When the Backbone was still the Backbone.

At used book sale the other day,  I cam across a pamphlet I found extremely interesting. "Good Medicine in Glacier National Park," by Adolph Hungry Wolf. The book (long out of print) tells stories of the Blackfeet (and occasionally Kootenai) in GNP. And, while the stories are neat, the photos are what I found the most fascinating. 

 Lodges on the top of the pass. Mt. Reynold in the background. 

 "Running Wolf's saced lodge on Two Medicine Lake."

 "Two-Guns-White-Calf and companions"

Riding near the battle  of the Cut bank river. 

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.

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.

the park revisited

Had a long weekend over easter, and due to impending winter storm warnings around Butte, I decided to visit my old stomping grounds on the North Fork of the Flathead. It seems pretty crazy that a year ago I'd just started living there. Weather was un-seasonally nice, and we took full advantage by lounging around the Glacier Institute like champs. We did however to do a little hiking on the southern boundary trail, which follows the Middle Fork of the Flathead. This trail would normally not be my first choice, but snow up high had us looking for new options. It turned out to be great. Despite having driven the same route on highway 2 numerous times, being on the opposite side of the river, and traveling at a much slower pace changed the entire experience.


Middle Fork


Precambrian Super Choss

One final push to the end of the semester. Here's to hoping its only beautiful outside on days I can actually afford to recreate.

Vision Quests, Choss Monsters, and Pikas.

I've been to the North East section of Glacier multiple times in the last couple of years, and each time I've wanted to come back for two separate but equally alluring reasons: Fly fishing on the Belly River, and climbing Chief Mountain. Sarah, Beau, and I took a short break from the child slavery ring we operate, and set out to do both. Our plan was to complete fish the Belly while hiking to Slide Lake, then climbing Chief the next day via the Lee Ridge trail. Turns out my eyes were bigger than my stomach.


South Fork of the Two Medicine River from our campsite.


All meat dinner on a stick.


Sarah and Beau. Gable pass on the way to slide lake.




Slide Lake.


Pika! Cool Facts: North America's smallest rabbit. Farms decomposed poisonous plants during the winter. Pees out crystals to conserve energy. The real life basis of Pikachu.


My camera ran out of batteries before we started the climb so I am just going to have to leave you with this photo taken last month. Chief a choss odyssy but the views were absurd. A Canuck took our picture and promised to email me so I might have some proof eventually... stinking canucks.

Siyeh Peak plus Siyeh pass.

John David jordan and myself did a little hikin' over the weekend. Here are some pics of our trip up one of the 6, 10,000 footers in the park (photos by JD). The photo of cracker lake is looking down from the east face of Siyeh, the tallest verticle face in Montana... A true choss monster.







Later in the day JD hooked on to a bull trout. Sadly no pic. But trust me, it was rad.

Gould Rush

Climbed MT Gould the other day. Despite the massive snowfield at the base all went well... Until I lost Sarah's camera on the descent. Bummer. Here is a pic I pirated off the internet of the mountain. Neat-).

Uppa Kintla

12 miles, a backpack full of booze, and stellar weather often account for a pretty decent weekend. Throw in cribbage and the entire Kintla valley and you all but assured a good time. The wind and annoying park regs prevented us form hooking bull trout... I mean Cutties... but I'm not complaining. Yessir, looks like summer may finally be here.


The stoke level is obvious.


Find the hidden animal.


Kinnerly Peak from the morane.


Ice bridge.


Sarah wishing she was back in Havre.


Kevin teaching the griz how to properly steal food from a bear hang.

Grace Lake

A stellar patch of weather happened to coincide with a nice weekend. Drew and I decided that we'd be fools to let such an opportunity squander, and figured we should get into the park. The the inner North fork seemed like a good bet, due to its low elevation and location in a rain shadow. We backpacked 13 miles into Grace lake (above logging lake) and despite, poor fishing and chronic bear sign induced nervousness, had a pretty epic time. Here be some photogs.


There was still a little spring runoff... Stream crossing Vietnam style. Note the .44 in hand.


Mt. Gedhun, above the lake.


Grace Lake


Home in the woods.