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Gimpilator
infinity/21M



Joined: 12 Oct 2006
Posts: 1684 | TRs | Pics
Location: Edmonds, WA
Gimpilator
infinity/21M
PostFri Sep 06, 2019 8:06 am 
Steven and I went for a road trip, with plans to meet several friends along the way. Our itinerary would be completely determined by weather. We were willing to drive a long distance, even to Utah if necessary. But if all went as planned, we would be witnessing a remarkable event in US peakbagging (scroll down half way to 2nd post, if you want to skip the rest). August 18, 2019 Northwest Peak – 7705' Hiked about 3 trail miles through a recent burn to a lookout.
golden bug
golden bug
Davis
Davis
8-19 Queen Mountain – 6112' Trail. Turn left at Queen Lake and cut off the trail at the very end to reach summit.
Queen Lake
Queen Lake
Scotchman Peak – 7011' Boring slog trail, but nice at the very end. 90 percent of folks stop at the false summit. The true summit is nearby and requires 2 moves of class 3 with zero exposure.
Lake Pend Oreille
Lake Pend Oreille
Snowshoe
Snowshoe
false summit from true
false summit from true
8-20 Snowshoe Peak – 8738' There’s an easy route up this peak from the other side, but it’s very long. We opted for the shorter route which uses the trail to Leigh Lake.
From the north end of the lake, we ascended a gully for 600 feet, then made an ascending traverse for another 800 feet, to a place below some cliffs. Found another steep gully which allowed access to the Snowshoe Bockman saddle.
Snowshoe
Snowshoe
Bockman
Bockman
It gets interesting at the saddle. Slabby rock and mild exposure as you move toward the peak. We scrambled a bit and then climbed a class 4 chimney. Crampons and axes were nice for taking the icy snow patch, which bypasses the crux of the route.
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
Steven in the chimney
Steven in the chimney
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
More scrambling through minor cliff bands on the southwest slope, and then we were on top.
Scotchman
Scotchman
8-21 Doris Mountain – 7437' 6ish mile trail hike with views overlooking Calispell and Glacier Park peaks to the east.
Stimson and Pinchot
Stimson and Pinchot
Desert Mountain – 6436' Drive up. 8-22 Met up with friends Connor, Sean and Asaka to tackle the mighty Stimson. Not a perfect forecast, but supposedly good on summit day. Crossed a parked train and then forded the middle fork Flathead, thigh deep and slippery rocks, but slow easy water. Coal Creek camp.
ford
ford
Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas
8-23 Mount Phillips – 9494' Upper Coal Creek trail is brushy. Lot’s of grizzly scat.
Nicholas face
Nicholas face
Connor and Steven and I detoured for an ascent of Phillips. West ridge. The brush is very bad for the first half of the gain and was wet for us. A guidebook suggests looking for an avy gully just to the south of the ridge. We didn’t find it.
Phillips
Phillips
The upper mountain is pleasant. Partial views with a higher cloud deck. Beaver Woman Lake camp.
Phillips from camp
Phillips from camp
8-24 Mount Stimson – 10,142' Several routes for this peak, but none easy. We chose the Pinchot traverse variation. Bushwhacking above Buffalo Woman Lake, we came to the Eaglehead Pinchot saddle. From saddle ascend 200 feet north and then traverse. Occasional cairns and slight bootpath.
Buffalo Woman
Buffalo Woman
saddle ahead
saddle ahead
Phillips
Phillips
When the traverse rounds the corner of Pinchot onto the northwest face, there is exposure. This downsloping choss ledge was mentally intimidating for me, since I had never done anything quite like it, but in hindsight the going was easy. Furthermore, Steven and Connor and I agree that it is much easier than the standard traverse ledge on Cleveland, with fewer narrow sections, which have no room for error.
Connor and Steven on the ledge
Connor and Steven on the ledge
Steven and Connor traversing
Steven and Connor traversing
more traversing
more traversing
We descended slightly to the Stimson Pinchot saddle. The peak seemed determined to keep it’s head in the clouds, despite “mostly sunny”. We scrambled up the southeast ridge, which is much easier than it appears from below. No real sustained scrambling, just short steps, and a lot of loose rock. The summit ridge is narrow.
Stimson
Stimson
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
WA legends
WA legends
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
Sean and Asaka made it to the summit just a little after we started descending.
the traverse
the traverse
Pinchot
Pinchot
Stimson, Asaka, Sean
Stimson, Asaka, Sean
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
8-25 Hiked out 17 miles in constant rain. The river was higher on the thigh. 8-26 Big Mountain – 6800' I had never been on a ski lift. Steven and I hiked up from the false summit lift highpoint. On the summit we could see Cleveland, Stimson and many of the other GNP peaks. Only one peak had snow from the storm, but it looked like a lot of snow. Unfortunately, that would be our next objective and snow could only hinder us.
Great Northern
Great Northern

