Pine Creek conditions

Whether it?s WI3 or WI6, when you tie into the rope and finish a pitch 200ft later it usually means you've just completed a great pitch of ice climbing. Green gully is one such pitch and Saturday provided a great day of ice climbing for the Pine Creek area. Conditions are quickly growing with the recent cold temps, still a little thin at the top requiring some mixed climbing but plenty of solid screw placements are found lower on the route. Stubbies and a small selection of thin rock protection could be useful. With $1000.00 going to participants of the open class competition next Sat. in Hyalite no one should be climbing anywhere but Hyalite, chances are you will walk away with something. If you can?t bare the thought of winning money and great prizes for a standard day of ce climbing and have never climbed in Pine creek, this next weekend could provide a nice alternative to Hyalite. From the approach to Green Gully, Blue is also looking thin but climbable; East of Paradise was not quite in; also the ice for the Incubus/Succubus is dangling down about 15 ft and would more than likely provide a nice adventure. A short 30 min further up the South fork of Pine creek will reveal several other fine alternatives to climb. Cross the creek just after you break off the main Pine creek trail and stay on the right hand side of Pine creek as you walk up stream, there should be a nice fire trail that was cut last year. Several clearings reveal the climbing above on both sides of the canyon. For South fork route info See last years posts for new route info or Winter Dance. Kristoffer Erickson