Mt Cowen & Granite Peak

After returning from the bugaboos, I found myself in bozeman with a few days before needing to move out of my sublet.  I made the easy decision to use my time running/scrambling a few prominent peaks in the area whose trailheads are prohibitively far from missoula. 

elbow lake.  the summit of cowen is hidden by the prominent buttress, home to the montana centennial route (IV 5.11a 12p), reportedly one of the best routes in the state

First up was Mt Cowen, the highpoint of the absaroka range.  The 8 initial miles to elbow lake made for great running before switching gears to boulder hopping around the W side of the lake and steep hiking to the upper basin.  I was able to break ice at the shore of the tiny pond just E of the upper lake for a water refill before continuing up.  I mistakenly climbed the wrong gully above the lake and scrambled all the way to the top of the SE sub-summit before confirming my suspicion that I was off-route.  I tried to scramble W along the ridge to the true summit but got cliffed out at a rap station above the top of the gully so was forced to reverse my route nearly to the base of the gully before traversing west to find the correct gully and route (nearly an hour detour).

S face of mt cowen (do not climb the snowy gully on the R - its the wrong one) 

S face of mt cowen - more fun than it looks

The S face was covered with cairns showing the way up the 3^rd and 4^th class ledges systems til reaching the upper W ridge just below the summit block.  I then walked out L on the large ledge above the N face and examined the numerous chimney options to gain the summit.  The first looked unattractive but the 2^nd (from the W) looked much better, holding 20ft of low 5^th class terrain to gain the true summit.

the summit block as seen from the upper W ridge, traverse L onto large ledge, then up/R the 2nd chimney  

view of the upper lake from the lesser SE summit of cowen

After hanging out on the summit and soaking in the incredible views, I reversed my route to elbow lake for a quick swim before cruising the 8 miles down to the car.

Stats – approx. 20mi/7k vertical in 8 hours car-car

Approx. splits – 2 hrs elbow lake, 3 hrs upper lake, 4 hrs lesser SE summit, 4:50 true summit, 6:15-6:30 swim in elbow lake, 8 hrs TH

Rose: legs feeling great on the 16 miles to/from elbow lake despite taking over a week off of running for the bugaboos

Thorn: dropping & losing my camera on the way down from elbow lake (but fortunately a friendly guy from livingston found it and managed to track me down on facebook and get it to chad in bozeman and ultimately back to me…thanks guys!)

Bud: returning with a partner, climbing gear and a few days to sample the great looking climbing in the cowen cirque            

Other thoughts – the scrambling portion of route is mostly 3^rd/4^th class with just a touch of exposed low 5^th class near the top (not 5.4 as guidebook mentions IMO), sub 6 hrs car-car is certainly possible with proper routefinding and a stout pace

Next up was granite peak, the high point of our great state of montana.  (unfortunately I don't have any pictures since I lost my camera on mt cowen two days prior).  I drove out to E rosebud the night before to make an early start doable.  Despite containing four thousand feet of gain, the initial 7 miles up the phantom creek trail felt fairly moderate in grade to gain frozen to death (FTD) plateau.  I was able to run most of it but my legs were definitely feeling the effects of mt cowen two days prior. 

frozen to death plateau (photo: karl helser via summitpost)

Next up was the 4mi voyage across the desolate FTD plateau that despite its moderate grade, was difficult to maintain a running cadence due to the mix of scree, talus and vegetation.  A plethora of springs across the plateau kept my bottles full and my buff wet and the hot conditions bearable.  I made the mistake of going due west til the plateau ended rather than cutting a nice chunk of ground with a SW bearing directly to tempest near the end of the plateau but I eventually made it to the bivy sites near tempest before dropping down to the saddle at 11,500ft.  I experienced a weird pseudo-bonk on the climb to the snow bridge at 12,300ft despite fueling and drinking well.  I had to dig surprisingly deep to keep moving upwards.  The snow bridge was much shorter and more casual than I was expecting given the amount of attention it receives in route descriptions and trip reports.  The remaining 500ft to the top was a mix of steep 4^th class chimneys/steps and large ledges so it felt non-sustained and easy to pause and re-assess route finding as needed.  The crux for me was surmounting a small chockstone of a chimney at low 5^th class but comfortable in running shoes. (I used the following site for route beta with great success).