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Gimpilator
infinity/21M



Joined: 12 Oct 2006
Posts: 1684 | TRs | Pics
Location: Edmonds, WA
Gimpilator
infinity/21M
PostFri Sep 06, 2019 8:06 am 
8-27 The standard route for Cleveland is closed this year, so we hiked 13 miles up the Belly River, passing Cosley Lake and Glenns Lake. I was whooped when we got to Mokowanis Junction camp, but Steven and Connor needed another 5500 feet of gain, so they ran up Mount Merritt. Nice job guys.
Mount Merritt
Mount Merritt
8-28 Mount Cleveland – 10,466' Hiked up trail to Stoney Indian Pass and then scrambled the ridge east for several hundred feet, bypassing cliffs on the south side.
Cathedral
Cathedral
Glenns Lake
Glenns Lake
Wahcheechee
Wahcheechee
Merritt
Merritt
Kipp, Cathedral
Kipp, Cathedral
The first third of the traverse ledge is on the west side of a long ridge extending south from Cleveland. No major exposure until you pass through the notch onto the east face. The ledge runs along the top of a white band of rock, which is the widest of the layers. The ledge narrows to a foot in places and is generally downsloping, with loose scree. People have fallen to their death from this ledge. It’s simple and easy, but requires serious attention because the duration is very long.
first third of ledge route and Stoney Indian Peaks
first third of ledge route and Stoney Indian Peaks
going to the notch
going to the notch
ledge stays above white band, photo by Steven
ledge stays above white band, photo by Steven
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
photo by Steven
We came to the saddle on the south ridge of Cleveland. There’s a crux scramble area in the black and red bands, with west side or east side bypass options. Went up west side class 4 and came east side class 2 and 3.
Cleveland
Cleveland
The summit plateau is littered with grizzly poop and pits in the rock, where they dig up moths. Connor McEntee reached the summit first, and thus became the 16th person to finish all 57 ultras in the contiguous US, a journey of 19 years. We were fortunate to witness our friend achieve such a milestone. Congratulations Connor!
Connor!
Connor!
Kaiser Point
Kaiser Point
Kintla, Kinnerly
Kintla, Kinnerly
Blakiston
Blakiston
Rainbow, Carter
Rainbow, Carter
Stimson
Stimson
Chief
Chief
Waterton Lake
Waterton Lake
Heavens
Heavens
After sitting on the summit and enjoying views, it was time to go. In an attempt to get up off the ground, I put my hand smack-dab into the middle of a tremendous pile of grizzly sh*t. That’s when hand sanitizer from the bathroom kit comes in handy.
Connor
Connor
Steven
Steven
Merritt
Merritt
Atsina Lake
Atsina Lake
Merritt
Merritt
8-29 Hike out Belly River. 8-30 Blacktail Mountain – 6760' Drive up.
Irvine Peak – 5600' Mostly drive up, with short off-trail at the end. Summit might be 100 meters east of what the map indicates.
Deemer Peak – 6252' Saw a badger head pop up from a burrow in the road bed. Short hike. We startled a large animal in the brush. Couldn’t see what it was. A wall of rain was racing us to the summit, but it veered off to the south at the last moment.
Sonyok Mountain – 5640' Rough road, but Subaru made it to the locked gate a couple hundred feet below the summit. Good views of the Mission Range to the east and our favorite peak of the day.
Mission Range
Mission Range
8-31 South Selkirk Crest – 7709' Good trail for most of the ascent, with off-trail traversing the last mile. As we neared the peak there was minor scrambling on good granite.
traverse
traverse
Molybdenite Mountain – 6784' Everyone speaks highly of this peak. Not sure why. An average sort of peak for NE Washington. Road walk, brush walk, talus, summit with partial views.
9-1 Snyder Hill – 5440' Our Subarus easily made it to the saddle just west of the peak. Bushwhack past an old lookout site to the forested summit.
North Baldy Mountain – 6173' Drive up to summit. Very rough road with big rocks.
Calispell Peak – 6855' We bid farewell to our friend Connor and said hello to special guest James Barlow and family. His family is a hiking family, and they were all happy to join us for some of our hikes after doing some of their own. We drove both the Subarus to within a 10 minute walk of the summit. At that point we could have driven all the way. Rough road.
Abercrombie
Abercrombie
Chewelah Mountain – 5773' Road walk from gate.
Calispell
Calispell
Huckleberry Mountain – 5825' Bushwhack. 4 separate closed contours. Visited the 3 main highest, skipping the lower south one, and GPS measured the northern most to be significantly higher. Feels higher, looks higher, is higher. No Huck Benchmark is probably higher than the traditionally accepted summit where the register is currently located.
No Huck
No Huck
Stensgar Mountain – 5819' Fortunately, during the drive earlier that day, Steven was studying maps and noticed that Stensgar has the same contour as the 4 closed on Huckleberry. This peak is 3 miles away, but if you want to claim the prominence of Huckleberry, a visit to Stensgar is prudent. We all went there. Drive up.

