Madison, Gallatin, Absaroka Archives

While working this summer for the FS, I spotted a nice cascade about 4 miles up the South Fork of pine creek. In hopes of finding some long lost gem I was able to convince Gregg Smith to go exploring on wednesday. Snowshoes were pretty much ineffective due to the faceted snow and it took 4.5 hours to get to the base of the climb, which turned out to be an OK 60 meter flow of WI3. There are two flows seperated by a snow shelf, the top 20 feet would be the crux, although many variations exist. We rappelled the route off of a tree with double ropes.

Matt Herman and I climbed the Volkables yesterday- they were in good shape. Sun later in the day seemed to be having an effect on Klein Volkable ( the higher, further left of the two). We actually climbed Gross, then traversed left and up to get to the base of Klein. This is a nice way to roll the two routes into one. the bottom of Klein would otherwise be sunsoaked crappy, slabby ice- not recommended. Doing just the upper part makes it nice. Here's a photo Matt took: [img]http://montanaice.com/forums/user_images/klein-volk.jpg[/img]

Climbed "East of Paradise" yesterday. It is in fine shape despite taking some beating from the sun. It won't be good for much longer if this weather holds. A worthwhile route if you are looking for something other than your umpteenth ascent of Blue, Green or Pine Creek Falls. 2 ropes are recommended. The walk around the first pitch mentioned in "Winter Dance" is NOT recommended. There is a good trail leading up the slope from the old mining road.

Hi All, We are looking for images of the Grotto Falls Parking lot full of cars - as many as possible. Also we could use some images from the ice festival or otherwise a large group of people climbing in Hyalite. We need them ASAP. Please email them with a caption to me at joe@firstascentpress.com Thanks, JoJo

climbed black gully sun.21st, not too much ice but lots of good pro, good climb,highly recomended....

An update: You can now drive to the regular parking lot again- no more extra 10 minutes wlking from the George Lake TH.

Sunday morning wasn?t a day you wanted to think about standing around. With temps hovering near 0 the thought of standing at a belay for more than a few minutes seemed like a self inflicted from of torture, I wanted nothing to do with freezing for fun. Luckily for me Jim Earl had been tromping around Pine Creek the week prior and had stumbled on what looked like a locigical alpine climb snaking it?s way from the bottom of the South Fork drainage to what appeared to be the summit of Mt. Black?s nearest neighbor.

Alright, here's a favorite topic, landowner rights and access issues..... I was in Mission Creek this weekend, and on Saturday I was solo so I opted to walk the snow drifted road rather than risk getting stuck. In the past I had heard that the manager of the 63 Ranch gets grumpy when people drive the road when it's muddy and snowy, so I chose to be respectful. However I did mindlessly park on his land inside the gate rather than on the outside.

Just curious if anyone has any more beta on this route than is provided in Winter Dance?? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Happy climbing! Mark

The wife and i took the dogs up to missonn ck on the 12th. Things were looking good from the road which by the way, you can drive to the trail head.. Even looked to be good on the approch , but when we reached Das Ist Eis, it woldn't go . I suppose if a guy got there early like the break of dawn it might take pro. The second pitch of submission looked alot better ,but the bottom was verry thin. Bonus buck was thin as well. It looked as if echo falls would go with little to no pro.. We diddm't head up to Emerald or Sapphire..