Ashley came over to Bozeman the other week and I ended up renting a cabin out in Hyalite (everything seems to revolve around that lately). Anyways, I thought there was only one cabin back there, so I rented the one that was in Hyalite. Apparently it was a different cabin than I thought it would be and we were off on a wild goose chase for a cabin none of us knew existed. It was a classic adventure with the TEAM. Anyways, we took the wrong road (apparently the right road was about half a mile before this road) and hiked in a few miles to find that this cabin, and the road we were supposed to turn on were nonexistent.
After a few miles of hiking we turned around and ended up going back to Brandt and Tess's place. We ended the night there eating food, drinking beer, and resolving to never go anywhere I made plans for again.
After that Ashley and I got up to Big Sky for some skiing and managed to hit it on the best day of the week with about 6 inches of powder! And it was a bluebird day! pretty sweet ski day.
The last adventure was up to Big Sky again just this last Friday. Amy, Cole and I went up to hit the almost 10 inches of powder that just got dumped from the latest storm. It was quite good. Oddly enough, though, there were a ton of people up there and it was a Friday. Apparently Bozeman shuts down after a good storm. And on the up side I didn't hit my head again so the noggin is doing great.
Well, that should bring everyone up to date on the endeavors, but hopefully i'll be getting out again soon either on the ice or out skiing.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Hyalite Peak Story
Usually I get in a few backcountry tours with Tom each winter, and we hadn't done anything yet. Since the weather has been warm, we decided that high elevation was in order. Hyalite Peak has some good vertical between the 7 miles in, so we went for it.
We woke up early and were at the trailhead by 7:30 kind of ready to go. We were only kind of ready because neither of our coffee's were wanting to work. Well, we threw the skins on the skis and took off up trail.
Luckily the first few miles of the trail are pretty flat so things were easy going the first little bit. The last 2 miles, on the other hand, start to get a little bit of an elevation gain. Around mile six, we come straight up to a small saddle and are in the bowl to get to Hyalite Peak. Once we got into the bowl, we could see lines everywhere. It's this amazing cirque of peaks that has chutes and wide open lines.
We made out way up the safest way possible, since avalanche danger was considerable, and ended up right below Hyalite Peak. We both wanted to summit, but we thought that might be a bit too dangerous. So we turned around and checked out some lines on the other side of the cirque. This is where we saw a few good chutes and decided to go for it.
I put in the first skin track angling up the side and stability seemed to be pretty good. Tom then followed up and we found ourselves on a ridge between two huge cirques. We were essentially between these two bowls standing on the ridge. It looked like there were great routes no matter where we went. Unfortunately if we went down the back side, we probably would have cliffed out and been screwed. Therefore we stuck to out side and lapped the chutes a couple times. These things were just open enough to get a few good turns in and either go over the cliff at the bottom or b line it between a couple of rock faces. When I dropped into my chute, I found myself on some badly windblown crust and therefore decided going off the cliff was probably a bad idea. I B lined it through the rocks and skied down to some great powder.
After we left the cirque, we skied the trail all the way back to the car. A good seven miles of skiing!! What a great run. We found ourselves around great powder and even managed to hit a few cliffs. Since I'm somehow obsessed with cliffs, I decided to go right off one and got rocked on the landing. I essentially landed it, but my weight was going forward too much and I proceeded to land on my head a little ways down the slope (pictures are below). After that we managed to hit another cliff that was even bigger. I say we, but I mean me. Tom didn't really want to hit a 20 footer. I can't blame him, but it was pretty sweet. By this point, though, my legs were incredibly tired and I just flopped down when I landed. 0 for 2. Oh well, I'll get em next time.
Well, the rest of the way was skiing practically on the skin trail so we could go fast enough on the flat parts. That made for some exciting skiing through the trees trying to pick up speed.
The next day was a very bad surprise for me. I apparently had hit my head a bit harder than I thought. When I woke up I went to the office to do some work and kept misspelling words. It was horrible. I kept having to think really hard and even managed to find myself just sitting there staring at the computer not knowing what I was doing. I figured these were bad signs. The next few days I spent with a massive headache and no ability to concentrate. I imagine it was a minor concussion, but since I never went to the doctor, I can't be sure. I know I should have gone, but it's just not fun going to the doctors. Especially since they were going to tell me something I most likely already knew. Why would I pay someone to tell me something I already know?
Well, after about a week the headaches went away and I was mostly back to my normal self. Apparently wearing a helmet doesn't mean you're invincible. Bummer.
We woke up early and were at the trailhead by 7:30 kind of ready to go. We were only kind of ready because neither of our coffee's were wanting to work. Well, we threw the skins on the skis and took off up trail.
Luckily the first few miles of the trail are pretty flat so things were easy going the first little bit. The last 2 miles, on the other hand, start to get a little bit of an elevation gain. Around mile six, we come straight up to a small saddle and are in the bowl to get to Hyalite Peak. Once we got into the bowl, we could see lines everywhere. It's this amazing cirque of peaks that has chutes and wide open lines.
We made out way up the safest way possible, since avalanche danger was considerable, and ended up right below Hyalite Peak. We both wanted to summit, but we thought that might be a bit too dangerous. So we turned around and checked out some lines on the other side of the cirque. This is where we saw a few good chutes and decided to go for it.
