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.
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