Glacier Mountaineering Society

Fri, Aug 12 2011 - Mount Peabody (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		David Schuler
Participants:		Ronnie Laudati, David Schuler, Darrel Coverdell, Joel Vignere, Greg Kushnak

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Write Up:
This summer came in with many challenges of record snow from the past winter and late in the summer, it finally warmed up with some great weather as the summer month’s end. On August 12, Ronnie Laudati and David Schuler hiked to Bowman Lake backcountry camp and established a camp to climb Mt Peabody via Pocket creek as describe in Gordon Edwards climbing guide. The next day we packed our day packs to conquer the summit of Peabody. We knew we had a little bushwhacking to do. After 4 hours of bushwhacking, climbing over numerous downed old growth trees, thorns and stinging nettles over our heads, and to top it all the many cliffs we called it off. In three hours, we gained only 1000 yards. As we stopped and looked at the awesome view of the water fall of Pocket creek falling down the side of Boulder Peak Mt we can see the saddle as described in the book at 1.8 miles away which will be a bushwhack to the top. The description in the Climbers Guide is doable if you love bushwhacks, but plan to spend the night on the summit. Well, Mt Peabody conquered us; next years I and a couple of GMS members will be going the Mt Kintla route to conquer 3 peaks (Kintla, Peabody, and Boulder). Thanks Ronnie for joining me and sharing your vast knowledge of our wonderful National Park. Total distance traveled 24.6 miles with 6976 ft. elevation gain. The next day, 15 August I meet up with Greg Kushnak, Darrel Coverdale, and Joel Vignere to do a backcountry camp on Red Eagle Mt. Greg planned the trip and coordinated it with Darrel and Joel. We hiked 12.2 miles and established camp at the 6000-foot level on Red Eagle. Next day early in the morning, we climbed to summit of Red Eagle and Mahtotopa Mt. We wanted to do Little Chief but time would not permit the climb to return to camp before dark. Again, we had excellent weather for climbing. Trip to go down with great memories. Joel lost his ice axe when he laid it down to retrieve his glove the wind blew away. Lost sight of the glove and now we could not find his ice axe. We searched for the ice axe and Darrel found it on this ascent to Mahtotopa. On the return, Joel slipped on a rock and I thought he dropped the one glove he had on hand; it turned out to be the glove the wind blew away. On the return trip back to the trailhead, we had to cross Red Eagle creek with water up to about 3 feet deep and very cold. I had to cross it three times. I left my bear spray on the bank on the other side. It was a great time has we learned from the old salt of the mountain Darrel. Thanks to all for the wonderful time. Total distance traveled 29.8 miles with 10,958 ft. of elevation 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.