Prezelj has stated "Personal experiences in the mountains can't be transformed into a uniform creation that will copy and transmit the same feelings". Every single post in this blog is an example of this statement. Writing these posts I always feel a bit awkward as I try and hint at a deeper meaning to being in the mountains.


Brad and I's darker sides exposed at the start of the NE arete of Cowen


View from the NE ridge


Brad on the NE arete. We simul-climbed the fun route in 3 "pitches".




Lewis and Clark would be proud


On the descent we encountered a Ram who had fallen from cliffs high above.


Brad showed me "the world's smallest boulder problem". It works with any rock about this size and is actually wicked hard, similar to chair bouldering. photo by Brad Stanton

After climbing the NE ridge of Cowen we decided to climb "GO West!" on the Anacker Tower.




Brad on P1


P2 photo by Brad Stanton


P2


P3


Brad not finding much gear on P4


P5


P6


P6 photo by Brad Stanton


Brad on P7. An outstanding pitch of exposed knobby face climbing into a splitter hand crack, great way to finish.


Brad on the top, again Lewis and Clark would be proud.


Descent off the tower

The Cowen cirque is a pretty amazing place.

Cheers, Loren