Condition Update and Ice Festival

Submitted by JoJo on Sun, 10/31/2010 - 12:50

Hello Friends!

Here is the latest as I know it!

Bozeman Ice Climbing Festival

Finally, we are live on the sign ups for the upcoming Arc'Teryx Bozeman Ice Climbing Festival @ www.bozemanicefestival.com December 8-12, 2010.

It's shaping up to be a great festival. In addition to having the Emerson Theater again this year we have completely revamped the clinic schedule for the On-Ice events in Hyalite Canyon. With clinic names like "Milking the Goat," Leaving the Nest" and "Popeye Fruit Cake" it'll prove to be a fun weekend.

Back in town there is a full slate of slide shows, films and beer drinking including a strong local line up including Bozeman's own Emily Stifler, Adam Knoff and Whit Magro along with Will Gadd, Sarah Hueniken, Lilla Molnar from Canmore, Alberta, Adam and Caroline George fresh home to SLC from an amazing season in Chamonix, New Hampshire legend Jim Shimberg, long-time "Friend of the Fest" Jack Roberts from Boulder, CO and more!

In addition to our longtime title sponsor Arc"tryx, new this year we have Sterling Ropes as the official rope sponsor, Outdoor Research as the W's-Only clinic on Friday, Bozeman's own Sola Cafe providing gourmet coffee and sandwiches and more!

Okay, Okay, enough pimping the Ice Fest. Here are the goods from visit to Hyalite yesterday (Saturday, Oct 30th).

Despite the warm weather, the recent snow is sticking around and the ice is coming along surprisingly well. Although Twin Falls is probably climbable right now, don't expect on swinging your tools full force just yet in Hyalite, but after the next cold snap things will happen FAST! Dig out all that gear and keep a close eye to the forecast!

Hangover, GII and Mummy Cooler II all had ice on them from top to bottom but they are thin and soft and not likely all too safe just yet. But considering the warm weather, I was way encouraged it is as good as it is.

Shores of Pluto is about formed. Solstice I might be coming in already. Genesis I is running well and the ice is trying hard to form with the far right side already festooning with chandeliers and mushrooms from top to bottom. 

Elsewhere:

Funeral for a Friend has been climbed with a very good new variation after pitch three leading all the way the plateau. Rumor is the Sphinx is coming in but kinda thin. My guess is the WI 3 variation right of the pillar is climbable. No word yet on Ice Dragons in the East Rosebud.

That's all I know for now. Have fun, be safe and happy hunting.

Onward,

Joe

I forgot to mention...

Zach Attack looks to be good to go, or put it this way, I've seen it get climbed in worse looking conditions.

 I went up into Hyalite on Friday and saw similar conditions to what JoJo posted.  Got to the base of Twin Falls (see pic) and climbed the first 10 or so feet and decided to back off because it was really thin. I definitely wasn't swinging, and on some parts the tools were slicing down the ice. Opted for a Bingo Cave dry tool day instead. 

ZA looks great (see pic) although the top pitch looks thin. From Twin Falls it looked like Over Easy may be climbable but thin, Dielectric Breakdown looked to be touching, Land of the Lost was all ice. Shores of Pluto looked great (see photo), and in the morning Black Magic had ice further down than at any point last year, however, by afternoon the ice had fallen.

MIII was all ice, and MIV was almost touching, but with good looking ice all the way up (see pic).

As far as Flanders: Big Sleep was looking nice. The Pillar is not touching but looking good. Killer Pillar was a nice hanging dagger, and perhaps some ice on Bobo Like, but hard to see from the road.

I headed up to the Sphinx yesterday and have posted what the conditions are in the Madison conditions.

 

Let's hope things cool off a bit and we have another spectacular winter in HYALITE!!

 Kevin

Went up to Twin Falls today and climbed the right side.  It was a bit thin for what I'm used to but was fun.  Cleo's is forming up.  Didn't really see enough of any other routes to comment.  My partner got pictures, hopefully he will post them up. 

Several people got out yesterday.  I wouldn't say we got to "swing" our tools but we did some delicate tapping and scratching in typical early season conditions,  i.e. the steeper sections are starting to form nicely but the rising ground heat is preventing solid ice from forming on the lower angle sections.  On Mummy II the crux was the short low angle section above the final curtain, a muddy slab with no protection.  Pulling the bulges in general can be problematic with little or no good ice above the vertical sections.  But...  We climbed!  There's good top-roping to do out there ;-)

Climbed Twin Falls right and continued up to climb Palace Butte Falls on Saturday. Twin was awesome... Palace Butte Falls was climbable but will need quite some time before it is in WI3 conditions. However, the approach would be brutal with much more snow. Cleo's is well on its way. Hangover looked climbable from the parking lot.

Hyalite Canyon Ice Conditions