Fall Colors in the Hyalites: The HURL Route Project—part 2
The Hyalite Ultimate Ridge Linkup (HURL) Route is a trek that young fit trail runners work to complete in one long exhausting day. My son-in-law Chris and I have spent two days on it thus far, one in each of last year and this year, and we still have one section to go. We are both fit, but we came up short on our first attempt because I slept poorly and I am old. I really wanted to do this route, but nervousness kept me up much of the night before and made a one-day completion an impossibility (Click the button at the bottom to link to this story). This year I was confident that I could complete the second half of the route, but when I met Chris at Hyalite Reservoir, it was clear he was ill. We decided as we drove the Hyalite Canyon Trailhead that we would limit ourselves to a short section in the middle of the route.
Austin Mueller pioneered this route and set the standard by completing it in a single day. Hyalite Canyon and Divide Pass Trails can however be used to divide the route into three sections: start at the reservoir parking lot, run around the reservoir then climb the peaks that border the eastern half of Hyalite Canyon to Hyalite Peak and exit down Hyalite Canyon Trail; start at Hyalite Canyon Trailhead and climb to the pass between Hyalite and Big Chief Mountains, climb Big Chief and the next two unnamed mountains, pickup up Divide Pass Trail which feeds back into the Hyalite Canyon; start at Hyalite Canyon Trailhead, run to Divide Pass and continue along the peaks on the west side of Hyalite Canyon back to the reservoir parking lot. Running up and down Hyalite Canyon adds a lot of miles, but it breaks the route into bite sized pieces—BIG bites, but more manageable than the whole route in one continuous effort.
Chris sounded awful when we started running up Hyalite Canyon. He was dragging behind me—that doesn’t usually happen. At every waterfall I offered to turn around; he insisted we continue. When we reached the pass between Hyalite and Big Chief, Chris wanted to climb Hyalite to start the day. “I haven’t climbed it yet this year.” It wasn’t in the plan for the day, but I readily agreed. We may have specific objectives for our backcountry efforts, but more general objectives, like fun, are allowed to interfere. Hyalite is a pretty triangular peak; I too try and climb it at least once each year. When visitors come to town and want to do a first Montana backpacking trip, Hyalite Lake and Peak are the destinations; they are accessible; they are beautiful.
Big Chief Mountain was a steep grunt but presented no obstacles. The two unnamed peaks that followed offered more challenges. The Hyalites have lots of rotten volcanic rock. These two peaks required short bursts Class 3-4 climbing over rock that had the appearance of frozen lava explosions: being certain that every rock one gripped for support would stay in place was essential.
The descent from the second unnamed peak brought us to Divide Pass Trail. We could have just gone down, but being high in the mountains seemed to do wonders for Chris’s energy. He suggested we climb Divide Peak. It wasn’t too far away, the climb appeared to not be too gnarly, and it would give us a much better view of what lay ahead on the final part of our project.
Five peaks remain after Divide: we could see the route to Mounts Arden and Bole; Alex Lowe Peak, which is next enroute was hidden by Bole, Mount Elephant looked impossibly far away, and Mount Blackmore, the last peak on the route, was also hidden. We could see runnable sections, challenging sections, and there was a lot of terrain we couldn’t see. The last part of this project wasn’t going to be a gimme. Chris and I will hopefully be back to finish it next year. He’s already considering doing it again as a single day push once we work through all the obstacles: it wouldn’t be flashing the route, but my hat is off to anyone who can complete this route in a single day.
Me, I’d love to find a backpacking partner to do this with. Going ultralight, I envision a two-day effort with an overnight at Hyalite Lake as my best shot of completing this route in a single push.
The thing I’ve found that I love most about this project is exploring the Hyalites. The HURL Route enchains the 14 named peaks that are on or just off Hyalite Canyon rim. As with many enchainments it requires lots of off-trail travel, thereby providing the opportunity to explore parts of the range one never would otherwise set foot in. As with many ranges, most of the terrain in the Hyalites is off trail.
Click the link to read the story about the first section of our HURL Route Project:
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