Hyalite Ice Clinic Weekend

Date: February 16-18, 2018

Trip Leader: Forest Dean

Participants: Megan Monahan, Jerry Cintron, Steve Hancock, Chad Atwood, Quentin Rhoades

As part of our new mission of offering more outdoor educational opportunities, we signed up Whit Magro, one of the best ice climbers around, to give us a day of instruction in this world class ice climbing venue.  A fun weekend ensued!  We had 10 folks sign up but at the last minute 4 had to cancel to due to illness.  Thus, only six of us made the trip to Bozeman.  We rented a beautiful log home a few miles north of the city which served as our luxurious basecamp for the weekend.

Saturday morning we met Whit at the Grotto Falls trailhead at 8:30 and then hiked up to the Unnamed Wall for a day of instruction and climbing.  We all learned a lot and got some good laps in.  Back to the house that evening and most of us stayed up way too late.  Somehow the foosball table made its way into the kitchen during the small hours and Steve and Forest took the title.  Sluggishly we made our way back to Hyalite (except for Jerry) amidst a major snowstorm on Sunday morning.  We met a couple friends of Chad at the trailhead then headed for a day of climbing at the Amphitheater area.  Weather cleared as day progressed, but it was quite cold.  The group started disbanding between 3:00 and 4:00 and everyone battled bad roads but made it back to Missoula safely.

Whit was stoked to do this with us and looks forward to making it an annual event!  It’s a real treat to learn from (and just plain watch) someone with his experience and ability.  We look forward to offering more of these kind of events!

Forest Dean