Hyalite Canyon/Ice Climbing Trip

Date: November 23-24, 2019
Leader: Forest Dean
Participants: Taylor Brugh, Hannah Anderson, Kurt Krueger, Bryan Kercher, Joren Nabozney, Frank Dean, Brock Rugg

Five of us headed down to Hyalite on Saturday morning to get our first swings of the year in. We were proud of the fact that we were probably the only Missoulians heading that way that weren’t going to some football game J. We arrived at the Grotto Falls trailhead a little before noon and then hiked up into the Genesis area. A very nice day (a little too warm) so it wasn’t bad to sit around a wait for an hour as some other groups finished up their climbs on Hangover and Upper Greensleeves. Taylor, Hannah and Kurt walked over and climbed a bit on the latter while Bryan and I hit up the former. We did multiple laps and then headed back down to the trailhead by headlamp.

We drove back a short ways to a large parking area at the junction of the main and east fork road and set up camp for the night. Leftover burritos from the Glacier Classic in August filled our stomachs. A nice campfire. Around 8:30pm a couple of folks came walking into our camp telling us they had slid their vehicle way off the road up the East Fork. Bryan, being the nice guy that he is, very generously game them a ride back into Bozeman (nearly a 2 hour round trip!).

Sunday morning we awoke to very warm conditions (upper 30’s). Frank, Joren and Brock (all students at MSU) met us up there and we headed up to check out the Unnamed Wall climbs. With the warm temps, none of them looked too appealing and so we descended and headed over to the very popular Genesis 1 area. Managed to get a couple of lines and a mixed line set up and then we had fun for the next few hours. Hit the road about 2:00pm and managed to get down the icy Hyalite Canyon road without too many incidents! It was a fun weekend with a great group. Thanks everyone!

Forest Dean