Climbing up Golden Goose on the way to the top of Showdown for some telemark skiing on Halloween. That's Big Baldy at more than 9,000 feet covered with snow in the distance.

 

Mark Hertenstein pulls telemark turns on Muley run at Showdown.

 

The standard winter shot at the top of Porphyry Peak --- the lookout.

 

Icycles hang off the hill top lodge at Showdown Saturday where there's more than 40 inches of snow.

Halloween ski a treat not a trick

While I’ve skied many years in October, I can’t remember a better October ski day than Saturday in the Little Belts.
A wet fall storm left more than 40 inches on top the Showdown Ski hill and there’s plenty of the white stuff throughout this central Montana mountain range.
When we got to it much of it had settled and the sun had softened it. Luckily, we got an early start and got off the hill before it got too sticky, although Mark Hertenstein had to rewax twice with glide because he was picking it up.
I fell into the snow a couple of times and it was like landing in wet concrete. It was difficult to get back up.
There was no problem as in other Octobers of dropping onto rocks because there is no base. The snow has been falling off and on in the Belts for most of the month --- in fact I almost went out three weeks ago for a look-see --- and the base is quite good.
We climbed to the top on the groomer track and skied three runs on Muley, one on Speculation and one on Quicksilver.
On Quicksilver and Speculation we found the snow had been hit pretty hard by wind and sun and it was tough to get the skis up to good telemark turns. The snow was too heavy.
Muley was quite a bit better and we had the best luck in this run.
The wind was really howling on the way back. My hope is that it consolidates the snow rather than sweeps it away.

 

These limestone kilns on Helena's Grizzly Gulch were part of the gold mining process more than 100 years ago and mark the head of the McKelvey Gulch Trail on Mount Helena's south end.

 

Katie works her way through the cliffs on the Hanging Valley Trail.

 

The Hogback Ridge Trail on Mount Helena shows off the new snow in the Elkhorns.

 

Gorgeous Mount Helena trail markers.

 

Limestone spoils left over from Helena's gold mining era on the side of Mount Helena where the Hanging Valley Trail begins.

Mediterrenean brunch and Mount Helena

After several days of rain and cold I was certain that there would be good ski-able snow in the mountains last weekend.
In fact, there was, but I wasn’t there.
Sunday dawned bright blue and sunny and I took off for Helena for a great Sunday brunch and hike on Mount Helena, instead.
I admit to kicking myself this morning when I looked at Showdown’s Web site and saw all that fresh snow covering the ski hill.
But, I was deterred from taking advantage of it when I realized that Sunday morning was the first day of the hunting season, and combined with uncertainty over the snow, I bagged it.
I didn’t want to rock up skis, now did I?
I can recommend a great Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Mediterranean Grill on Park Avenue in the old Eddy’s Bakery. It’s $15.95 and well worth it for the variety of Mediterranean foods from hummus to delicious sweets like baklava.
After distending ourselves we explored a few Mount Helena trails I hadn’t walked.
Well, maybe I had walked them, but it was before they were part of an official trail system.
When I lived in Helena in the 1970s there was a basic trail up the east face and to the “H”. Before I left in 1981 I was part of a group that built the back side trail that connected to the Hogback ridge to the top.
We were the organizers of the Mount Helena Run, an annual race to the top that continues to this day.
Since leaving, I never took the time to fully explore the new trails that were built after I left for Great Falls.
Mount Helena is an amazing city park that offers mountain hiking and trail biking and includes some nice limestone cliffs.
On Sunday, Katie and I hiked a loop up McKelvey Gulch on the south side of the mountain from a parking space on Grizzly Gulch. We got to the Ridgeline Trail on the west end and the connected the backside trail and then back down the Hanging Valley Trail to McKelvey Gulch.
About 30 years ago I used to run up McKelvey Gulch as a route to the top of Mount Helena.
The route was very typical of Mount Helena with ponderosa pines and Doug Fir and lots of grass. We passed through fire and pine bark beetle infestations and across limestone outcroppings.
Because the day was so clear the mountains just popped out. The Big Belts and Elkhorns were loaded with snow.
The brunch and hike made for a most pleasant Sunday outing.

 

What's a trip to Yellowstone without a stop at one of the hot springs? This one is Mammoth Hot Springs.

 

The suspension bridge on the Hellroaring Creek trail.

 

A large bull in Mammoth Hot Springs.

 

A wolf track we found in the Lamar Valley.

 

Katie Kotynski caught this backlit shot of the Lamar River frequented by wolves.

