Since the road to the campground was still open today, went up to take a look. The ice is there, but up high, around the 5,000 ft. mark. (if going up head up real early)
The pig and monument falls are in, needs to build more, but climbable. If going to monument falls, you need to traverse as if heading to the pig. The easy ice that you need to climb to get to monument falls and memorandum is not in. Memorandum looks in, but first pitch looks hard.
The lake is not frozen.
Cannon has ice,but it also is really high. Cannon barrel is close.
Let the donkey trails begin.
icefarmer
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Monument
double post
Monument
Got on Monument yesterday. The climbing was really fun, although kind of wet at points (Gore-Tex highly recommended.) We approached as directly as we could (still no approach ice), which led to some scrambling and bush wacking that was a little less than fun.
The Pig, as well as the other stuff up on Bubba's looked quite good. The approach up there looked pretty snowy. Saw evidence of recent slides and there was definitely wind loading going on... beware the slabs!
The routes on Cannon still need some more time.
Do your self a favor and take advantage of the (relatively) easy approaches while the road is still open to Avalanche.
Avalanche Lake
Amy Wood and I climbed a route on the far left of the entire Avalanche head wall. It wasn't the best ice I've ever climbed. All the low angle ice was rotten (unconsolidated) while the verticle ice was chandelier. We climbed it Saturday Nov. 28th. We left our car at 6am. I wish we started ealier. Major spin drifts were falling on our heads. Luckily not strong enough to knock us off. We have photos but will up date later.
We also hiked into Snyder Lake. The ice is looking decent there. We didn't have enought time to climb, but did take some photos. I will up load those later.
Please remember Montana Mountaineering Association is having its annual Ice Season Opener Dec 18th.
Cheers,
Peter Ramos