E ridge of granite, as seen from the slopes of tempest mt (photo: matt lemke via summitpost) 

S face of granite, a person is circled in red for scale (photo: zoink via summitpost)

I spent a few minutes on top of montana, eating and soaking in the great view before heading down.  I briefly chatted with a guide and clients near the snow bridge and another guide/client group at the tempest bivys on my way by.  Frozen to death plateau proved to be a bit of a slog on the way out but I perservered.  I cant imagine what its like to tackle with a heavy pack of camping and climbing gear.

Stats – approx. 24mi/8k vertical in 10:30 car-car

approx. splits – 1:50 FTD plateau, 4:20 tempest-granite saddle, 5:45 summit, 7:00 saddle, 9:00 FTD plateau/trail junc, 10:30 trailhead

Rose: after years of being on my list, finally giving granite a go

Thorn: pseudo-bonk from 11,500’ saddle to 12,300’ snow bridge

Bud: returning to the beartooths…with skis!

Other thoughts – I saw numerous (6+) rappel stations, some of questionable looking integrity on route.  while i realize most folks climbing granite require an overnight approach, it is certainly doable in a day by strong parties, ideally comfortable on low 5^th class terrain without a rope since it’s a long ways to carry a rope for just a touch of use.  Sub 9 hours is certainly doable with good routefinding, strong talus running skills and a stout pace.  Experiencing a storm and/or poor visibility on frozen to death plateau would be a very unfortunate and potentially dangerous experience

Bugaboos Part II

Chad and I were up early, departing our east creek bivy site shortly after 4am under socked-in foggy conditions.  We hoped it would burn off with sunrise as we cruised the 1000ft of scrambling to the base of the route.  I linked the initial 2 5.5 pitches with approach shoes and gloves still on due to the cold and windy conditions.  Despite the cloud cover, cold and wind, we continued upwards, both wearing all the layers we had brought (base layer, R1, puffy and shell).  Maintaining feeling in fingers and toes became a challenge as the pitches went by and despite the perfect forecast, the sun remained predominately veiled by the clouds and the winds continued to whip.

pitch 3 with a good perspective of the day's visibility

the great dihedral looms above

We lost some time and got passed by another party on pitch 6 as I lead us up an attractive splitter left of the great dihedral which started as great 5.8 finger/hands but slowly deteriorated into 5.hard tips and then into a mere seam.  I pendulumed over to the great dihedral before leading the stellar pitch 7 – most of a rope length of sustained 5.8 hands in a corner.  At the pitch 8 ledges we discussed bailing but ultimately decided to continue upwards and reassess at big sandy ledge below pitch 11 and the start of the great white headwall.   Time was wasted as I got us off-route again on pitch 10, following another party up a clean L-facing corner located too far R of the actual route that was much harder than expected.  After a few unsuccessful attempts to pull a small roof/bulge of .75 size crack, I pulled on some gear to get through it and continued up to a belay on big sandy ledge. 

the great white headwall pokes through the clouds 

unknown height on the beckey chouinard - hood and gloves were worn
whenever you weren't climbing and sometimes when you were (photo: chad hiatt)

The gorgeous headwall above would disappear and reappear as the clouds swirled overhead.  The lure of the summit would urge us upwards despite the continued shivering belays and lack of forecasted sunshine.  The remaining 5 pitches were Chad’s lead block but he hadn’t been feeling great all day and was forced to end pitches 11 and 12 early due to cramping in his hands and biceps.  From a hanging belay on the headwall atop our pitch 12 (closer to topo pitch 11), we realized we had put ourselves in a bit of a predicament.  Chad’s cramping and overall feelings of mediocrity along with our mutual feelings of fatigue made us begin to question our ability to safely get off the route, knowing from this height the fasted way down was likely up.

