Hyalite Ice Conditions 2014/2015

[keenwesh]

It's been a couple years since I did this, but if there's interest I'll go ahead and keep it updated. I'm also going to put it in the MT forum as I don't want to interfere with the WA ice conditions thread.

 

As of 11/16, going clockwise out of the parking lot. Scroll down if you want some heresay about Flanders or the East Fork

Left side of G1 is in for your top roping pleasure

 

Mummy 2 is in, and Scepter looks super fat. Bizarre, as both were dry 4 days ago. Upper Mummy was looking great, but the lower icicle on upper mummy had been broken off when I walked by it 2 hours ago. Will update when I get the story/if it's worthy.

 

Feeding the Cat is in. If ya'll make the drive from WA do yourself a favor and walk over to Matrix and Feeding the Cat, both phenomenal pitches and no one seems to do them.

 

The corner climbs are both in, along with Switchback.

 

Alex's solos, probably in, go for a hike.

 

Winter Dance, not fat like last year. Third pitch needs to double in length. Someone should rap in there and figure out a way to redirect the flow so it can form.

 

Winter Dance area.

Curtains looks to be in fun early season shape. Dialetric Breakdown didn't form this year, dang.

 

Rocket Boy isn't nearly big enough, another dang.

 

Couldn't see Responsible Family Men, probably formed. Go climb it.

 

Avy Gulch, Upper pitches looked good, first pitch not quite, but could come in. Fingers are crossed.

 

Dribbles has ice on it and the bootpack was bootpacked. Climbable.

 

Overlook Mountain. Everything that's in the book had ice on it. Disco Party to the G Spot was great fun today. Strong Persuader was extremely wet. Monkey Ass Wall looks really enticing. I will have to go back for it.

 

Skipping over to Twin Falls area. Twin is in, but wet according to folks who climbed it. Cleo's isn't in, give it some time.

 

Penthouse Climbs, now is the time to do them!

 

Unnamed Wall, Couldn't really see/wasn't looking very hard but I'm going to guess that most stuff on it is at least climbable.

 

Come and Get It looks like it probably could be climbed! Ice is in to the top of the corner. Who knows, a few more days and it could be fully in! A strong contender for the best pitch in Hyalite!

 

Black Magic has an anemic drip on the top of it. With the not subzero temps next week it might look a little better, it was flowing with water when I hiked up there a month and a half ago. Pray for its formation.

 

FLANDERS

Stuff is forming, Killer Pillar is halfway to touching, the last pitch of Bobo Like is incredibly fat, Big Sleep is meh, again, pray for its formation.

 

Flanders Cirque

Went up there last weekend. The 3 routes that are in the guidebook are in. It's gorgeous back there. Go check it out if you want to see a part of Hyalite that barely anyone takes the time to see.

 

EAST FORK

Palisade falls is in, Cold temps are the best time for this one.

 

Alpha is in, and Omega looks to be climbable via the drytool start. If you haven't made it to this spot before it's worth it. While the climbs aren't the longest, both pitches are top notch, and drytooling out the cave to Omega is a great intro to this type of climbing. yahoo!

 

Asteroid was in a week and a half ago, and it still takes the cake as my least favorite climb in Hyalite. Maybe if I did it on a day that wasn't 60 degrees I might think higher of it.

 

Horsetail is most likely in fine shape. It's best after sustained cold temps, and this last week has been downright frigid. Other stuff I'm not going to comment on, chances are you won't be disappointed.

 

[marcus]

Thanks Keenwash!

Post this over on montanaice.com as well for folks seeking condition reports there...

[keenwesh]

The MT Ice forum is completely dead. For up to date beta with pictures check out the Southwest Montana Ice Conditions group on Facebook.

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/401228096671380/

 

Looks like Cali Ice is in!

[keenwesh]

Horsetail is looking good!

[wayne]

Thanks K, Enjoy Canada.

 

How about Zach Attack and Hydromonster?

[powderhound]

Hy wayane. Saw a pic of dancing with the hippo being climbed this week

[keenwesh]

I'm writing this from Canmore, this place is unreal. I can't believe that it took me this long to make it up here. This place is so unfathomably huge.

 

Anyway, I heard that some folks went up Zack Attack a week and a half ago, and ended up turning around because the 3rd pitch wasn't quite formed yet. I could be wrong on the unformed pitch count, as I still haven't done that route. Not sure about it now, but chances are that it's climbable.

 

Not sure about conditions around Cooke. But if dancing with the hippo is in Hydromonster is most likely formed. Both routes that I need to hit this year!

[Alex]

(@keenwash, yeah Canmore is cool )

[jakedouglas]

We have plans to head to Hyalite tomorrow through Monday, but the Bozeman forecast has a fair amount of rain and snow. Should we show up and hope we're able to get some climbing done, or save the trip for another time?

[Joa]

Ditto Jake's question... heading to Bozeman this weekend for the first time with my wife for our anniversary and want to climb a little ice. Good toprope routes that should be in by Saturday?

 

Also, what are the most spectacular local 4-8 hour RT hikes or easy alpine climbs (simulclimbable) with or without snowshoes and/or crampons?

 

Other "must do's" while in Bozeman?

 

Thanks folks- look forward to the visit.

 

[jakedouglas]

FWIW, we canceled our motel room and stayed home. Without anyone local telling us otherwise, our interpretation of the forecast was too uncertain to gamble on such a long drive and taking time off of work.

