Glacier Mountaineering Society

Fri, Jul 12 2013 - McDonald Peak (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		Paul Cogswell
Participants:		Paul Cogswell, Dell Meuchel, Carly Hohf, Bill Haring, Jason Wilkes, Sue Shannon, Jesse Manning, Dennis Bonawitz

Write Up:
The eight attendees managed to be at the Glacier Lake trailhead by 8 am and got underway shortly thereafter. The route heads up trail, intermittent trail, and often no trail, past lakes, over and around rock slabs, onward toward the ridge which divides the National Forest and the Flathead Reservation. From the divide the route drops steeply to Cliff Lake where base camp was established after approximately 6 hours of hiking, which was plenty with big packs on sometimes challenging terrain. Camp was set and preparations for summit day were made in order to be underway at 8 am again. The group hiked up the Post Creek Valley past cliffs, lakes, waterfalls, boulders, flowers and over some snow, in excellent conditions to gain the Post Creek and Ashley Creek Divide where the final push to the summit begins. The question of whether crampons and ice axes were necessary was answered there with a definite yes. The push to the summit involved some fairly steep and challenging climbing on snow and then rock which everyone handled expertly, and the summit was gained around 2 pm. With cell phone service available on the summit a message was received from minutes prior and the call returned to our climbing companion and friend Jim Boyer who had called to give his congratulations. The descent and hike followed back to camp as planned rounding out a 10 hour day of hiking. At around 8 the next morning the 5 morning people started up the divide, while 3 lounged in camp a little longer before starting. The hike to the vehicles involved some routefinding and bugwacking (a new term similar to bushwacking but referring to making headway through swarms of mosquitos) where everyone finished up and seemed to have had an enjoyable experience in the Mission Range.

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.