Hyalite Archives

the road is still unpassable by truck after the resevoir. we had a vehicle with 10-12 inches clearance and got stuck :roll: right before the bridge about 1PM saturday...off to pine creek

We climbed in the Genesis area on Sat. and everything was fat on that side of the canyon, on unamed wall things looked like they might be deteriorating, although I can't say for sure, the rock appeared very wet and everything from the thrill is gone to the fat one looked in but thin. with a return to cold weather I'm sure they will bulk up again. the road was OK going up to the dam with all wheels chained up, we skied from there, but we high centered on the way out and with the new snow a sled or really high clearance will be needed.

Hi All- Merry Christmas. We recieved a very wonderful gift on Saturday the day before Christmas. Tony Brown, Steve Stein, and I went up to Cleo's and discoverd that is was going off! Damm near everything on the wall was covered in ice. We were able to dry tool 35 feet of M7 to the Airborn Ranger Dagger. It didn't break. whit p.s. The road was rowdy in a few spots but i think it's still worth the drive.

As the last post for the road was the 18th here is a new thread with some observations. We drove snow machines up to the climbs on Friday. People were able to drive to the trailhead. The road is most problematic around Langhor and the hill going to the bridge. The warm spell softened the snow making vehicles wallow up to their axles. Above the bridge, to the dam and trailhead is better as it remained frozen. Should be excellent climbing! Friday was great. ps.... the strong man in the above image would have been 47 today.... time to go pull!

Hello all Im from outta town- and am interested in some info on the conditions of some of the closer climbs up Hyalite Canyon. I know there has been a warm spell- is anything going to be safe? If so what? And no sandbagging please. Happy Holidays! PS Im not a Boulderite

During the week of December 13 through the 17 Pat Wolfe and my self established two new routes on the East face of Palace Butte: Alpha Blondy and Hang Time. Both of these routes were bolted on lead. We used a hand drill on Alpha and a 24 volt Dewalt on Hang Time. These routes are best viewed from the Dribbles area. They are the two daggers hanging. A very nice trail leads up to them, it breaks off the main path before the dribbles approach. You will notice a stick carn.

Partner and I did Dribbles Monday. Nice and fat. Plastic ice mostly. We then wallowed up to The Climb Above... actually the Climb Left of the Climb Above. It's in much fatter than the photos. But the ice was much dryer/colder/harder than below. It's a neat location. Has anyone ever topped out on the ridge from there? The Climb Above has snapped off. There is a neat super-stout thing forming to the right of that.

On Friday we wallowed up to Twin Falls. The snow was particularly deep after we turned left in the established track under the rock wall (sorry, don't know the name). Traversing from Cleo's to Twin was hip to chest deep. Twin is in good shape with accumulated snow on the lower angle sections. The topout on the left side was particularly reminiscent of my home-range, the Cascades, as we plowed through steep, deep snow to the anchors. Cleo's was led by another party. It looked to be in good shape, too. Saturday was butt-cold.

Spencer and I went up to avalanche gully, because we heard that the crux pillar was touching down. The first WI3 pitch is great as is the short narrow pillar before the crux curtain. However, the pillar was not down, bout four feet from the gournd and the ice looked crappy. You could do a mixed start, but we had no rock gear. The road in was fine if you have 4X4, I made it up and out in the Suzuki Sidekick. Thank you to the indiviuals who put up my windshield wipers. Bryan Schmitz

Here's some photos of Hangover and G2 taken on Sat, Dec 10th. Hangover's ice was a little thin, about half of the base hasn't touched down or is a really thin curtain, moss is poking out of the ice, and rock is visible through. I would have climbed it, but the ice at the bottom was quite brittle and I didn't fell the need to wreck the forming ice. [img]http://montanaice.com/forums/user_images/Hangover01-e.jpg[/img] [img]http://montanaice.com/forums/user_images/Hangover02-e.jpg[/img] We then went back over to G2.