Yankee Jim Climbing

This digital Yankee Jim climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Yankee Jim days smoother, safer, and more dialed.

Yankee Jim Canyon is easily one of southwest Montana's premier bouldering areas, especially if you're looking for a concentrated collection of hard problems. Most people will stick to the plethora of classics at the Loco-Motives, but there are a few other worthy areas to check out. For roadside convenience and lots of safe, easy problems, the Campground boulders can't be beat. If you want to get off the beaten path and are looking for some excellent moderates, check out the Hidden Valley. If you want to get far off the beaten path and don't mind a little cardio warmup gettin... Show more

This digital Yankee Jim climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Yankee Jim days smoother, safer, and more dialed. Yankee Jim Canyon is easily one of southwest Montana's premier bouldering areas, especially if you're looking for a concentrated collection of hard problems. Most people will stick to the plethora of classics at the Loco-Motives, but there are a few other worthy areas to check out. For roadside convenience and lots of safe, easy problems, the Campground boulders can't be beat. If you want to get off the beaten path and are looking for some excellent moderates, check out the Hidden Valley. If you want to get far off the beaten path and don't mind a little cardio warmup getting to the boulders, check out the Sphinx Boulders - the view can't be beat! Wherever you end up climbing, make sure you're bear aware! It seems like at least once a year there is a Grizzly Bear attack within a few miles of Yankee Jim Canyon. I'd highly recommend bear spray if you're heading to the off-trail boulders at the Hidden Valley or the Sphinx Boulders. HISTORY Campground: Due to the area's location along a very popular tourist highway, the Campground boulders have likely been climbed at for many, many decades. Because of this, the vast majority of the Campground history has been lost to time. One major contributor from the last decade or so is Alan Kline. He is responsible for many first ascents at the Campground and most of the problems included in this guide are from his little-known mini guide to the area - Yankee Jim Campground Bouldering Guide. Lately, Tony Chang and Peter Haun have added a couple of the better problems at the Campground - Genghis Tron (V5) and the Great Northern (V6), respectively. The most notable FA of recent times was that of Montana's Most Wanted. It's still not entirely clear who climbed it first. Jon Scott climbed it in June 2011, named it and alerted everyone to it's quality, but Pat Dyess may have climbed it a few months before Jon. According to Pat, he was out there by himself and had polished off a twelve pack of beer and ""took a nap"" (AKA passed out) under the boulder. He woke up and as he was sending the problem realized a mountain goat had moved onto the top of the boulder while he was "asleep." In all likelihood, Brad Carpenter probably climbed it a decade before both Jon and Pat. Kevin Macartney was able to climb the uncontested first ascent of the sit start to Montana's Most Wanted in March 2014, naming it Drone Strike (V10). Hidden Valley: Jeff Ho and I disovered the Hidden Valley in June of 2011 and began development shortly after. A few of my favorite FAs are the Fox Hole (V2), the Ram's Horn (V3), 36-24-36 (V3) and Far Out (V5). Jeff put up Butt Ram (V7) among other problems. The late Kevin Volkening also helped us out with the development of Hidden Valley. Just before print, Matthew Abbott, Tony Chang, Jesse Christopher and Peter Haun made it up to the Hidden Valley and added a few problems of their own. Sphinx: As far as I know, Ryan Holm, Joe Meiners and myself are the only people to have bouldered at the Sphinx Boulders. There's still some quality lines to be had so get out there and add your name to the list! Loco-Motives: Shawn Anderson, Brad Carpenter and Jeff Hollenbaugh disovered the modern bouldering potential of the Loco-Motives in 2000 and were responsible for much of the initial round of development. Along with putting up many of the harder lines at Yankee Jim, the Abonimable Ho-Man, Jeff Ho, brought the area to the public with his guide to the Loco-Motives (with help from Jeff Webber). Others who have contributed to the LocoMotives include: Erik Christensen, Sarah Ho, Ryan Holm, Joe Meiners, Henry Schlotzhauer, B.J. Tilden, Kyle Vassilopoulos, Jeff Webber and Griffin Whiteside. Refer to the Area descriptions for approach information to each zone.