Renouned ice climber, Guy Lacelle was killed on Thursday when an avalanche, triggered by climbers above, swept him of the Silken Falls climb in Hyalite Canyon. Lacelle was climbing in the Ice Breaker competition as part of the Bozeman Ice Festival, where a local climber pairs with a non-local to climb as amny routes in Hyalite Canyon as possible in one 
day. Guy Lacelle logged many notable ascents to his name, was a competitive ice climber and received the Summit of Excellence Award, created by The Banff Center which recognizes those that make significant contributions to mountain life in the Canadian Rockies. Guy was 54 years old at the time of his death.
Here, Doug Chabot of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center describes the avalanche characteristics and details of the accident. Man, it’s gotta be tough making these videos.
Guy was one of the finest ice climbers to ever grace the frozen H2O. His solo enchainments are unparalleled. Ran into him once at 8am(leaving) on the approach slog to Curtain Call with his partner Rolo. We didn’t know them and thought it was very early to be bailing. After chatting with them, we found they had just knocked off the route after spending the night doing Slipstream…and were headed to do Weeping Wall to finish the day. CCall was in solid WI6 condition and we were shitting ourselves. He took time from his 24hr day to give us beta, Chai Tea and a pat on the back. What a huge loss!! -peace out Guy
Sounds like a great guy MJW. Thanks for sharing.
Though I don’t ice climb, he was one of my “idols” after reading an article about him and his lifestyle in Climbing magazine ten years ago. His lifestyle was a real inspiration, and his joy for climbing and life contagious. I do think you may have gotten it wrong on residency- to my knowledge, he doesn’t live in Bozeman, but was here for the Ice Festival. I doubt a Canadian would appreciate being mistaken for an American, even as cool a place as Bozeman.
The irony of spending years on the cutting edge of ice climbing, soloeing things that most people will not even rope climb. Doing the impossible for so long and then finally dying doing what normal people do. Always sad to loose someone like him.
Very sad. Thanks for the post.