Hyalite Ice: Upper Avalanche Gully

With the end of the season rapidly approaching due to warm temps and gate closures, its time to squeeze in whatever ice climbing is available. Sam and I departed an 18* parking lot (which is usually the coldest place in SW MT!) headed for Slot Corner and Land of the Lost, two WI4s with a couple easier pitches. I stopped on the main trail and looked right at the approach trail, deciding it was the wrong one and about 15 minutes later I realized it was the right one. At that point we were closer to the Dribbles than anything and Sam had never been so up the hill we went. I have climbed it twice, once this season already and upon seeing it basking in the sun decided that it was climbable but it gets soo much better so I convinced Sam to look elsewhere. I have always wanted to climb Avalanche gully (the standard decent route of the Dribbles) as well as the upper pitches (P3 and P4?) so off we went. P1 and P2 were in the shade so we were feeling optimistic about the upper pitches. Wrong. The upper pitches must get as much sun as any N-NW facing climbs there. It was still really fun to gain atleast 1k' to get there with 60m of M1 climbing to get to the base of the upper climbs. We both agreed fairly quickly (possibly to our dismay in the future) that these upper pitches were definitely within our grasp and added fuel-to-the-fire for next year's season! This was Sam's high-point-in-Hyalite, mine wasnt much higher when I was at the Climb-above-the-Dribbles. I cleaned 20+ years of tat off the rap anchor (obviously replacing it with good stuff) and 4 rappels later we were back to the beer, I mean packs. It was atleast 50* driving out!

Getting there earlier in the day may have possibly allowed us to climb the hanging pillar kind of the middle of the pic but the top out had all melted out. It wasnt hanging on by much and I didnt have any rock pro with me. 

Maid of the Mist and Palace Butte in the distance.

Cleos in the background.\

Pitch 1