Kevin Lindlau - Bingo Cave
Sparks fly in the air and a sudden jolt on your hand forces your grip to squeeze tighter as the pick pops and shifts out of place...
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Your mind races with thoughts of panic, wondering if the tool will hold. Making no sudden movements so as not to compromise the now questionable pick placement that your body dangles on, you reach down slowly for the rope. Attempting to make the clip in time, you hear the reassuring snap of the gate close and exhale a deep breath of relief. You are now safe and can venture on to make another move towards the lip of the roof. Welcome to the Bingo Cave!
Since moving to Bozeman, MT in 2018 this area has become my new training crag. A small chossy cave that sits at the base of the Unnamed Wall, in Hyalite Canyon on the Shoshone-Bannock, Apsaalooké, Salish Kootenai, and Cheyenne traditional lands. For even the most experienced mixed climbers, this cave will have you over gripping with its natural hold placements through a completely horizontal roof that is notorious for having holds break off. In other words, it is the perfect place to refine advanced mixed climbing skills and work on your mental prowess! Vertical dry tool routes corral the cave on either side and then the advanced routes begin and increase in difficulty as you go deeper into the cave and the vertical climbing suddenly turns horizontal.
Photo by ®Nathan Norby
During the summer months, there are only a handful of routes you can dry tool on in the cave. The chossy nature of the ceiling for most of the routes in the roof requires cold temps so the water seeps protruding from the cracks can freeze and hold the rock blocks in place. One of the best and only roof routes you can climb in summer in the cave is a route called "Northwest Passage”. It is a neat line that climbs through a horizontal roof requiring pick torques in the ceiling, hooks, and side pulls to exit out over a tenuous lip along with a good amount of fig 4’s and 9’s to boot. From there you must climb precarious natural rock ledges up a vertical headwall where the slightest pull out on a tool would result in a tool pop and a quick plunge back into the open space of the cave. This line is very unique for the Bingo Cave as it is one of the few lines out of the roof that requires a dry tooling exit to its anchor and does not require any ice climbing. Because of this, it makes for a great summer training route which is why I can often be found here in the summer months doing laps preparing for other dry tooling routes around the globe.
Traditionally in winter, I spend my time traveling around the world competing for the USA Ice Climbing team on the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup circuit. As a result, I often miss out on the amazing ice climbing season Montana has to offer. However, because of the cancelation of our competitions due to COVID-19, I have had the opportunity this year to jump on some of the amazing mixed lines that the Bingo Cave has to offer!
Photo by ®Will Hitchcock
My favorite new training route in the cave is called “House of Flying Daggers”. This line climbs out the center of the cave along the steepest part of the roof and finishes by climbing the famous Bingo ice pillar. The route often has holds break off as a large water seep goes through the center of the roof which makes for some heart-racing, breath-holding moves to get to the ice. The most terrifying of these holds is a small crack that flexes the more you weight it, but once through this section, the climbing becomes a little more solidified. I am not super interested in the ice climbing portion of the route for my training so I often will jump onto the pillar, lower, and do a few more laps. The goal of my training here is to prepare for the bigger roof routes that I am projecting in the summer months in Colorado and the Dolomites in Italy.
Photo by ®Nathan Norby
A silver lining to the travel restrictions imposed by COVID-19 has been getting to enjoy this beautiful place and the climbing it has to offer. However scary the routes may be, it makes for some amazing training and has helped improve my mental game immensely by being able to relax when unsure of holds and tool placements. This winter has been a great experience getting to train on these classic routes in the Bingo Cave and I can't wait to train more here and up my fitness for my summer projects!
