Glacier Mountaineering Society

Sat, Aug 18 2018 - The Shard (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		Dell Meuchel, John Reynolds
Participants:		Dell Meuchel, John Reynolds, Claire Reynolds, Gail Meuchel, Carly Hohf

Write Up:
The scenic Bitterroot Mountains were the backdrop for a Saturday August 18th climb of the Shard. The journey began south of Darby in the Chaffin Creek drainage. Coordinators John Reynolds and Dell Meuchel were joined by John's wife Claire and Bitterroot Valley native Carly Holf. The day dawned with a familiar smokey haze but blue sky dominated the horizon. This gave us some hope of views from the summit. The trail wound up the tree choked creek bottom for the first six miles (common in the Bitterroots). The Shard proved to be a worthy challenge. Granite slabs led to narrow gullies and frequent dead ends. That would be the story of a long grind to the summit of East Shard- 9,883 feet. John and I climbed the peak five years ago and our memories, to say the least, were not the best. Having summited East we looked at West Shard- 9,836 not far off and decided that had to be the summit we sought. John found a route down East and over to West. At that point we realized we had done both summits. A splendid accomplishment and the vistas were reasonably clear. The totals for the day were 18+ miles and 5,300 fee of vertical. Chips and beverages finished a great day.

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.