Pine Creek Ice: Blue and Green Gully

Coming off a strong day in Hyalite, Sam, Manfred and I decided to give Pine Creek a shot. I have climbed Green Gully (WI3) before but I have never linked it with its neighbor Blue Gully. Green Gully is easy to underestimate, both the approach and the climb. You can see it from the trail after very little walking and the damn thing is tall! I lead it cleanly but my hands were excited for me to top out and belay Sam up. We only had a single 70m rope so we had to build a v-thread, aka abalakov, about 35m from the top and rappel twice. We traversed south a couple hundred yards to Blue Gully (WI2?) and Sam lead it without much ado. We were pleasantly surprised to have the place to ourselves all afternoon.

Green Gully. Sometimes its very green colored.

Blue Gully.

Manfred kept the wolves and bears at bay while we played.

Paradise Valley.