[cam yarder]

i was in the canyon on friday and was shocked by the amount of climbable ice. there was a storm cycle a couple weeks back that came in warm and ended with an arctic cold front, and many climbs are in fat right now. ice conditions shouldn't suffer from the warmer temps in bozeman. the parking lot to access climbs is 2,000' feet above town. Thanksgiving and Friday look to be the warmest, but the cold is forecasted to return this weekend. If it were me, I'd definitely make the drive.

 

at this time i'm more concerned about avalanche conditions. very dangerous today and will probably remain so for a few days or longer. still, there are plenty of routes to do in hyalite that are safe.

 

as for top-ropeable climbs, the g1 area is always a good bet. outside of g1, there are not many easily toproped climbs.

 

 

Edited November 27, 2014 by cam yarder

[keenwesh]

Please try to keep the posts strictly related to current conditions.

 

At this point unless you're trying to climb WI5's or harder the routes will be in until the road closes at the end of March. High volume flows such as Horsetail and Palisade are not as great during warm temps but you can still most likely get up them. Mummy II, Scepter, Cleo's, Fat One, Dribbles, Silken Falls. All can survive and be climbed during warm spells.

[wayne]

I am sure that most of the ice will survive the high temps going on this week, and by the weekend things should start building again.

[sdizzle25]

heading over on monday, curious as to how much ice survived the onslaught of tropical temps and ice clinics. Any updates?

[wayne]

Most survived, but will be picked out unless you go long, We had a great time on Monkey Ass Wall! No pick marks on that one! It may start building again with the colder temps and less crowds.

 

[wayne]

8" new fluff just fell, but stuff is building back up. Im staying a few more days.

[Devin27]

Just got back from the festival. Climbed G2, Hang Over, Upper Green Sleeves, Fat Chance, Thin Chance and Switchback falls. All were in good shape through the warm weather but getting picked badly by Sunday but the freeze of today and yesterday should build them back up nicely. Reports said Dribbles and things back in the canyon out of the sun were good but we didnt get back there

[keenwesh]

I haven't been climbing in Hyalite much besides the last few days. Here's an update based on what I've been on recently.

 

Dribbles has a big hole in the middle of the headwall. Still totally climbable, but looks a little jingus. Silken Falls is fantastic, I like it better than Dribbles, but that's probably because there's hardly any traffic on it compared with the Dribbling superhighway.

 

Wayne and I climbed Alex in Wonderland (listed in WD as Climb Above Dribbles) last Friday. It's in fantastic shape and one of the very best gems in Hyalite. Bring a single set of blue through orange Metolius and a Red C4 to sew it up. A stubby allows for the first pitch to be reasonably protected. There's ice, but it's not cruiser.

 

Come and Get It, needs to start dripping again if it's going to be got on lead anytime soon. Probably in the next couple months.

 

Cleo's isn't looking very good. It has yet to touch down, or if it has within the last day and a half it's really skinny. Go check it out, but expect a rowdy time. Airborne Ranger is skinny, but more formed than Cleo's. What a weird year!

 

Other things of note: The second free ascent of Nutcracker was completed on Saturday by a Bozeman local. It looks sick, and is entirely bolted for the 4 pitches before reaching the cave below the final pitch of Winter Dance. Also, the third pitch of WD is dripping, fingers are crossed that it'll come into shape.

[keenwesh]

Winter Dance is in. 3rd pitch protects very well and actually doesn't require much in the way of a rack, besides screws. The pins are also good as I brought along a wall hammer and drove the ones that were kinda questionable home. Go and give 'er.

 

 

Cleos is in, Airbourne was getting done but it snapped off with someone on it last weekend, so unless you have a 12 or so foot reach you can't get to the dangler.

[Peter Way]

Just got back to Portland from 6 days straight in Hyalite. The warm weather bleached things out a bit but most climbs are still in OK shape

[YocumRidge]

Cleo's was super fat today, what a treat. The center of the Dribbles headwall fell down, but the left side still went for us on Fri in a hollow sketchy WI4+ shape. The colder temps this week might improve things shortly.

[jrc]

How are things doing? Are things going to come crashing down should one try to climb in Hyalite this coming holiday weekend?

[keenwesh]

Yeah, weather is sucking really bad. A year ago it was dumping 10-20 inches of 5% fluff every night, that's a much better reason to not go ice climbing.

 

Anyway, conditions wise Hyalite should be holding up fine. When it's this warm stuff just becomes super hacked out, and unless you're absolutely dying to get over here you'd be better suited setting up a ladder in your backyard and climbing that with ice tools.

 

If you're looking at harder routes I'm fairly certain that Climb Above Dribbles is still in (2nd pitch is for sure in, first is probably pretty jingus, but can be done w/o any ice).

 

Avalanche Gulch has been done quite a bit this winter and is super good. Should still be in.

 

Upper Mummy, M3 probably doesn't have much ice left, but again, can be done dry. The first 15 feet of M4 are M6 with pro that would catch you as you hit the ground, but it's really not that bad. Again, could be actually bad with these warm temps (might be more than 15 ft of drytooling now) but worth checking out. There's an alternate start to M4 in the crack system to the left, basically bypasses the scary M6 cobble start and 10 feet of techy steep ice. Still get to do the upper ice crux which is good fun, so at least you won't be totally skunked if you go up there.

 

As for everything else, fully climbable, but hacked to shit. Snow cones. Dribbles probably has a hole in it.

 

If you want a route off the beaten path and brought your skis: Monkey's Ass Wall on Overlook. Super good pitch, surprisingly long with a neat cobble finish. Will not be hacked out.

[jrc]

Thanks! I'm likely to be hacking with the hackers...