Haggin through the hellfire

I've had my eye on Mt. Haggin,  more or less, the entire time I've been living in Butte. It dominates the skyline to the west, and is a constant distraction out the library window. Stuck in town for the weekend due to an unfortunately timed chem test, I decided that Saturday would be my one day of redemption. ...Which means I woke up hungover to a post-apocalyptic smokey hell-scape, and had to stop for coffee, an egg McMuffin, and lunch supplies. This resulted in a departure from my vehicle at approximately 10:30, which is generally considered an alpine start by Buttian standards. 

The peak itself was actually pretty cool. 14 miles with, according to Summitpost, with over 5,000 feet of elevation gain. The hike literally begins in Anaconda (you park in a church parking lot. Amen!) and follows an old road to the damned Hearst lake, the town's water supply.  

 Norma, leading the way through the aspens just above town.

 An old brick structure nestled below Hearst lake.

 Hearst and its damn. The Larches are already turning gold up high!!!

 After reaching Hearst the hike involved a bushwack to a higher southern cirque, which allegedly was home to a smaller lake. When I got up there she was bone dry.

From the cirque the route involved traveling up the prominent NE gully to gain the summit ridge. Some hardy oldtimer made his miners cabin directly along my path.

The true summit as seen from the ridge.  

 Norma investigating the world's largest summit cairn. 

Looking towards Evans and Howe peaks through the haze. 

 Pika!

 Red sky on the hike out. 

Hopefully West Goat peak is next.

Beast of Rest Stop Crag

Escape from the Haze

I'm fully aware that I haven't published a worthwhile post, about anything besides GNP in an extended period of time. After arriving back in Butte for the fall semester I expected this to change. Too bad the 19mile fire (amongst others) decided to meddle with my plans, by clogging Silverbow County with a nasty haze. 

When my Bozemanian buddy JD told me he was fleeing the smoke for Glacier, I weaseled a spot into his car. Yes, I'd only left the Flathead for 10 days, but I was still eager to get back.

Highlight of the trip (aside from a inebriated evening at the Northern Lights Saloon in Polebridge) was our trip up Mount Henry in the Two Med. (Sidenote: the former name of Mt. Henry, Bearchief is infinately more badass, and refers to one of the more hostile Blackfeet war chiefs.) The Two Medicine has steadily  become one of my favorite sectors of the park. The ridge walk up Henry was different than most peaks I've done in the park. Instead of the lush vegetation I usually associate Glacier, this hike was almost barren, and reminded me of the Lima peaks. It also had a very spicy section that involved hight exposure in both side of a razor this ridge. ...I was too busy being scared to bust out the camera.

 JD Babe-Ruthing the summit.

 High wind on the east side. 

 Ridge walk from Medicine to Henry.

 The non-existant goat trail.

 Matching up peaks from the summit. Rising Wolf dominating the skyline at right.

 Looking out on the prairie to the Sweetgrass Hills (sacred to the Blackfeet). Even though this pic looks hazy, this is actually the clearest I have seen them. 

Rad painting on a building in East Glacier. 

Here is to hoping peak season didn't die with labor day.

Fire on the mountain: toll mtn fire as seen from Butte

Iceburg Notch: Many Glacier to the Loop

My boss Beau and I have developed something of a tradition, in which, at the end of every summer we pick a hike that kicks our shit. The hike isn't always long, but due to a combination of length altitude, and ample amounts of navigation error we epic. This season we traversed from Many glacier to the loop via iceberg notch. The first part of the trip is easy: 5 miles to the favorite tourist haunt Iceberg Lake. From there things get tricky. 2,000 feet on rotten scree ledges to the notch. Climbing the notch alone is roughly the same difficulty as most the peaks found on top of the pass. 

Beau at the lake with the Notch above. 

Beau about halfway up.  

Looking down the notch. Some dude skied this last winter!

This is where we began our epic. According to the old Edwards guide it was only another hour to the top of Iceberg peak. We'd made good time so why not? ...thus began a 4hr route finding detour with limited water. The lack of pics from the peak portion speaks to our suffering.  

Beau on the summit. the lake is 3,000 feet straight down. 

 A glisade on our decent down the back side. 

Mt. Gould above the granite Chalete on our final 8 mile push from Ahern pass brought us to the loop. 

Dragon's Tail

I decided each peak deserved a post. Rather than returning to studying like a normal student I figured my time would be best spent nerding out with my blog. ...Isn't that what the library is for?

The Dragon's Tail is a wild fin that makes up the eastern end of the Hidden Lake  cirque. Although not extraordinarily tall, nor prominant, it is one of the more interesting climbs of the hidden lake area. 

Beau at bottom left, near the end of the frightening goat trail.

Sarah and Beau on the summit ridge. Reynolds, Matahpi and Going-to-the-Sun in the background. 

 Summit celebration. Mt Brown in the back. 

The Dragon's Tail from the climbers trail. Hidden lake can just be seen down below. 

Blogger is being dumb here are a few pics.

So I was in glacier for a month and did not post once. Our shitty generator, hundreds of screaming 12 year olds, lots and lots of days in the park, and me being a royal bum all conspired to prevent this from happening.  I was going to post all of my pics at once but blogger is shit, and I'm in a laundry mat with crappy wifi. Here are a couple shots. I'll post more when the internet is better. 

The mission Mtns on the drive to the flathead.

Shannon and Tron, surveying the Quartz lake loop

Spam bloc enjoying the views from Oberlin.

Sarah, more enthused about the trail than myself.