Glacier Mountaineering Society

Sat, Aug 17 2019 - Numa Peak (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		Greg Notess
Participants:		Greg Notess, Ryker McIntyre, Paul Okerberg

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Write Up:
Between weather and conflicts, we ended up with only three of us as we started down the trail shortly after seven. Clouds surrounded the peaks and the fog hung low over the lake. After a quick five miles along the lakeshore, the clouds had lifted enough that we could see up the bushwhack for at least 1,000’. Since the creek was full of avalanche debris, we mostly made our way through the forest to the right (east) of the drainage aiming for green diagonal cut through the cliffs. As we got to the first basin, the clouds were just above us and led us astray to the top of a southern arm that we then had to descend back down.

Once we finally got to the correct upper basin, the clouds still remained just a few hundred feet above us and cleared little even though we waited. We decided to make our way to the top of the snow field to a ledge that headed out onto the southeast face. Where the ledge ended was the crux of the climb, which we eventually successfully navigated. Then we just had another several hundred feet of mixed class four and five to ascend, but at least the clouds finally cleared. We summited just after 4PM and then downclimbed much more quickly. Fortunately, we got all the way down to the trail before sunset and only had a few miles to hike out on the trail after dark.

The trip took us more than 15 hours to do approximately 16 miles and more than 5,500’ of elevation gain. However, the GPS got very confused in the steep cliffs and bounced to many places we did not go. GPS reported more than 21 miles and 8,000’ gain.

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.