Traversing the Taylor-Hilgard unit along the crest has been on my mind for several years now. It is the highest group of mountains in Montana outside of the Beartooth, and the more map research I did, the more it felt like a quality, logical route. When a good window of opportunity opened up, I left a very hot Missoula after a busy work week and arrived in a blissfuly cool Madison valley, fired up for an adventure.
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| Imp sunrise, looking back at the Echo/Hilgard group. |
Day 1: I started the 29-mile bike shuttle by headlamp, with intentions of completing it in the early morning with minimal highway traffic. Aside from a biting headwind, the plan worked perfectly and I was only passed by 19 cars in two hours. I paced it nice and easy, and was at my pack at the Earthquake visitor center and ready to start walking at 8 am.
The first climb is 3,000+ vertical feet off trail, straight up to the crest. I was grateful to get it done in the cool shade. Once on the crest, I spent the morning working through the beautiful terrain South of Hilgard. This Southern section was not terribly alpine, but it was interesting and not too technical.
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| Views from the beginning of the traverse. Hilgard in the far distance. |
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| Mid morning cruising. |
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| Looking back at some of the nice terrain on day 1. |
I arrived in the Lake Eglise basin by mid-afternoon, and was on top of Hilgard around 4 pm. I wasn't quite feeling like taking on the Northeast couloir descent or technical looking North ridge, so I dropped way off the ride West of the peak into the headwaters of Papoose creek. Fortunately, the west side bypass is gorgeous, and it also allowed for a good water refill. I boosted back up to Dutchman, then nosed my way near the ridge crest to Echo. My Dutchman to Echo route descended the first few hundred feet of the Northeast couloir, crossed a loose ledge to the crest, where I spotted three mountain goats. I followed them to Echo. They sure have the most efficient route dialed!
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| Approaching Hilgard. |
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| Looking back to Hilgard from Dutchman. |
I had originally planned to camp in Expedition basin, but made a game day decision to burn a few psychological matches and push into the night to Alp lakes. The evening jaunt through the clean high basins North of Echo was an absolute treat. I encountered surprisingly slow and slightly distressing, chossy terrain at sunset closing in on peak 10,844, but I just worked through it, and the descent to Alp lakes in the dark was pretty easy. I never really felt great this first day, but it went smoothly and I enjoyed every minute of it. I went to sleep fairly confident that finishing the following day was realistic as long as my body recovered from the altitude overnight. I slept very well.
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Day 2: I woke up excited. To my delight, my camp at 9,600 feet and five hours of sleep allowed for some recovery from the altitude, and I felt surprisingly not bad going up Imp. Sunrise was incredible. The morning was spent traversing the ridgeline North of Imp. It was all quite enjoyable, except getting over the shoulder of Tunnel ridge. That was loose and generally a mess, and I ended up deciding not to summit any of the Tunnel ridge high points. I worked through it slowly (would recommend future parties descend West into the headwaters of Indian creek just South of Tunnel ridge, bypass Tunnel ridge, then boost back up to the crest at the southern end of the No Man ridge section).
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| Grinding slowly up Imp at Sunrise. |
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| Looking North from Imp at the ridge line ahead. |
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| At the beginning of the Tunnel ridge section. |
I had a bit of a low energy patch at the base of Tunnel ridge, so I stopped for water and sat down and ate a bunch before making the long climb to the No Man ridge. The No Man ridge section is really nice and clean, but my energy flagged terribly. I was fueling and drinking well, so I didn't need to stop much, but my pace was way, way below anything resembling spritely. I ground it out though, arriving at the last summit tired but happy, and made the long descent to the valley.
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Looking out to No Man ridge.
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It felt great to finish. My body was pretty shot, and it felt so good to sit down and simply relax.
Statistics: 20,700 vertical feet, done in 36 hours and 25 minutes.
Route thoughts: I made an effort for time, but this could go a lot faster for the right person with the right mind set, and I am very happy to share beta and suggest what I consider to be time saving simplifications to the route if anyone is interested. The over all route quality is quite high, and I really think that this is one of Montana's finer mountain traverses. It is high, iconic, and engaging but the terrain is also a joy to move through. The Hilgard to Echo section is certainly a highlight, but the before and after terrain is also quite nice. It is also very wild. I only walked a few steps on maintained trail, and the only people I saw for the duration were a party of two from a distance on Hilgard peak. For style purists, I bypassed several sections of the crest where I felt that the ridge top was excessively technical and slow, so there is opportunity to improve on style. There are also a lot of ways to do shorter and slower versions of this outing that would be very rewarding.
Performance thoughts: I felt pretty good about my performance. My time is OK, I got through the outing without any terrible physical or mental low points, and my energy was even enough. The elevation definitely slowed me down a lot on the second day, but I have had much worse experiences with altitude, so I felt that it went OK given my body's relatively poor reaction to altitude. I have a fairly established light overnight kit, and all of my gear, food, water strategy, etc. worked pretty well. I was happy with my mental state, staying focused on the details (safety, navigation, caring for my body, time, etc), while also leaving some headspace to soak the experience up.
I am excited for someone to lower my time.
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