Glacier Mountaineering Society

Sat, Jul 11 2020 - Swan Peak (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		Bryan Kercher, Laurel R. Vielle
Participants:		Bryan Kercher, Jason Blyth, Laurel R. Vielle, wild.joshua, Bruce Lieffring, Brenda Winkler

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Write Up:
On a bluebird morning a combined group of Rocky Mountaineers and Glacier Mountaineering Society climbers started up the gated grassy road which leads to the Squeezer Creek trail. Squeezer Creek is pretty much THE way to climb Swan Peak thanks to Jim Valentine and Paul Gereg. Jim blazed the trail years ago and both Jim and Paul now maintain it. This road is totally bike-able but we opted to hike it. After hitting the trail we made good time up to lower and then upper Squeezer lakes. After taking a break at upper, we donned our helmets and started toward what for me was the crux of the climb - getting up a miserable scree and loose rock strewn slope to the ridgeline which leads directly to the summit of Swan. We opted to spread out and while some rocks went a tumbling as I knew they would, thankfully there were no close calls. After that it was just a relatively short but very fun climb to the summit. After taking in the views for a bit we headed down and immediately ran into Brenda Winkler and Bruce Lieffering as they neared the summit, two GMSers who opted to climb Swan the same day but just not go with the group. We said happy hello-goodbyes and they went up and we continued down. Thankfully the rockfall getting down the scree slope was actually better than on the way up, probably because we all knew what to expect. After that it was a toasty but quick hike out to cold beers. It was a beautiful and fun day in the Swan mountains. Gaia GPS said RT mileage was ~16 and total elevation gain was ~5600 ft. In attendance were: Jason Blyth, Dori Giles, Casey Lammers, Josh Lewis, Bryan Kercher, Minot Maser, Laurel Vielle

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.