Smith Creek Pass to Holland Lake traverse in the Swans

As much as I enjoy exploring, it is enjoyable to return to old favorites in the mountains.  I recently did the Cooney pass to Holland lake traverse in the central Swan range, my favorite long summer outing near Missoula.  The only real competitor is the Mission traverse, but in my opinion, the unmarred high quality terrain of the Swan outweighs the prominence and definitive nature of the Mission traverse.

Holland peak and the knife edge section leading up to the North ridge.

After working a full day, I didn’t roll out of town until 7 pm, which did not allow enough time to get the shuttle set.  So I just dropped a bike at Holland lake and drove to the Falls creek road.  I was running up the road at first light the next morning.  In an effort to reduce biking, I ran three miles of the Falls creek road to the trailhead, which went quickly.  Since I was going for time, however casually, I took a few minutes to stretch at the trailhead and set a stop watch.  The trail up to Cooney pass opens with a long set of switchbacks ascending the east face overlooking the valley.  The sunrise illuminating the Missions was spectacular.  I took my time, running where possible but mostly walking with purpose, knowing that I should be on top of Cooney within an hour of wrapping into the drainage.  Aside from some minor fretting due to no water along the trail (I had left the car with only a half liter), the mile or so up Falls creek went quickly.  I made a game day decision to leave the trail at the mouth of the upper hanging basin instead of taking the trail all the way to Smith Creek pass and climb Cooney via the East ridge.  The ascent of Cooney was slightly quicker this way, and I was surprised to top out at two hours.  

At the trailhead, excited for the day.

Fireweed, burned trees, sunrise, Mission mountains.

Early morning light on Cooney.

Another purposeful thirty minutes of movement had me on Cooney’s sister southern summit.  The entire route to Holland is nothing short of delightful.  The crest goes over five small summits perched above the Albino glacier, and the ridge gradually tapers from open and fast to knife edge.  I was able to collect snow in two spots, which was sufficient to stay hydrated.  The highlight is the half mile knife edge section just North of Holland peak.  Having no head for exposure anymore, I took my time through this section.  I also passed the final ridgeline north of the notch via loose ledges on the East, but I do think this saved any time.  Holland’s 4^th class North ridge route flowed easily as well.  From the notch, stay on the crest until it gets steep, bypass the first step on the west, then transition immediately into a bypass on the East.  From there, stay more or less on top to the summit.  I arrived on the summit of Holland in 4.45, feeling a bit tired but good overall, and spooked a herd of nine goats enjoying the lofty perch.

Looking back at the opening quarter of the traverse.

Starting into the knife edge section.  A crux (shown below)
is hidden in the notch at the base of the cleanest slabs on the ridge.

Looking back at the crux.  I walked across the black ledge and did a few exposed sidestepping moves across a small gap.  Then up an easy 5 foot dihedral to the stance where I took the photo.  One could, in a pinch, back up about 500 feet, drop about 800 vertical feet to the east, and bypass all of these difficulties off the ridge.

Goats on Holland peak.

Buck took fifty five minutes.  I stopped one last time to pack my bladder and bottle with snow and shoot a GU packet, but otherwise it was all fun movement.  I took the gully immediately east of the North ridge, which is less elegant than the ridge but a bit faster.  Someday I will get the route off the South side of Buck dialed (the south face, southeast ridge, and west face all go), but I took the conservative route down the south face, scree skiing about 800 feet of terrible loose scree, then traversing terrible loose scree back to the ridge.  From there it is easy and enjoyable sailing to the peak above Rubble lake.  And from there it is easy and enjoyable sailing to Woodward.  I topped out on Woodward appropriately tired right at 7 hours.  The descent off the South side of Woodward is a little slow, but soon enough I was once again in smooth sailing territory, which I rode to the Holland lookout.  It was clear that I would be able to easily beat my previous best time, so I took a minute at the lookout to stretch, eat, and get psyched for the descent to the trailhead.  The legs had enough pep left to click the last five miles of immaculate, enjoyable trail running off in 45 minutes.  I emerged at the trailhead at 8.23, over an hour faster than my previous best time.  Roughly 9,000 vertical feet.  Having survived the day intact, my knee moaned for the entire 15-mile bike shuttle, but I didn’t care, and a dip in Lake Alva was enough to check the biking induced inflammation.

Looking South from Holland to Buck.

Looking South from Buck to Woodward.

Bad/loose scree skiing on the South side of Buck.

Looking South from Woodward to the lookout.

Starting down the trail home.

Thoughts

This route is just fantastic.  I am familiar enough with the terrain that it was fun to not think about routefinding and spend much of the day simply enjoying the movement.  For time, I had great conditions and went relatively hard, but still took a lot of pictures and stopped for water breaks.  I have no doubts that a fit mountain runner could go sub-6.  On the flip side, less experienced routefinding parties, parties with limited climbing experience, and hiking parties may find the entire traverse hard to complete in a day, especially given the nonexistent bail options north of Holland peak.

The traverse from Smith Creek pass to Rumble lake, with the option to climb Holland peak would be considered a classic mountain scramble if it was in a more popular area.  I can not recommend it more highly, as long as one respects the exposure and lack of bail options. I'll try to get some route beta up soon.