Autumn's muted colors in Yellowstone

This was the most colorless autumn I can recall.
A very hot September was followed by a deep freeze for a couple of weeks in October before the trees began to turn. So what we’ve had are brown, rather than golden or orange leaves. They’re falling to the ground fast.
We took off for Yellowstone Park on Friday hoping for some color, but we were disappointed to find the same situation there. What leaves are left are brown. Not much color around.
However, we were treated to gorgeous Indian summer weather with temperatures in the mid-60s and clear skies on Saturday.
We were out looking for wolves focusing our search on the Lamar Valley.
There were reports of up to nine wolves in the Hellroaring Pack. We saw a clutch of people near an overlook who had spotted the pack, but we couldn’t find a place to park to see them ourselves.
We returned later in the day and had a feeble look through a scope from this same overlook revealing what looked to be one wolf.
We enjoyed a nice walk in the Lamar Valley, saw plenty of bison, but no wolves.
We had to satisfy ourselves with the elk we could see in herds in the Hellroaring area and in the Mammoth Hot Springs townsite.
Walking the suspension bridge on the Hellroaring trail was a highlight of a short backcountry trip.
Otherwise we went as far east as Cooke City. There was snow in the high country peaks around this isolated town.
Gardiner, Montana is always our base for exploring Yellowstone.
It is quirky enough to keep things interesting.
There’s a new Yellowstone Park Association interpretive center and store at the end of the main drag near the arch.
There were elk and deer throughout the town.
The nice weather brought the locals into Gardiner and filled restaurants.
However, the park itself had plenty of elbow room and we had corners of it to ourselves.

 

Katie at the Sulphur Springs, a wonderful walk along the River's Edge Trail outside Great Falls. The water from these springs are said to have cured Sacajawea, the Shoshone maiden who traveled with the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

 

The Missouri River rapids encountered on the trail.

 

There were large patches of juniper shrubs.

 

I bet snakes love this prickly country.

 

The outcrops were colorful.

Sulphur Springs hike on a blustery day

The weather has been menacing this weekend and discouraged me from doing any climbing.
To exercise I decided to head to River’s Edge Trail and do the Sulphur Springs hike in the Morony Dam area.
It is a 1.8 mile walk each way over a well built and maintained trail that undulates across several very pretty coulees and rock outcrops and down to the Missouri River where there are rapids.
This is a historic place, where Sacajawea, the young Shoshone Indian girl was cured of fever by the sulphur waters of this spring while on the Lewis and Clark Expedition more than 200 years ago.
I hadn’t been back to the spring since the new trail was built and interpretive signs installed. There’s a great parking area at the trailhead, near a trailhead for the North Shore Trail.
We had been looking for fall color, but didn’t find much. The trees and ground cover are barely tinged.
The interpretive signs are particularly informative and well done. They speak of early attempts to make the springs a tourist spot, and that they had been sought, like in Sacajawea’s case, for their medicinal properties.
The springs themselves are a scenic relief in the breaks along the Missouri.
They were covered with an algae bloom on Saturday.
The signs direct hikers around the springs and ask that they stay on the trail to prevent vegetative damage.
One sign points out where Lewis and Clark camped near the mouth of Belt Creek when they came through.
At the beginning of the hike there’s a vista spot that gives a good overview of the area and Morony Dam.
This is a nice hike convenient to Great Falls.

 

Typical Rocky Mountain Front scenery that conservationists are seeking to protect. A compromise plan was debated in Great Falls Wednesday night.

The battle for the Front

Here is what I said at the Sept. 30 public forum on the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Bill proposal.

