Glacier Mountaineering Society

Sat, Jun 26 2021 - White Calf Mountain and Kupunkamint Mountain (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		Cindy Weaver
Participants:		Cindy Weaver, Mark Blevins, Adam McClure, Austin Lindsay, Lou Herritt, Emmett Berg, Esther Berg, Dave Archibald

Write Up:
GMS Leader: Cindy Weaver, Participants: Mark Blevins, Adam McClure, Austin Lindsay, Lou Herritt, Emmett Berg, Esther Berg, David Archibald The group met at the Cutbank Creek Ranger station at 8:00am. A short 1/2 mile jaunt took us to the boundary of GNP and the Reservation. A user trail was followed for 1 mile leading to open meadows heading in the direction of Kapunkamint/White Calf saddle. Eventually the meadows ran out and a mile bushwhack was endured to clearing of trees at the base of the scree slope below the saddle. As far as bushwhacks go, it was fairly benign. At this point, Emmett and Esther took a longer breather and decided to go at a slower pace and potentially summit only Kapunkamint while the rest of the group pushed on to tackle both summits. Kudos to Esther on her first off-trail climb. They made it to the ridge top for spectacular views. The rest of the group trudged up the scree slope at varying paces to re-group at the ridge/saddle. Then a short push the final 200 feet to the summit, lunch and pictures. Looking back to the north, White Calf looked a long way off. Up and over several knolls/saddles loosing 200 - 300 hundred feet each time. We skirted the backside of the first one in 'sketchy' loose, side hilling scree. Just below the crest of the next knoll, the group halted to take stalk as White Calf was still a ways off with two more unknown saddle descents. It was 2:00, some were running out of steam and water. At this point, David, Austin, Mark and Lou elected to return and meet up with Emmett and Esther. Adam and Cindy after scouting the look of the rest of the ridge decided to push on. We were anticipating a 1 hour maybe even 1 1/2 hour (being conservative) to the summit. It turned out to be the best section of the ridge and we were at the summit of White Calf in just over 30 minutes. After a brief summit celebration, we headed back the ridge to descend the scree slope and retrace our steps to the boundary trail. We just caught David, Mark, Lou and Austin driving across the cattle guard as we came out on the road. The tailgate party was small, but very celebratory. Thanks to all participants for a great climb.

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.