Ice Climbing in Hyalite Canyon, MT - March 2010

Once again, I found myself in completely unfamiliar territory while I was trying to plan a last-hourrah spring ice climbing trip without being able to refer to a NEIce type of life-line.

In the beginning I was thinking Destination Wyoming. However, constrained by needing to fly into or out of Jackson, WY, the super famous Cody, Wyoming ice climbing mecca was just out of my reach at 7 hours away. The next alternative: Bozeman, MT. Hyalite Canyon. Home to the inimitable Alex Lowe's coup de grace - Winter Dance.



But where do I find information about climbing there? There is an infrequently updated Montana Ice and Alpine Recreation. For some strange reason this site does not seem to invite the frenzied clusters of posts the Friday before a borderline freezing weekend that NEIce is so dependable for. (I'd like to think that the zealous posting found on NEIce is an indication of just how crowded the east coast is. However, I know, we all know, that it's, in fact, an indication of our high concentration of type-A control freaks). So, although the site's members were friendly and quick to respond to questions, there wasn't enough information that even my low trip-planning standards would deem sufficient for seeding a plan.

(This write up Hyalite Canyon is a rare instance in which SummitPost actually fills a void).

So, what were my planning challenges and what did the Internets fail to inform me of?


Questions (nagging) & Answers:

1) Will there be ice in Hyalite Canyon when I get there?

Montana Ice and Alpine Recreation had no up-to-date ice conditions reports. Literature assured me that the typical ice seaons lasts from November to April.




However, we were going through a dry spell and winter had long ago exited stage left from the northeast. I was convinced that we would arrive to find nothing but ice melt and bare cliffs. Take heart my friends! This sort of awful fate did not befall us. There was plenty-o-ice. Granted, the TR area was wholly picked out. But all else was more than a bunch of ice-starved east coasters could ask for.



2) Is the road passable by a 2WD?





Yes. Sometimes. Not always.

The Hyalite Canyon Road turns off of 19th Street and runs about 21 miles until the parking lot. Approximately 3 miles before the farthest trailhead the road crosses the reservoir and turns to dirt. The entire length is no challenge for a 2WD when plowed or bare. However, if it begins to dump and you choose not to call it a day while the fluffy powder quickly accumulates you may find that you are the last car in the parking lot with no prospect of help should you fail to dig out. Despite what an SUV-full of stoners averred earlier that morning, it appears that this minor road is not frequently plowed. For example, it was not plowed the day that we saw 6-8 inches of accumulation.



Because there was beer that needed to be drunk in town we were not going to give in. After pushing and heaving the car out of it's iced-in parking spot, we managed to get into some tracks left by earlier (heavier) vehicles and by keeping our speed up, made it through the toughest 3 miles of snow-covered dirt road. The last few miles follow the shoreline of the reservoir so it's relatively flat and doesn't require much momentum to surmount grades.

Hitting the paved portion was a relief. But don't get too engrossed in downing your PBR as there are a few gnarely pot holes sprinkled throughout.


3) Should I cut the day short in order to hit the Bozeman Hot Springs?

Perhaps.
Yes if it starts raining. I was initially put off by the Bozeman springs web site. I thought we were dealing with your average Soho-style spa and fitness center. I imagined slated bamboo flooring, dim lights and world music playing at low volumes.

Praise be that it was none of that. It seemed to be where the locals went to unwind because winter still had not lifted and maybe they'd get a chance to not hear their kids drowning because they were relaxing in the pool watching the game. There was a high density of tatouage. There was descent tiling around the hot pools and half of the waterfalls were functional. Unfortunately, like the forever mystery that the Cat's Paw has become, so has the "other" hot springs that we had meant to go to.

The Norris hot springs are a bit out of town - some 40 miles west of Bozeman. We eagerly embarked on the drive to this remote destination based on the promise of boozing while bathing. Desafortunamente, the presence of a beer menu on the web site completely obscured the hours of operation. I failed to note that on Sun, Mon, and Tues there is no bathing, beer, or bubbles. If had a few more days in Bozeman I would have made the trip again. The Norris hot springs looked as if they were an extension of someone's trailer. The plastic tarp construction geodesic dome looked inviting. It had cozy written all over it.

4) Which guide book should I get?

Go for the free book.

