Glacier Mountaineering Society

Sat, Jul 9 2011 - Skeleton Mountain (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		David Schuler, Greg Kushnak
Participants:		Greg Kushnak, David Schuler

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Write Up:
Several last-minute emergencies among our intended group resulted in our climb list to dwindle to just two people. So we doubled up on bear spray and went ahead with the climb. From Lubec, we hiked the trail to about one-third mile north of the Autumn-Lubec trail junction, and ascended through an opening in the trees to the open grassy wildflower slopes above. Further upslope, a good game trail led us across the talus to Calf Robe Pass (the saddle south of Calf Robe), where the scenery was outstanding. The climb would have been easy, but we had to battle a 60-knot headwind that frequently blew us off balance. It took four legs to stay upright, so in this case, hiking poles were essential. From the pass, we scree-dropped about 100 feet, then made a slightly ascending southward traverse above the trees through pleasant alpine tundra before dropping to the beautiful pair of Debris Creek Tarns – a most inviting place! With an ascending traverse from the tarns, we gained Skeleton’s summit ridge where we were greeted with a stunning dramatic view of a myriad of peaks, dominated by 8888, Barrier Buttes and Eagle Ribs. We retraced the approach route for our return, totaling 12.5 miles in 9.5 hours for the day at a leisurely pace. Total vertical (per GPS) was nearly 5000 feet, which was much more than estimated due to yo-yo dips in the route. In the Skeleton summit photo, L to R: Greg Kushnak and David Schuler, with Peak 8888 in background.

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.