Ice Climbing Binge

We were at it again! We had another wonderful ice climbing binge in Montana and Wyoming. Although it was work work work work, drive drive drive, climb sleep climb sleep climb sleep climb sleep, drive drive drive, work work work work; it was still an amazing trip and we had so much fun and climbed many classic climbs, and one rarely formed climb, that have been on my tick list. See the link to Cascade Climbers for our full Trip Report: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/788578/Main/788578/#Post788578

Last week Daniel and I took off on Thursday the 27th and drove 12 hours all day to Bozeman, Montana. We met up with Daniel's twin brother Mark. We. spent Friday climbing in Hyalite Canyon outside of Bozeman. It was cold and snowy, both things unexpected for this time of year. -15 degrees F definitely let us know that it was still winter in the canyon!

Cold!

I can't feel my hands!

We had a great day day climbing in the canyon that day besides the cold. Comes with the territory, I guess :-) The next day Daniel and I left Bozeman and headed to a climb called California Ice. Unfortunately we were thwarted by the weather, and it was puking snow. The climb tops out close to 10,000 feet, so though it is definitely on my tick list we decided to save it for another day!

Instead we headed to Cody, Wyoming and the multitude of climbs in the South Fork. The South Fork is generally snow free, but during this time it had received more snow than the locals have ever seen. We climbed some multi-pitch classics, the first day High on Boulder, and the next day Mean Green. The last day we climbed a rarely formed 2pitch climb called Moratorium.

Yay Ice!!!

First pitches of High on Boulder

First pitch of Mean Green and crux (really really hard) pitch

Overview of Mean Green and Daniel on the crux pitch

The extra snow made for some pretty energy-taxing approaches

resulting in this occasionally :-) Attractive huh?

Moratorium was our last day and super snowy with a ton of spindrift and even one mini avalanche, which made my hardest lead ever seem even harder, but very fulfilling!

Bye Cody, we'll miss you!!!


Then back home, we drove 16 hours all night to get home and pick up Reuben (thanks Nate and Pam!!!). Then back to work :-)

We always seem to ease ourselves back in kind of rouch after these benders, but despite being behind on everything still end up getting outside as soon as we can, withdrawals I guess! We went skiing yesterday and it was amazing. A foot of new snow in the last 12hours at Meadows made Heather Canyon oh so much fun, and a lot less scary on tele skis! Then that evening Reuben visited his mom Cider over in West Linn, I'll post pics if I get them!