I put in the first skin track angling up the side and stability seemed to be pretty good. Tom then followed up and we found ourselves on a ridge between two huge cirques. We were essentially between these two bowls standing on the ridge. It looked like there were great routes no matter where we went. Unfortunately if we went down the back side, we probably would have cliffed out and been screwed. Therefore we stuck to out side and lapped the chutes a couple times. These things were just open enough to get a few good turns in and either go over the cliff at the bottom or b line it between a couple of rock faces. When I dropped into my chute, I found myself on some badly windblown crust and therefore decided going off the cliff was probably a bad idea. I B lined it through the rocks and skied down to some great powder.
After we left the cirque, we skied the trail all the way back to the car. A good seven miles of skiing!! What a great run. We found ourselves around great powder and even managed to hit a few cliffs. Since I'm somehow obsessed with cliffs, I decided to go right off one and got rocked on the landing. I essentially landed it, but my weight was going forward too much and I proceeded to land on my head a little ways down the slope (pictures are below). After that we managed to hit another cliff that was even bigger. I say we, but I mean me. Tom didn't really want to hit a 20 footer. I can't blame him, but it was pretty sweet. By this point, though, my legs were incredibly tired and I just flopped down when I landed. 0 for 2. Oh well, I'll get em next time.
Well, the rest of the way was skiing practically on the skin trail so we could go fast enough on the flat parts. That made for some exciting skiing through the trees trying to pick up speed.
The next day was a very bad surprise for me. I apparently had hit my head a bit harder than I thought. When I woke up I went to the office to do some work and kept misspelling words. It was horrible. I kept having to think really hard and even managed to find myself just sitting there staring at the computer not knowing what I was doing. I figured these were bad signs. The next few days I spent with a massive headache and no ability to concentrate. I imagine it was a minor concussion, but since I never went to the doctor, I can't be sure. I know I should have gone, but it's just not fun going to the doctors. Especially since they were going to tell me something I most likely already knew. Why would I pay someone to tell me something I already know?
Well, after about a week the headaches went away and I was mostly back to my normal self. Apparently wearing a helmet doesn't mean you're invincible. Bummer.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Hyalite Peak
I'll have to add a little story later, but the short story is Tom and I both got hurt and the skin in was 8 miles. My injury was my neck and head (my helmet works... it's official) and Tom's was a toe injury. Sounds like weak sauce but he definitely had blood in the sock when we got back. Tomorrow I'll get to the details. Have fun looking at the pictures.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Oh Hyalite...
So I spent the entire week trying to track down my boss to no avail. So I apparently thought that meant I should ditch Friday and go skiing instead. It seemed like the perfect idea... and it was. It was clear skies and no crowds at Big Sky. Perfect day. Well, almost perfect. Our area has been in quite the warm spell and hasn't seen snow for weeks. This seems to be typical of Montana though. Get good snow early and then January ends dry. Hopefully by February we'll see some colder temps and more snow.
After the skiing, a few of us went to the Banff Film Festival to watch some inspiring outdoor flicks. They show movies from ordinary mountain culture all the way to insane skiing and climbing. It's a good mix of shows to get the motivation going.
Well, after the show I packed the 'ol backpack for ice climbing the next day. Jeremy, Amy and I went up to Hyalite to see how the ice conditions were. Since it's been warm I was a bit wary of things melting, but it turned out to be okay. Definitely not great, but not horrible either. I hadn't been ice climbing for a few weeks, so the confidence was waning a bit... and it showed. Not only were we doing a pretty stiff climb, but it took 10 swings to break away all of the bad ice to get to the good stuff. By the time I made it up the first half of the climb I was freakin spent! So tiring to swing that much and make zero progress. Stupid ice climbing.
After the skiing, a few of us went to the Banff Film Festival to watch some inspiring outdoor flicks. They show movies from ordinary mountain culture all the way to insane skiing and climbing. It's a good mix of shows to get the motivation going.
Well, after the show I packed the 'ol backpack for ice climbing the next day. Jeremy, Amy and I went up to Hyalite to see how the ice conditions were. Since it's been warm I was a bit wary of things melting, but it turned out to be okay. Definitely not great, but not horrible either. I hadn't been ice climbing for a few weeks, so the confidence was waning a bit... and it showed. Not only were we doing a pretty stiff climb, but it took 10 swings to break away all of the bad ice to get to the good stuff. By the time I made it up the first half of the climb I was freakin spent! So tiring to swing that much and make zero progress. Stupid ice climbing.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Ice Climbing
I'm disappointed to say that I did not make it to Cody, WY right before Christmas as was planned. Jeremy got sick as we hiked in and when we were at the base of a climb he got dizzy and on the verge of puking. It was ugly.
So, we hiked out and I went ice climbing in Rapid instead. It served for a few good days of ice, but nothing like back in Bozeman.
The pictures are of Slama and I in Spearfish Canyon.
This coming weekend a few of us are thinking about doing a big ice route out in the Absaroka/Beartooth's. I'll let you know if we make it out there.
So, we hiked out and I went ice climbing in Rapid instead. It served for a few good days of ice, but nothing like back in Bozeman.
The pictures are of Slama and I in Spearfish Canyon.
This coming weekend a few of us are thinking about doing a big ice route out in the Absaroka/Beartooth's. I'll let you know if we make it out there.
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