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As I scan this climb's water-stained sign-in sheet, I am reminded of the depressing start of this outing with the downpouring rain at the Iceberg Lake trailhead at 8:30 a.m. Sane coordinators would likely have cancelled this climb. Not only was it raining heavily, but the whole Many Glacier area was socked in, dashing hopes of any potential views that day. I forced a smile and asked the group's opinion about proceeding; as I dreaded, most wanted to climb anyway! These 10 eager climbers were rewarded when the weather lifted in less than an hour into the climb and the day turned into a beautiful mid-summer experience in the Many Glacier Valley. We hiked about a mile and a half down the Iceberg Lake Trail, passing by the south couloir route, before leaving the trail to head skyward in an open area that minimized bushwhacking. Angling back eastward, we traversed open scree slopes to gain the south summit ridge and Luncheon #1. This ridge provides a 180-degree panorama of the Many Glacier Valley which is hidden on the alternative south couloir route. This strong group then climbed to the summit easily and admired the striking view from the Mount Henkel summit during Luncheon #2, looking straight down on Kennedy Lake some 2,000 feet below.
Our next goal was Crowfeet Mountain which is adjacent to Henkel to the northwest. The connecting route is gorgeous in and of
itself, providing exposed views of Kennedy Lake along a ridgeline that delivers climbers to the base of the Crowfeet summit
block. There are multiple ways to navigate the route from here; this coordinator accidentally selected a difficult pitch, but for
some reason everyone else found a better route to the summit! There isn't much room on the actual Crowfeet summit so the
group was fairly spread out during Luncheon #3, thus the unique summit photo. The 2,500-foot descent to the Ptarmigan Tunnel
Trail was uneventful and provided varying degrees of scree skiing opportunities, with some of the group discovering a snowfield
for glissading. Thank you to Larry Hiller for serving as backup coordinator on another successful GMS outing. Henkel and
Crowfeet climbers were: Tim Anderson, Lorys Albano, Matt Marcinek, Bill Jones, Paul Cogswell, Larry Hiller, Stephen Smith, Jerry
Moore, Laurel Vielle and Dan Diamond.
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. |
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