If you cannot avail yourself of free guiding material you will be facing a ~$30 hit to your wallet and will need to make a choice between the two guides written for area. I had originally wanted to get Winter Dance for the elegant title and provenance (written by the local climbing legend, Joe Joesphson). However, Rock and Snow had a signed copy of the competing guide, Big Sky Ice. The latter guide was adequate if somewhat lacking in diagrams and graphics. The only map to the canyon was a poor quality Xerox of a topo mapped crammed into 1 page. But, as if to make up for the dearth of graphics, 1/3 of the guide consisted of essays, trip reports, testimonials and musings written by local climbers over the years. As long as you turned down your sensitivity to grammar and punctuation, this appendix made for some fun reading.


5) Is it acceptable to wear a mountaineering onesie?

Never.

6) Does Bozeman have any good cowboy bars?

We couldn't navigate the bar scene very effectively for all the Spring Breakers. There was not a single cowboy amongst them. (Although, we New York- and foreign-types probably couldn't reliably identify even the cowboy who accidentally rolled his snakeskin roper over our toes). Of course, our exploratory was not exhaustive. I suspect that we passed up a good bar just within our reaches, mere blocks away from our Royal 7 motel.

The Cat's Paw had a glimmer of promise from with the classy neon sign marking it's entrance, to the erudite name, to the posse of late-model limos idling in front of the joint. Unfortunately, we'll never know as we first lost nerve and then were dissuaded from going by the low opinions locals shared with us of this joint.

Trip Report: Mt. Sir Donald, British Columbia - August 2009

Background

As it would kill me to ask questions of anyone I have become a serial abuser of compiling all my research from the Internets. Although this may work for certain research topics, such as how do to disable pop-ups in Firefox, for most matters of any importance it's a very bad idea. Even though I come to this realization and fully accept that the web should not be a definitive source of knowledge or even a primary reference I am meanwhile going to add to the problem by posting just a little more (mis)information. In fact, I'll post just the sort that I wish I had available to me while I was doing my own research way back when.

Getting There

Canada. Mt. Sir Donald is in Canada. British Columbia. Roger's Pass. Selkirk range.

Perhaps the best place to overnight is at the Illecillewaet Campground, 3km south of the Roger's Summit ranger station. The campground fees were somewhat steep. It wasn't until the next day that I realized a hut was stationed just opposite the trailhead. (I could have had a timber roof over my head!)



What you need to know!

Climbing Sir Donald was originally my dad's idea. He did all the preliminary research (from the Internets, of course). He landed on a variety of conflicting assessments of climbing the NW Arete. Roper's Fifty Classic Climbs of North America rates it at 5.2 though other reports inflate that rating to a 5.4 or higher. My dad was quite certain, based on his findings, that he wasn't going to use no damned rope. Luckily his stubbornness was not put to the test as my parents had to back out of the trip at the last minute.
Stuart and I, however, valuing our safety and wholeness of body above all else, were determined to attach a rope to the mountain during all moments of our ascent. But was it possible?

Does the average mortal need a rope to climb Sir Donald's NW Arete?

You could manage without. But that's assuming you don't mind returning in the dark because you had to pass up the 8 sweet rappels that take you virtually down to the base of the climb.
As for using a rope on the ascent...it's asking for frustration. Stuart and I tried simul-climbing for most of our feeble attempt. Only when the 5.2 seemed to verge on a 5.2+ did we pitch it. However, as I was nearing the end of the rope on my lead I almost felt as if the protection of the rope was quickly going to turn into it's downfall. Literally. For all the friction and drag. So, leave the rope in the pack on the way up.


What is the NW Arete's rating?

I am not qualified to dispense ratings for climbs. Thankfully I am qualified to give opinions. I feel that it's fairly assessed as a 5.2 based on the climbing alone. However, if you ever lift your head during the ascent, you'll need to be a hardened soul to not get a little unnerved by the awesome exposure. So, if exposure figured into ratings, it's a 5.2++.


How many hours does the climb take?

One thing's for sure: if you turn back half-way up the arete you will spend less time on the mountain than if you summit. We left the campground at 4:30 am and returned by 8 pm. Our turn-around time was 2 pm, and we had reached the col sometime around 8:30 am. That means we pissed away at least 5 hours trying to ascend the ridge tethered to a rope. Let these facts and numbers be a lesson to future parties.



Where and how do I access the rappels?


The Roger's Pass ranger station kindly distributes route/rappel maps...if you ask.

Do I need to sign in or register for the climb?

Again, I won't presume to give an official reply. However, when we "signed in" at the Roger's Pass ranger station they appeared entirely nonplussed about our proactiveness. When we appeared 2 mornings afterwards to "sign out" they were even less enthusiastic (I almost feel as if the ranger made a mock strike-though of our names that had been fake written in the 2 days earlier).