Reaching New Heights
The evolution of the Bozeman Ice Festival.
For decades, winter climbing in Hyalite Canyon remained guarded by 13 miles of unplowed road. Most action—carried out by a small handful of dedicated aficionados—took place by early December, and a snowmobile ride or a long ski in were the only ways to access the frozen wonderland.
The first ascents of low-angle ice flows in the early ’70s paved the way for the increasingly demanding—and visionary—ice and mixed climbs of the ’80s and ’90s. At the time, Bozeman’s two climbing shops—Barrel Mountaineering and Northern Lights Trading Post—were the scene’s main hubs. A logbook kept at Barrel—made famous by Alex Lowe's entries about new routes in Hyalite—allowed folks to stay up to date on conditions and the latest activity.
In 1996, Joel Lee, owner of Rocky Mountain Outfitter in the Flathead Valley, moved to Bozeman to work at Northern Lights. That year, the shop put on the first of its “ice demos.” Rental gear at the time was hard to come by, and these popular clinics allowed many locals to try ice climbing for the first time, and at a low cost.
Lee left Northern Lights for Barrel the following year, where he worked with owners Chris Naumman and Laura Ryan to run the inaugural Bozeman Ice Fest in 1997. From the beginning, the focus was on “getting people together and introducing them to the sport.” Lee explained that “since no online resources existed at the time, ice climbing sort of existed in a vacuum.”
The line-up of instructors at the inaugural Ice Fest was nothing short of legendary, with names like Jack Tackle, Joe Josephson, and Barry Blanchard running the clinics.
The line-up of instructors at the inaugural Ice Fest was nothing short of legendary, with names like Jack Tackle, Joe Josephson, and Barry Blanchard running the clinics. Limited by the guides’ capacity and the availability of accessible beginner terrain, the first handful of festivals remained small. Instruction would happen on the ice walls in Hyalite all weekend, followed by evening slideshows and a notorious afterparty on Sunday night. The festival would take place before Thanksgiving, allowing access to the trailhead and ensuring that college kids were still around before going home for the holidays.
The new level of accessibility—along with significant advances in equipment—quickly had folks flooding in from all over the Pacific Northwest to come swing tools in Hyalite. Accomplished climbers from around the continent were soon calling in and asking to run clinics. The buzz was in the air. Lee remembers a particularly “off-the-rails” presentation by Stevie Haston, as well as few notable appearances by Mark Twight, Jack Roberts, and Will Gadd in these early fests.
“We certainly weren’t making money… if anything, we lost a few thousand on every festival. But I always viewed it as an investment in ice climbing, Bozeman, and its community,” adds Lee.
The event kept growing, and although Barrel shut its doors and Northern Lights stopped selling climbing gear, Ice Fest became incorporated under the nonprofit Friends of Hyalite to help advocate and fundraise more effectively for the plowing and maintenance of winterlong access to Hyalite’s hundreds of ice and mixed routes.
Other accomplished climbers from around the continent were soon calling in and asking to run clinics.
After a wildly popular experimental plowing of the road in late 2007—affectionately remembered as the “Hyalite Love Fest”—Gallatin County and the U.S. Forest Service began plowing the road regularly in 2008. This allowed Ice Fest to move to its current dates in the second week of December, ensuring better ice conditions, and allowing for the use of the Emerson Cultural Center downtown to host the evening events.
In 2018, longtime festival director Joe Josephson created the Ice Climbing Alliance specifically to run the festival, which had outpaced the Friends of Hyalite’s capacity. In 2021, ownership and operation were turned over to the Montana Mountaineering Association, whose mission of “securing winter access to Hyalite Canyon…while promoting our long tradition of personal engagement and camaraderie between climbers of all abilities, ages and backgrounds” meshed perfectly with Bozeman Ice Fest’s raison d’être.
While much has changed since Ice Fest’s inception, a lot remains the same. Internationally-sanctioned ice-climbing competitions were held from 2012 to 2015, culminating in a World Cup event held at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds. Meanwhile, Hyalite has matured into one of North America's premier ice-climbing destinations, boasting the full spectrum of modern winter climbing, from drytooling test pieces to difficult alpine routes.
Today, participants can still mingle with complete beginners and world-class climbers alike, both on and off the ice, and soak in the spirit of the mountains through evening panel discussions and films at the Emerson. Expo booths and gear demos allow climbers of all experience levels to chat directly with manufacturers and experiment with a variety of equipment.
The Bozeman Ice Fest is about education, stewardship, community, and the celebration of Hyalite’s gift.
Beginner, intermediate, and advanced clinics are supplemented by specialty groups for women and adaptive participants. Self-rescue, fast-and-light alpinism, and many other specifically-focused programs are offered as well.
The Bozeman Ice Fest has always been about education, stewardship, community, and the celebration of Hyalite’s gift, and it will continue to spread the magic of ice climbing with diverse groups of folks for years and years to come.
