Green Canyon

 On Sunday after camping south of Checkerboard Montana and checking out a copy of the new Ron Brunkhorst guide, or brunch host according to my phone's auto correct, we set out to get some "Big Empty" routes.

The camp

Terra stayed behind to protect the base camp.

Here we are at the top of the approach, you hike down into the canyon and then hike up to the car on the way out, so it's a little backwards

Please take only photos.

Green Canyon!  It is a slot canyon like Hellgate Gulch, or Avalanche Gulch, or Rattlesnake Gulch or Mulkey Gulch or Indian Creek by Townsend!  We have a lot of limestone slot canyons around here

Me leading Bonanza 10a, belay and photo courtesy of Mark Mcalpine

Mark top roping Bonanza

Looking up at Come Full Circle, an 11a/b

Green Canyon is full of bullet limestone and beautiful chert features.  One route features a chert dike, I believe it's called High Chaparral.  Great job brunch host!

Come Full Circle and it's neighbor to the left High Chaparral, notice the vein of chert running up it.  Bonanza corner is just noticeable in the upper left corner of the picture.

Mark leading Cowography, 5.8 120' He is at the first of nine bolts and he has already placed three pieces of gear in the crack below.  Pigeon Spire is in the background.

This key hole feature has a multi-pitch route that follows the left sky line.  I believe it's called Anniversary Route.  Almost a mountaineering line, it didn't seem too difficult we just didn't have time, it's one we'll go back for.

That night the temperatures dropped down to below freezing for the first time that year. As the drainage that we were camped in faced north we eventually noticed the aura borealis putting on a green light show for us in the distance.

Read more about this adventure at: http://mcalpinism.blogspot.com/2015/08/pasture-gulch-and-green-canyon.html

Hyalite Weekend

Terra and I decided that it was time to head to Hyalite Canyon to camp for the weekend.  Despite getting a late start, getting a flat tire at midnight one mile fromt he trailhead and meeting a tripped out travller we found a place to camp and spent saturday hiking to Hyalite Lake and then onto Hyalite Peak we made it all the way back to the car before dark

     We left town late.  It was getting dark as I gassed up the truck at the Town Pump on West Main in Bozeman.  I noticed I had a tire that was running pretty low, we pulled up to the compressed air.  I struggled a lot to get the tire to accept any air at all; this should have set off more of a red flag in my mind than it did.  I finally got air flowing into the tire and after checking it with my new air gauge that I had, I somehow had the confidence to drive into the mountains after dark.

     We drove up into the canyon and painstakingly checked both the major campgrounds and of course they where both full on a Friday night.  We continued to drive up the canyon looking for dispersed campsites.  By the time we passed the reservoir, night had fallen; by the time we were within a mile of the trailhead, my tire went flat.

This was my third time up to Hyalite lake. It was my first time not running the trail so it was nice to have some time to relax and check things out, it sure is cool up there.

Hiking to the lake itself is about five miles; we had already put in a significant uphill effort, we decided to hike to the top of Hyalite Peak anyway, about two more miles.  Hyalite Peak is the pyramid shaped mountain directly behind us in this photo.

Terra took some awesome panoramic photos on this trip and I feel like they add a lot to the blog, I need to get some lessons from her.  Hyalite Peak is visible in the middle of this shot.  Thanks Terra!

Always bring a hiking buddy!

Here you can see where the trail winds up past the tree line, it's always surreal hiking up into the alpine zones!

The mushroom presence was heavy along the entire hike. We saw many varieties of fungus.  I don't know anything about mushrooms, I only know when they are pretty, so I took some pictures.

 

Hyalite Lake is surrounded by a giant horseshoe of mountain peaks and crumbling volcanic walls.

Shrooms!

How do such dainty plants eke out an existence in such harsh environment?

 

The summit register was full of all sorts of oddities

This was not our first summit ever, but we did make it.

When did the Forest Service decide to start leaving summit registers? I imagine that there

We hiked a long way!  The lake is down and to the right and the parking lot is somewhere near the mouth of the canyon.

Mountain climbing is hard work, it is important to take breaks.

Below you can see the saddle where hikers start their final ascent to the top of Hyalite Peak.

These boots were made for yoga...

Mandatory summit selfie.

...and that's what they'll do.

Time to hike back out of the canyon.

We hiked out as the light was just starting to fade in the canyon and drove off to find a good spot to camp.

On the way home, after spending the night up Lead Mine rd, we stopped by crocodile rock for a quick bouldering session.

Someone did an awesome job cleaning out under this one.

I still opted for a standing start, this thing is steep!

I am Sam Milkovich and I approve this message.

Terra also approves.

The butterfly concurs.

Mason Lake

Mark recently obtained a copy of the new bouldering guide, Southwest Montana Blocs, so we went out to find some new problems and a different corner of the Tobacco Roots.  I was able to conscript Joe into carrying my Mad Rock pad in exchange for me carrying his beer in my Mystery Ranch pack. Mason Lakes was the destination and adventure was on the menu.

Mark's new truck got us all the way to the trail head.  This is a road that I probably would have felt more comfortable with a four-wheeler on.  I recommend 4-wheel drive, bravado, or both.  The rest of the hike in is a breeze!

Two bull moose were in attendance.  This one had a modest rack, the other one was HUGE.

It took me a while, but eventually I figured out why they are called the "Mason" Lakes

The masonry is still kickin'.

Then we found the boulders and started climbing, this is me on an easy one.

The holds a nice and smooth for Montana bouldering standards.

Mark topping out while Joe spots.

This one is a V3

 Good friends are a great addition to any climbing rack.

If you're not taking a few art shots when you are out bouldering, then what are you doing?

The Tobacco Roots are Beautiful.

Do we climb the rocks or do they climb us?

     

This is  the Mason Lake side of Hollowtop.  As you can see there are approximately three main buttresses, we visited the right most of the two which are in the middle of this photo.  First we went to the smaller one which is nestled in the middle of the two talus fields, there are three routes which are two or three pitches tall on this buttress.  The roof feature that is visible on the large buttress in both of these photos is huge and catches your eye from every angle, look for it in all of the photos!

Here be dragons.

The base of the lower right hand buttress.

Mark and Joe approaching the base of the cleanest crack I have ever seen in Montana.

I have no idea what the grade for this crack would be, I don't know if it needs one.  It could possibly be described as a narrow off-width and most definitely be described as beautiful.

Taking in Big Poppa Hollowtop.

This is the large roof I pointed out earlier, there are other roofs on the wall but this one is large and in charge.  It looks like there are some pretty clean cracks running in and out of it.

A classic off-width at the base of the main wall

The large splitter crack in the middle of the above photo is the feature that most readily catches ones eye upon first getting a good look at the Hollowtop wall.
It's probably 500 feet and likely starts with a right trending pitch that starts near the small trees visible in both of these photos and ends at the top of the pillar which is on the left side of the horizontal crack in the bottom photo.  It appears as though you could then move right using the horizontal crack/ledge and gain the MEGA SPLITTER!  The mega splitter goes up and then angles back into the dark grey stone and up to the base of the blonde head wall where a right angling, lightning bolt shaped crack takes you to the top!  There may also be a vertical crack to the left of it, also on the blonde head wall.

I'm sure that a direct start can and has been done, but the right trending line that starts at the left near the bushes and ends at the left of the horizontal crack seams the likely choice for most parties.  We saw an old carabiner on a sling at the top of that pillar.

Another look at the first pitch and the column where we saw a carabiner on a sling.

My favorite shot of the main buttress, feel free to set it as your background photo

Always make sure that your climbing partners photograph well

Happy Trails!