Glacier Mountaineering Society

Sat, Sep 27 2025 - Peak 7,078 (Evangeline Peak?) (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		Greg Notess, Mary N
Participants:		Greg Notess, Matt Kerezsi, Denise White, Kristen Kellard, Mike Petrangelo, Tricia Wilmot

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Write Up:
An intrepid group of six set out on this very exploratory trip to look for a route up a peak on the long northeastern arm of Longfellow directly north of Lake Evangeline. Scheduled late in the season to take advantage of less water in McDonald Creek and hopefully less dense brush, the idea was to start at Packers Roost and take the trail to the Mineral Creek bridge and then the old trail up along McDonald Creek. A close look at imagery on Google Earth then seemed to show a possible drainage that looked somewhat free of brush to the ridge top.

The trail part went well until we hit Mineral Creek where the bridge had been removed (earlier than scheduled due to the impending government shutdown). Nevertheless, Mineral Creek proved relatively easy to ford. We then had a short bushwhack before finding remnants of the old McDonald Creek trail, which took us up several pleasant miles of McDonald Creek. We then found a ford across the creek near where the brush-free drainage appeared to be. Unfortunately, at this point the bushwhack became intense. We finally got into the drainage only to find that it was still wet and consisted primarily of very steep, slick, wet, badly angled slabs that were even worse than the bushwhack. So much for trusting satellite imagery!

After hours of slow shwacking through alder and devil’s club, we finally approached the section of the ridge that was clear of brush. At that point, we’d run out of time and still had to bushwhack back down. We tried an alternate route hoping for less dense foliage, and although the downhill was a slight bit easier, it was still a struggle. We did manage to get everyone back down to McDonal Creek safely and out to the cars before dark.

Total mileage was 13.3 with 2.740’ of elevation gain, mostly in the bushwhack. Total time was 11 hours.

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.