"It is with mixed feelings that I offer this opinion on the draft Rocky Mountain Heritage Bill.
I respect the tremendous amount of work that has gone into crafting this proposal, and have particular admiration for the conservation community’s sincerity, dedication and spirit of compromise. I belong to the Montana Wilderness Association and have served on its Island Range Chapter Board.
Like others here I view the Front as a special place. I think of the Rocky Mountain Front as the scenic backdrop to Great Falls. It is thrill to be able to see peaks like Steamboat, Sawtooth, Caribou, Castle Reef, Choteau, Rocky Mountain, and Ear from my hometown. I raised my children hiking, backpacking, camping, climbing, skiing and snowshoeing there.
I return there with my special friends.
It is a destination I show all my out of town guests.
I write about the Front every chance I get.
What a thrill to know I can see grizzlies, black bears, mountain goat, bighorn sheep, elk, deer, mountain lion and moose in this wild place.
I think Great Falls and northcentral Montana are missing a great economic opportunities by not promoting the Front for its wild recreational character just as Kalispell promotes Glacier or Bozeman touts Yellowstone.
While I’ve been exploring this country for many years, there’s hardly a time that I don’t find some new aspect to admire.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this proposal goes near far enough in protecting this land’s wild profile. To steal a phrase from my friend Randy Gray, we have a Sistine Chapel here and we should give as much of it the highest protection we can, and that’s full wilderness designation.
I don’t understand why we could pass a much stronger bill 20 years ago when Ronald Reagan was President, and now with a liberal President and Democratic Congress we can’t do it again. The acreages and units in that bill should be our starting point, our minimum. We make a mistake in foregoing an opportunity for greater protection for these lands when nationally and I think, locally, the odds our on our side for support. We make a mistake in not showing Sens. Baucus and Tester that there is greater support for preservation of more of these lands for wilderness than any other vaguely understood alternative.
These lands are a national treasure and a key to a healthy tourism industry.
Why should they be held hostage to a few locals who would just as soon see these lands roaded, logged, grazed, drilled and subdivided? Protection other than wilderness is promised in this bill, but I don’t trust the motives of those outside the compromise group who oppose wilderness for land every bit as beautiful and wild as is now within the boundaries of the Bob Marshall.
Wilderness is sure protection for this land. This I understand. Anything other than that leaves the door open for various forms of development that could spoil this land’s wild character.
So, do I support this bill?
I can’t imagine a bill that doesn’t seek wilderness for Old Man of the Hills, Mount Frazier, Choteau Mountain, Volcano Reef, the Falls Creek bottom, Sawtooth and Castle Reef, the full Lockhart to Teton Peak ridgeline, the Headquarters Pass-Rocky Mountain Peak Area directly connected to Deep Creek…and more.
I guess I won’t oppose the wilderness additions that are in the compromise.
But, there should be more."

Here is a link to the Great Falls Tribune article:

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20091001/NEWS01/910010301&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

 

Mark Hertenstein goes airborne in gale force winds on the Mount Richmond climb in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area Saturday. See the video below the text on this Glacier Mountaineering Society climb to see how fierce the winds were.

 

The high peaks of the Badger Two Medicine area are the backdrop for Mark Hertenstein as he nears the Mount Richmond summit.

 

Matt Marcinek looks down at the ridge we tried and abandoned on our exploratory up Richmond.

 

On the summit ridge.

 

Larry Hiller questions what he's doing in these cliffs.

 

The cliffy challenge.

 

Off the ridge and through the narrow canyons at the bottom.

 

Even though we had to ford the North Fork of Birch Creek at the end of the climb, it was a refreshing wade.