pitch 13 with snow/ice in the gully

Neil belaying atop pitch 13

Just then, the leader of the party behind us attempted to pass our hanging belay but was clearly having his own issues with fatigue as he was visibly shaking and on the verge of taking a large fall.  He franticly told us he was about to fall and asked if he could clip our anchor and we obliged, passing him an alpine draw to clip his rope moments before he cut loose from the wall and fell.  As he (Neil) hung on the rope and rested and expressed similar feelings of fatigue and concern over getting off the route, we formulated a rough plan to band together as a party of 4 to ensure we all got off safely.  I proceeded to lead the next pitch (12) while Neil rested who would then lead pitch 13.  I was forced to hang twice from gear (not wanting to fall), due to the nasty combo of fatigue in the forearms and numbness in my fingers and hands due to the cold. 

the top couple hundred feet of the S howser tower, route is low 5th class on looker's R

Our system involved the leader belaying 2 seconds from above for a given pitch, followed by one of them leading the next pitch while the other belayed the fourth and final climber up the preceding pitch.  Due to snow and ice in the dihedral of the great white headwall, we were forced to climb the excellent splitters on the face to the left.  Neil lead a 60m rope stretcher for pitch 13, I lead a short pitch 14 and Neil led the final pitch, shamelessly tensioning the crux (5.10+ free) due to time’s sake.  A short rappel put us below the final few hundred feet of low 5^th class terrain to the summit, which we found partially covered it snow and ice.  We soloed what we could but felt the need to simul a lot of it for safety sake.  We finally found ourselves atop the south howser tower at nearly 9:30pm, a little too tired and concerned about the descent to fully appreciate the moment. 

forcing a smile atop the south howser tower (photo: chad hiatt)

Our motto for the 11 rappel descent was safety over speed but by leapfrogging our way down with 4 ropes, our pace seemed reasonable (2.5 hours).  There were numerous moments that felt like we were in Patagonia with the wind hollowing, some rain and even snow showers blowing through as we made rappel after rappel via headlamp down towards the dark glacier.  Once over the bergschrund and on the glacier at approximately midnight, we coiled ropes and were thrilled to have footprints to follow around the crevasses to the pigeon-howser col.  From the col, we made the easy descent down to east creek, Chad and I arriving at our spot approximately 21 hours since leaving.  Our hot and salty freeze-dried dinners tasted live heaven before we crawled into our tent and collapsed to bed.

leaving east creek in the morning

We awoke to beautiful blue skies in the morning (go figure) and one of the first things Chad and I expressed to each other was concern over permanent damage to our respective toes (thankfully they made a full recovery).  After a lazy morning of sleeping in, drying gear in the sun and breaking camp, we hiked up to the col to the base of pigeon spire, unable to forgo a beautiful day on the “world’s best 5.4” despite our feelings of overall fatigue as well as significant swelling in our fingers and toes.

W ridge of pigeon with S howser tower in the background 

hanging out atop pigeon spire

The W ridge was easy but exposed scrambling that we felt comfortable soloing in approach shoes (mostly 3^rd & 4^th class with a few spots of low 5^th).  The views from along the route in every single direction on a clear day were outstanding – easily the best views of the trip.  It was a real joy to be out on such an easy route, in the warm sun in contract to the previous day.  We were back at our packs in about an hour and continued our trek to the BS col and to applebee.  With rain in the forecast for the following day, Chad and I decided to depart in the morning, pretty damn content with our trip.  We climbed 5 routes on 5 spires, including two mega classics (NE ridge bugaboo & beckey chouinard) and a mere half day of tentbound bad weather.   That final evening I scrambled up the NW ridge of eastpost spire above camp alone, where I spent at least half an hour on the summit soaking in the views and reflecting on my first bugaboo experience.  

soaking it all in atop pigeon spire (photo: chad hiatt)

drying gear and swapping stories back at applebee (photo: chad hiatt)

Rose: the combination of great weather, great climbing and great position on the NE ridge of bugaboo spire made it my favorite of the routes we did

Thorn: hours and hours of shivering on the beckey chouinard

Bud: returning not only for more climbing but also someday in the spring for the classic bugaboo to rogers pass ski traverse

Thoughts: we had a small margin for safety on the beckey chouinard route considering the conditions we encountered and the fact that we both had to belay/climb every pitch wearing every layer we had brought.  Fortunately we made it down safety but we spent many hours flirting with the necessary ingredients for an epic.  It would be great to return someday with improved climbing fitness/endurance and send the route in better style and better weather