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Brushbuffalo
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Joined: 17 Sep 2015
Posts: 1887 | TRs | Pics
Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between
Brushbuffalo
Member
PostFri Sep 06, 2019 10:07 pm 
Lots of peaks. What's CONUS?

Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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Gimpilator
infinity/21M



Joined: 12 Oct 2006
Posts: 1684 | TRs | Pics
Location: Edmonds, WA
Gimpilator
infinity/21M
PostFri Sep 06, 2019 10:36 pm 
Contiguous United States, in other words 48 states, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.

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Brushbuffalo
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Joined: 17 Sep 2015
Posts: 1887 | TRs | Pics
Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between
Brushbuffalo
Member
PostSat Sep 07, 2019 6:13 am 
doh.gif Of course.... There must be a large number of peaks with 5 k prominence in AK and HI. Those will give you and your buds lots more ambling and scramblng for years to come,....and TRs for armchair adventurers like me to admire!

Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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Eric
Peak Geek



Joined: 21 Oct 2002
Posts: 2062 | TRs | Pics
Location: In Travel Status
Eric
Peak Geek
PostSat Sep 07, 2019 7:27 am 
Impressive trip with some serious peaks in Montana. Congrats to all and especially Connor. Yeah, Molybdenite probably isn't that great, I think it breaks up the typical tedium of driveups, roadwalks and bushwhacking of NE WA although the brush has probably grown up in the decade since I did it. Too bad the lookout on Stensgar is no longer there.

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awilsondc
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Joined: 03 Apr 2016
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awilsondc
Member
PostSat Sep 07, 2019 9:46 am 
So much to unpack here! Snowshoe and Cleveland look awesome! I was following Steven's social media posts during your trip which got me super jealous. What a trip! I feel like this only scratches the surface of what you did some how. So much effort! I'm happy for you guys, and stoked for Conner! Nice accomplishment. party.gif

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