A wind we'll all remember

Gale force winds Saturday added an element of challenge to a climb of Mount Richmond (elevation: 8,177 feet) in the Rocky Mountain Front/Bob Marshall Wilderness.
This was a Glacier Mountaineering Society hike I had organized. Eight of us began just west of Swift Reservoir on the North Fork of Birch Creek.
Richmond is a handsome limestone peak that towers above Swift Reservoir west of Dupuyer.
The plan was to pick up the first north ridge off the mountain we encountered and hook to the east and up to the top. I’ve done this before and it is an uncomplicated and straight-forward climb.
However my co-leader Mark Hertenstein thought we might make it more interesting by choosing another, more exposed ridge running off the north flank a couple of miles further up the trail.
The group agreed, and off we went making this an “exploratory” climb.
There are a number of ridges that run down to the North Fork from Mount Richmond, giving us a variety of choice.
Hertenstein thought the fourth one in the line of these ridges to the west might give us the best approach even though it meant hiking past the peak and backtracking to it.
We forded the North Fork and then bushwhacked through heavy forest and deadfall before coming into a lovely gully below a hanging valley at the base of the chosen ridge.
A number of climbers tried working their way up the ridge but couldn’t find a route and did some tedious and treacherous down-climbing.
Hertenstein then suggested side-hilling around the cliffs and climbing to the top on a ramp above the hanging valley. This turned out to be a wonderful suggestion and in short order we were walking on the summit ridge, with an easy ascent to the top.
The views on top were stupendous, enhanced by a bright, clear blue sky, although the predicted winds started to pick up. The Badger-Two Medicine area with Glacier Park peaks dominated the view to the north, the Great Bear and Bob Marshall Wilderness areas to the west, and the Rocky Mountain Front and its high Teton peaks to the south, the Great Plains flowed like an ocean of grass to the east punctuated by the Sweetgrass Hills. I particularly enjoyed the views in the Badger-Two, the peaks of sacred Blackfeet mythology --- Poia, Scarface and Morningstar.
I had expected more fall color than we saw, although the cottonwoods, and ground plants were a brilliant yellow.
At the top we considered the possibility of continuing the climb to the southwest by trying Mount Sentinel.
But, the kniferidge to its summit and increasing winds dissuaded us.
We considered the standard route down the east face, but instead opted for yet another of the ridges into the North Fork, off the smaller of the two Richmond peaks.
We worked our way down through several large cliff bands at the top, descending to broad ridgelines where the wind really began to howl.
At first we got quite a large laugh being blown about.
Then the winds became sustained and the laughing was over. I was thrown to the ground at one point and scratched my glasses and bruised my arms and knee on the sharp limestone rock. Jerry Moore was knocked down trying to help me up and then was knocked over and flat by the wind. He hit his head, but was not seriously hurt. The rest of us were thrown into rocks as we tried to move down the ridge. We could barely move at times and huddled together at points hoping the wind would die down. Paul Cogswell’s sunglasses flew off his face.
Finally, we had no choice but to move off the ridge to the east side that wasn’t getting as badly buffeted.
David Schuler, who retired from a career at sea with the Coast Guard and knows winds when he sees them, estimated the winds at “60 knots,” which he translated as 90 miles an hour.
I’ve been in high winds on the Front before, but I think these were the highest I had ever encountered.
The warm temperatures made them more bearable.
We finally got into the bottoms and enjoyed narrow, scenic small canyons dappled with fall colors before reaching the North Fork.
We all enjoyed the off-trail and unexpected nature of our exploratory, but it will be the wind that we’ll remember the most.

 

Jim Heckel adjusts the southwest ridge route by getting into a gully. That's Mount Werner behind him.

 

Mount Frazier's handsome profile.

 

I really enjoyed the amazing views in all directions from the top of Frazier.

 

We descended the scree field from the saddle.

 

Getting some photos of Blackleaf Canyon where we had started our climb.

 

There were sea shells embedded in rock all over the mountain.

Mt. Frazier on a cloudless, hot fall day

Mount Frazier (elevation: 8,315 feet) is the big, handsome limestone mountain that comes into view at the end of the Blackleaf Canyon, west of Bynum, when you clear the high canyon walls.
The sky was cloudless, clear and deep blue Wednesday so I figured Frazier would be a good destination.
Jim Heckel and I chose the southwest ridge off the mountain attained at the big wash a couple of miles beyond the canyon just before the trail starts heading up to the pass behind Mount Werner.
We were surprised by an extremely hot day. We got on trail at 9:30 a.m., and it was already 71 degrees. By the time we got back to Great Falls at 5:45 p.m., it was 92 degrees.
Correspondingly, the conditions in the Blackleaf were more summer-like than fall-like despite this being the second day of autumn.
About the only thing in full color were the cottonwoods on the bottom and they were a lovely golden hue. The aspen were only spotting color and there was some color on the ground.
Last year at this time this area was ablaze in fall color.
We carried bear spray with us because were were aware that several grizzlies caught in snares in Dupuyer had been dumped in nearby Muddy Creek drainage. However, we saw no evidence of the bears where we were.
I enjoy the Class 3 climbing on the southwest ridge, but we varied from the usual route. We got into a gully below the ridge slightly to the north and climbed about 1,000 feet there until regaining the ridgeline to the top.
As promised, I hereby name that gully the Heckel Couloir in honor of Jim, although I’d rather call it Jim’s Hully Gully.
Although I’ve climbed this mountain a half-dozen times, I had forgotten how broken up the rock is. Toward the top the limestone rock is large and unstable and requires tedious concentration.
As is the case with most of the Front, the mountain offers exceptional views. Because it was so clear we could see the Sweetgrass Hills to the east, the Little and Big Belt mountains, the Front, the Bob Marshall, Great Bear, Scapegoat wilderness areas, and could pick out individual mountains in Glacier Park.
There was some evidence of a fire in the Bob to the south. It exploded into a mushroom cloud after we had descended and were driving home. We thought it could be the planned control burn in the Hoadley Creek area, although it seemed to far north.
Later this evening the fire colored the western horizon during the sunset and cast the Belt mountains in a purple haze.
It was very dry for this late in September.
I’d like to see some snow soon.