Glacier Mountaineering Society

Sat, Sep 11 2010 - Panoramic Peak (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		Tim Sharp, Vernon Garner
Participants:		Tim Sharp, Dennis Bonawitz, James Hulvat, Franz Barthel, Linda Soper, Diane Lundgren, Joe Schletz, Allison McCarthy, Pat Keane-Richmond

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Write Up:
On Saturday September/11/2010, I met Dennis Bonawitz, James Hulvat, Franz Barthel, Linda Soper, Diane Lundgren, Joe Schletz, Allison McCarthy, and Pat Keane-Richmond at the Glacier Lake Trail Head [4,835ft], at the edge of the Mission Mountain Wilderness Area for a planned hike/climb to Panoramic Peak, [8,670ft]. Panoramic sits just East of the highest peaks in this range, and offers spectacular views of McDonald, Glacier, Mountaineer, Gray Wolf, and Calowachan Peaks. Since this day was scheduled to be the pre-climb, and we had such a huge waiting list, the above GMS members were kind enough to forgo the “official” climb, for an opportunity to see this part of the Mission Mountains. Our trail took us past Glacier, Crescent, Heart and Island Lakes. From the west shore of Island lake, we began ascending scree, boulder fields and slabs to gain the ridge that would lead us to the Summit of Panoramic Peak. Since this was September, there was some snow up high on the shoulders of the peak, some care had to be taken to avoid a slip, and all members were able to safely negotiate a tricky rock step that required some 4th class climbing moves, which led to a very chilly and blustery summit. Our party ate a quick lunch, and snapped some photos, then began our descent. Upon arriving at Island Lake again, I attempted to find a 'short cut" trail that I had followed on my descent the previous year, but found instead a moose trail that proved slippery and dangerous, and extracted a heavy toll on the left leg of Pat Kean-Richmond, who slipped on a wet root, and the resulting fall put a gash in her leg that required several stitches. This shortcut also required the use of James and Dennis`s gps units to find the ascent trail we used to get up to Island Lake. Since time was critical to get Pat to a clinic we beat a hasty retreat once on the trail, and Pat to her great credit kept up a quick pace on the 6 miles back to the cars. All in all this proved to be a very fun day, and all members enjoyed their foray into the Mission Mountains. Total time car to car @10.5 hours at a moderate pace, elevation gain to summit=3,835ft., @ distance traveled = 13.5 miles. Here is the web address to a Picasa album James Hulvat put together; http://picasaweb.google.com/jhulvat/20100911PanoramicPeak?authkey=Gv1sRgCPf1wNK69aCOAQ&feat=directlink Post Script, the "official" climb of 9/17/10 was canceled due to bad weather, so the pre-climb will go on record as the official 2010 climb of Panoramic Peak. My very sincere thanks go out to all the GMS members who joined me on that day, and I look forward to climbing with each and every one of them again! Respectfully submitted; Tim Sharp 12/18/2010

Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Tim Anderson at twamontana@gmail.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.