Torrey Lake and a bunch of Pioneer Rock.

Turns out moving out of your apartment really blows. Especially, if you're dedicated to getting your security deposit back. After multiple days of scrubbing goo out of my fridge I decided that wilderness was much needed. The only problem was I decided this at around 4pm on Saturday. Which I arrogantly decided was not going to stop me form going backpacking. Which in turn meant I didn't leave my car for Torrey Lake until 6:30pm. ....Yep, hiked by headlamp and sent my tent up in the dark. 

With that said, the Pioneers are very cool and relatively untrafficked mountains (I only saw one other party the entire time and had the entire lake basin to myself). Torrey Lake is nestled high between Tweedy and Torrey Mountains, the tallest Montana peaks outside the greater Yellowstone and only 11,000 footers west of I-15. 

I hoped to bag one of the peaks, but unfortunately my puppy Norma was a wuss and appeared incapable of technical scrambling, and I didn't have the heart to leave her as cougar bait by the lake. 

With that said the lake was rad, and the mountains lived up to the claim made in the old Cafferty guide that the southern Pioneers hold the largest quantity of untested granite in the state. 

 The hike in.

An epic buttress. 

Another one. 

Last light on tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum. Two stellar spires on Tweedy's east ridge.  

Tweedy 

Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum again, with the lake below for scale. 

My tent in front of Torrey.

Hopefully I'll be back for the peaks. 

Stuart Peak the long way.

Got a camera for my birthday, which means y'all can expect far more regular posts. Over the 4th Sarah and I decided to skip out on the war zone like celebrations you could expect from Butte, and head into the Rattlesnake. For all the time, I've spent putzing around in the recreation area, I'd never actually made it to the wilderness boundary. 

The plan was to bikepack to the Franklin Bridge, camp and fish, then stash our packs bike to the wilderness boundary and hike the back way up stuart peak. It actually worked pretty flawlessly (with the exception of the fishing) though, I will admit to underestimating the overall milage given our short time window. 

 Sarah trucking in on the old forest service road. 

 Some hardman's cabin, 15 miles from the trailhead. 

 Monching, on the dam at the first lake. 

Rattlesnake creek through a pretty cool chute. No idea if creek boaters run it.  

Lake Mckinnely.

Being my first experience with the new camera, I punted and did not charge the battery. Right about here is were it died. We did summit and the views towards the missions and swans were pretty awesome. 

4th of July has come and past, I'm now a crusty old man (25), and peakbagging season is on. Huzzah! 

Hell Guard (Hilgard)

Let me start by saying, that attempting to summit a remote peak via an untested approach, with unreliable beta, and girlfriend recovering from a vicious spat of giardia is a bad idea. Yet those were the set of circumstances I decided would make for a grand labor day. Sarah and I decided we would attempt to climb Mt. Hilgard (the high point of the Madison Range, and highest in MT outside of the Beartooths) by backpacking into the Hilgard Basin and using that as our base camp. Although summitpost and the Peakbagging Montana agreed on little in regards to Hilgard, this was the recommended approach of neither.


Echo Peak above the Hilgard Basin. A little bit of scenery.


Our base-camp. Blue Paradise Lake lived up to its name.


The problem with our plan was the approach. As this pic shows pretty clearly, just reaching the base of the mountain involved crossing a field of talus that would make Mordor look weak. Plus we had no axes or crampons for the easier snow couloir. By the time we gained the east ridge energy was running low.


The partner, obviously nervous about our lack of reliable route information.


Sarah on what we believed to be the correct route.


True summit from the broken summit ridge. Unfortunately not traversable. This would be as close as I'd get.


My false summit is the knob at left. Sonofabitchpieceofshithellassturdwanker!!!!


At least the descent included an epic/terrifying ice coulee.


Myself showing Hilgard how I truly feel. (Yes, that is the middle finger.) Again, talus for miles!

Despite obvious frustration, the overall trip was awesome. I would highly recommend this area to any one.

P.S.
Special thanks to Dennis and Bill. (these guys were so badass they were trying to hunt mountain goats with longbows! wtf?) who hooked us up with coors and doritos after our fail. Muchas, muchas gracias.

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.