2020 summer scrambling hilights

Despite ambitions of biking a lot, I ended up spending most summer weekends in the mountains, family camping and rambling around up high at a well dispersed distance from Covid.  Mountain fitness was adequate to romp around efficiently with good confidence in my body.  This summary is of high quality days that don't quite merit their own post.

7/24 Crazy Mountains - Big Timber, Crazy, and Iddings 

After successfully jockeying for a weekend camping site at the Halfmoon campground, I rallied from the trailhead right at first light.  After a brief jaunt up the trail, I started the short bushwack to access the large avalanche path on the Northwest face of Big Timber peak.  The next twoish hours were devoted to climbing this monster avalanche path, and included the full gamut of pleasant tundra walking, loose scree swimming, choss of all varieties, and a good mix of wise and stupid route finding.  I summited about 3.5 hours into the day.  

Starting up the long climb to Big Timber peak shortly after dawn.  
Must return to ski this grand face some day.

To my immense chagrin, unforecast storms started rolling through, so I put all of my clothes on and tried to keep moving as best I could among the light snow flurries.  I was intimidated by the ridge line from Big Timber to Crazy, especially with the poor weather and my committing position.  I ended up bypassing the crest by linking up ledges on the North side.  My route was safe, but it wasn't optimal because it took a really long time.  In retrospect, I wish I had spent more time aspiring to stay on the crest.  Soon enough, I emerged on the Northeast ridge of Crazy peak.  Insert big sigh of relief.  

The harder-than-it-looks scrambling between Big Timber and Crazy peaks.

The next section of the day went smoothly.  Weather improving, check.  Crazy peak summit, check.  Descend to Crazy/Iddings col, check.  Loose rock and exposure made the East ridge of Iddings more intimidating than what I expected.  But it is a good route. I took my time and got it done. 

Near the summit of Iddings, looking back at Cracy peak and the fun ridge section. 

The egress was smooth.  I relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful country around Pear and Granite lakes.  Soon enough, I was back in the campground a few hours later than expected but still in time for dinner.  It is clear that my head and skills for efficiently working through loose easy 4th class terrain are poor, and I was humbled by the outing.  That said, it was rewarding to slow down, dig in, and stay on top of risk assessment.  And I'm glad that I kept at it to safely complete the link up.  Around 13 hours

8/15 Pintlers - Storm Lake to Haggin  

I rallied at 4 am during day one of a weekend family camping trip to traverse from our camp at Storm lake to Mount Haggin.  I have been excited to do this outing for several years, but it is a big outing to shoehorn into a day from town.  The day was pretty straightforward.  I summited Little Rainbow at sunrise, pointed it East, and kept at it over the beautiful summits of Howe, Evans, 10,376 and 10,282.  Loose scree coupled with a generally low energy body kept me moving slowly, and I topped out on Haggin fairly knackered.  The descent out to Anaconda went quickly enough.  Throughout the traverse, I benefited from abundant late season snow patches to refill water regularly.  

Looking back at Howe and Little Rainbow from near the summit of Howe.

The most elegant section from 10,282 to Haggin.

The real kicker of the day was climbing 3.000 vertical feet into a head wind on the return bike shuttle up a busy Highway 1.  I was too tired to enjoy it, plus my neuroma flared up. It was a suffer fest.  But I did manage 10,000 feet of elevation gain for the day, and slunk into camp just in time for dinner.  If I ever do this outing again self supported, I will do the bike shuttle in the other direction. 

Great outing. 

It was a high gravity day.  I took it as a shot across the bow for not overdoing it physically this summer.  I spent the next day in full rest mode, took the next week off from any workouts.  Two weeks later, I was fully recovered and ready for the full Flathead traverse.  

8/22 Bitterroot, Heavenly Twins and Saint Mary peak loop

Heavenly Twins!

I was able to squeeze this one in on day two of a family camping trip.  This is the third time I have done this outing.  It is so good!  I used sneaky tactics and biked from our camp on the McCalla road to the trailhead, did the loop and biked back to a stashed car at the base of the Saint Mary road. Up trail, down user trail to McCalla lake, over South shoulder of Saint Mary peak, around North ridge of Disappointment peak, up East face of Heavenly twins to North summit, ridge traverse to South summit, back to Saint Mary on the South side of the crest, then up South ridge to Saint Mary summit, where I happened to bump into a much-faster-than-me Doug, and down the trail to the car. 

10/5 Swan Range, Clearwater group traverse

I did a Clearwater group traverse during one of the last fall weather windows.  The Clearwater group is probably my favorite section of the Swan crest because it is so wild.  The goal for the day was to do this outing with a simplified bike shuttle along the back side of the Clearwater loop road and try to find more secure ways to navigate the three most technical steps.  The bike ride down from the Rice ridge trailhead and along the back of the loop was cold but quick.  I gained the crest by climbing the Southwest face of Wolverine peak.  By sticking to the bottom of the dry stream bottom, the lower reaches were remarkably bushwack free, and I just plodded with purpose all the way to the summit.  From there, I was on familiar terrain.  Out and back to Carmine, out to Ptarmigan peak, and up to Ptarmigan point.  I spent more time working through the two 4th class steps on the North ridge of Ptarmigan point, and found a route that felt safe and secure enough to be reliably repeatable.  

Enjoying fall colors and a dry stream bed on long opening climb to Wolverine.

Ptarmigan to Fisher is long, but I was buzzing with excitement from the perfect fall day.  On the North ridge of Fisher, I encountered a step just below the summit that I didn't remember.  I ended up climbing a vertical 5-foot step just East of the crest that involved a couple of committing moves on vertical rock with good hand holds to gain a shallow, easy gully that got me back on the crest.  

Ptarmigan to Fisher.

Golden larch, mountains, crisp fall air.  So good.

On the South ridge of Fisher, there is also one steep step where the crest forms a deep chimney that is just too wide to bridge across.  I had formerly downclimbed loose rock on the SW wall of the chimney, but I ended up downclimbing a 30-foot West facing gully just North of the chimney.  I found it more exposed, but the rock was better, so it felt more reliably safe.  The rest of the traverse to Sunday went smoothly, but I completely missed the climber trail back down to the Rice Ridge saddle.  By the time I realized my error, it was quicker to do a slow but easy descending traverse down to the trail.  Back on the trail, I jogged it out the trailhead.  A little over 10 hours, including the bike shuttle.  

If I ever get into good mountain running shape, I think that a route starting at the Clearwater loop road and ending at the Rice ridge trailhead climbing Wolverine, Ptarmigan peak, Ptarmigan point, Fisher, and Sunday mountain would be an excellent candidate for a FKT route.

Ptarmigan point 9,083 Northeast ridge route: Climb the ridge until you get to a vertical step on the crest with yellow rock.  Instead of taking a ledge to the W. face and climbing a loose easy 5th class chimney, go down a short gully onto the Northeast face, traverse about a hundred yards out onto the face, and climb up an easy gully/chimney system (easy 4th) back to the crest.  Soon after re-gaining the crest, climb a second 20-foot step via an exposed but secure West facing chimney a few feet around the corner from the crest (stout 4th).  Continue to the summit.