Hyalite Canyon | January 6th & 7th 2017
After arriving in Bozeman, MT and getting an exceptionally chilly day in at Bridger Bowl (-20F to be exact) we decided to save some cash and head into a nearby backcountry zone called Hyalite Canyon. Lucky for us, the temps stayed above 0F for the day and the avalanche danger was fairly low. Our trek started in a mostly empty parking lot along a cross country track which then headed into the woods up to some open and steep meadows.
Photo by Kevin McAvey
While the low avy risk was comforting, it came with the price of tracks. While seeing tracks on a slope does not guarantee your safety, this is a very popular area and it looked like a there hundreds of tracks on the slope. This was mostly due to the lack of new snow. Regardless, we were still able to a find a few powdery patches on our way down.
Photo by Kevin McAvey
On our second day in Hyalite Canyon we were greeted with more sun and warmer temps. We skinned into a zone called Lick Creek. A mostly flat skin followed by a fairly low angle meadow which was mostly tracked out. Upon returning to Bozeman, we looked at the weather for the region and spotted the potential for roughly 4-5 feet of snow in Jackson Wyoming. So off we went.