Pine Creek Conditions '12

Submitted by McAlpine on Tue, 11/20/2012 - 16:10

Ended up just taking the dog for a walk today. GREEN Gully looks sporty, Blue is actually still red from all the willows and complete lack of ice, lower Pine Creek falls is still falling freely, however the right (or south) lower Pine Creek falls gully had ice.

Your photo named "pine creek Blue Gully 002.jpg" is actually Green Gully. If the ice is actually adhered to the rock, it looks awesome!

 Blue is huge! Green still has room to grow but its in. Pine creek falls upper and lower is totally frozen. Saw some of the largest surface hoar I have ever seen so if we get a good dump, be careful. 

 Went and did Green Gully on Sunday and found decent if not a little brittle ice and a very low avalanche danger.  That being said we are supposed to get a dump in the next couple of days and the surface hoar layer is likely to result in a greatly increased avalanche danger.  I made a short video about it if you want to get a real idea of what it is like.  vimeo.com/57043518

-Ty

Headed out to climb lower & upper Pine Creek Falls on 1/20/13. Lower (south) falls had very thin ice, you may want to bring along some rock protection. Fun but very run out if you don't have rock pro.

Upper falls were pretty fat, although at the top there was just a thin layer of ice on rock. Some warm temps & sunshine made for a good day on the ice, we put in a few laps.

Talked to a few guys in the parking lot who had climbed Green Gully, they said that there is very little snow on the approach and that the climb is steep & in good condition.  From our view, both Blue & Green looked good, but we were across the creek so take that with a grain of salt. 

 

Madison, Gallatin, Absaroka Mountain Ranges