Hyalite Ice Climbing

I am creating this thread for our staff to talk about Ice Climbing up at Hyalite. How sweet it is to have such incredible ice so close to our store. It makes for great gear testing.

  

Here are a few photos of Brad and myself up at Hyalite. We went numerous times this year. It was a good season.

  

Went up to upper greensleeves on saturday, did the right fork: other than a rotten section in the middle it was all cruiser, one stick ice. Replaced rap sling and left a ring.

  

We went out last night and found that Fat chance, and thin chance were very brittle. We walked over and played around on Mummy and found it to be in very good condition. Ice quality was great.

  

Went out early on Saturday and did Mummy I and Crypt Orchid. Everything in the Mummy II area looks pretty decent; Matrix and Feeding the Cat are huge.

  

Lat night we went up and did a few quick laps on G1. The far right is in great condition the ledges you have to pull are deep and fun. Thanks again to the Prolite customers Shane and John who were up there with us. We had a great time. We will keep posting little reports until they close the road,
Cheers,
Brad

  

Road was just plowed yesterday afternoon, and most flows are in well enough--a few are huge. Time to get out, have a safe season!

  

My buddy Phil and I climbed Whiskey Dick today (M6+ 70m). The route was awesome! Do it. It starts about 200 feet right of The Hangover. The first pitch is very well protected with bolts (8 bolts) up to a yellow ice column. The start is bouldery and is the crux. A bolted anchor is above the ice column.

We went left on the second pitch over some rock to more ice up to the trees. The ice was probably about WI3 and was really good. An alternative would be to go right on runout M4 rock up to another ice smear then to the trees.

Be careful of loose death-blocks, especially on the second pitch. The route was a great adventure. Highly recommended.

Jon

  

Hey Jon,
Thanks for info on Whiskey Dick. It sounds like a great climb.

  

We hit up Stitch back falls and the mixed lines. The fall it self is really fun quick and easy lead. We used The ice to setup a top rope on the mixed lines. I can't climb m6 on lead yet. The 2 mixed lines to the left of the main ice were great. The bolts were well spaced and the ice curtains on the mixed section are in. You climb from rock to ice, ice to rock, then back to ice. Overall a great experience.

  

Phil and I climbed Come and Get It today. We both agreed it was the funnest mixed line we've been on! The beautiful line follows steep ice onto a long section of steeper rock and then back onto 40-50 feet of more steep hero ice. The anchor tree is about 20 feet back from the cliff. A 70m rope isn't quite long enough to run a top rope to the anchor. We extended the anchor with a second rope to the edge of the cliff and a 70m rope worked perfectly from there.
Come and Get It is steep, sustained, long and totally fun!

Jon

  

Went up and did the mixed routes up at G1 today (pretty much everything else in the canyon is too dangerous to climb right now because of avalanche conditions). I'm not sure what the names or ratings are of the two bolted lines right of G1 are, but they are both fun - kinda short, but fun. The left one is probably about M5/M5+ and the right one is probably about M6. There is a new mixed route called "My Jewish Girlfriend" M4 35m FA Feb. 21, 2012. Its about 100 yards left of G1 downhill and left of "Clump Tree Gully." We checked it out, but never got time to climb it because others were on it. Its bolt protected (8 bolts) with one optional 0.5 camalot placement at the top and is easily top ropable. Its probably one of the easier and less committing mixed lines in the canyon and is suppose to be really fun so definitely worth checking out.

Be safe with the avy conditions - Jon.

  

Climbed "Roman Candle" (M8, 20m) the other day. Its about 100 yards past "Come and Get It." The route is well protected with bolts (probably about 9) to a chain anchor. Its very steep, sustained and, with the exception of the about last 5 feet, has poor feet. The moves are big, but generally to solid holds. Starting about 10 meters up is a dagger of ice the size of a Buick. Careful when climbing this ice - there is a video of Will Gadd on this route where he takes the whole dagger down (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tX4d1O8l2I).