Swan traverse - Union peak to Holland lake

Adventures on the Swan crest continue.  I was excited to string together the longest continuous alpine portion of the range, and it seemed reasonable to try to do it in a long day.  So, with a shuttle in place thanks to Leah, I started up from the gate to the Pony lake access road at 4 am.  The pre-dawn hours were enjoyable.  I lost some time wandering in the dark off trail above the lake, but it went smoothly enough, and I was on top of Union peak shortly after sunrise. I successfully bypassed the slow ridge line sections out to the crest with a very loose but still quick bypass to the South, and was on the crest 4.5 hours into the day.

Sunrise on the crest.  Looking back at Pony lake and the shaded West ridge
that I climbed to gain the North ridge of Union peak.

To my dismay, dawn was accompanied by storm clouds and a biting wind.  Everything else was about perfect, so I set my sights down the seeming endless ridge and rolled South.   The untrammeled and immaculate Union to Smith crest segment was quicker than I remembered, and I was successfully able to bypass the more technical descent options off my nemesis peak with a long detour to the East.

On the crest, ready to ridge ramble for a 10 hours or so.

My nemesis peak.  I took the short gully about half way down the East ridge.

I took a quick water break in the headwaters of Little Salmon creek before boosting back up to the crest, then to Smith Creek pass, then to Cooney peak.  I summited 7.5 hours into the day, optimistically hoping that I was a little over half way.  Unfortunately, the biting wind and intermittent rain intensified, and I got pretty cold as I traversed above Albino basin.  Given my already slightly depressed body temperature, I dropped off the ridge and bypassed the most technical ridge sections before Holland.  I regained the crest for an enjoyable romp up Holland's North ridge.  Fortunately, the winds abated slightly, and I finally ticked over to warm enough.  Buck was a blast.

Blustery and cold above the Albino glaciers.

Buck!

As I approached the point North of Woodward, a significant wall of precipitation swept in, and I decided to try to sneak up off the crest in order to weather the rain in relative shelter.  Eventually the ledges petered out, and I had to make a fairly difficult ascending climb up glassy, rain soaked slabs and dihedrals.  I was able to get up safely with a lot of attention to detail, and the whole affair cost me about 20 minutes.  The rest of the day went smoothly.  Woodward was fun, and the traverse to the lookout was fun.  My hip started hurting on the run out, but I jogged it at an easy clip, arriving at the car over an hour behind schedule but well before dark.  I should do a better job figuring out my hip pain injury.  For statistics, done in 15 hours, 43 minutes.  I didn't track vertical, but it was a big day for me, something 12 - 14k range.

Closing in on the lookout and ready to head down to the valley.

Dang, what a big, challenging, awesome day in one of the most under appreciated mountain ranges anywhere.  For those looking for an all day butt kicker, I think this route is a lot better than trying to combine traverses out to the Clearwater group because you stay up high all day. 

Camas crest ridge loop

It has been over a month, but Leah and I spent a late July weekend trading off mountain scramble days in the Bitterroot.  Saturday was my play day, and I biked out from the Coyote Coulee trailhead at a respectable 7 am.  In less than ninety minutes, I cruised past the Camas trailhead and bounced along to the point where the trail turns up Camas creek proper.  After a full snack sunscreen, shoe swap break, I cruised up to Camas lake, and then up to East Camas peak.  It was supposed to be a blistering hot day in the valley, but the morning was pleasant.  The remainder of the traverse went smoothly, and was quite an enjoyable loop.  I made reasonable time on the boulder hop out to West Camas with a ten minute stop to procure water from a slow drip in a ridge top snowbank.

View from East Camas, showing most of the ridge to West Camas and the Fin.

Looking back from the Fin to East and West Camas.

View from West Camas South to the Lost Horse drainage,
Koch, El Capitan and the Shard.

From West Camas, I bypassed the sharp point at the very head of the drainage (on the East) before regaining the ridge and walking easily to the top of the Fin.  There was also a lot of boulder hopping just South of the crest to Ward, but that section went quickly enough to afford time to walk all the way across the plateau to the exact summit.  I descended the South face of Ward under a blazing sun directly to the middle lakes, ran back down to Camas lake, took a dip, then made the easy run out to the trailhead without difficulty.  The bike back to Coyote Coulee was quick and made for a nice way to round out the day.

Ward South face, with my descent right down the middle.

Thoughts  It was good to finally, finally do this very logical loop. It is a good one.  Biking up the road is not necessary, but it adds to the effort required and helps reduce driving time, which is a little long relative to the length of the outing.  The rest of the weekend was spent lazily camping and picking huckleberries, and shuttling Leah on a similar Camas loop.  She one upped my style by tacking on a full descent off Ward to the Ward/Sawtooth trailhead.