O'Brien Creek on New Year's Eve

Some water showing, but the O'Brien Creek snow bridges were in

A backcountry ski trip down O’Brien Creek was a great way to bring a year to a close.
O’Brien Creek is the watershed of the old mining camp of Neihart about 8 miles north of the Showdown Ski Area at King’s Hill Pass in the Little Belts Mountains.
It is the premiere backcountry trail in the Great Falls area that has it all --- good scenery, consistent powder snow, and solitude. The Great Falls Cross Country Club maintains it.
The trail is straightforward --- start at King’s Hill Pass on the trail west of the pass clearly marked with diamonds. There’s about 500 feet of elevation gain, and then it is all down hill to Neihart. It passes through a nicely recovered clearcut, across Divide Road, which is heavily hammered by snowmobile use, down into O’Brien Creek through a series of beaver willows frequented by moose, and past the O’Brien Creek water treatment plant and summer cabin areas before depositing you back on U.S. 89 at the Montana Department of Transportation maintenance sheds.
It was bitterly cold on New Year’s Eve when I took off. It was about minus 3 in Neihart with a slight breeze coming in from the north.
Since I was by myself I had to hitchhike back to the top of the pass.
I’ve never had a problem hitching a ride. I just put out my skis and raise my thumb and the Showdown crowd or one of the snowmobilers pick me up.
On Saturday I was picked up by an 18-year-old Air National Guard employee who had just returned from a one month hitch in Iraq. He found the whole experience a tad confusing because the country is so diverse. He said it is possible that he may have to return. I told him it was a shame someone so young would have had to experience something like that.
At the pass there must have been 30 vehicles unloading snowmobiles.
I recognize that snowmobiling is probably the most popular winter sport in our area and King’s Hill is the center of activity.
The pass is quickly approaching a time when there’s going to need to be some kind of more orderly disembarkation of the snow machines. The air up there (in the vicinity of the Forest Service rental cabin) is quite foul from machine emission. The noise is frightful and a person wanting to access the two cross country backcountry trails there needs to be very careful not to get run over by the snowmobiles jetting back and forth across the highway. It is a very disorderly and potentially dangerous scene. I wonder if the snowmobile parking area could be moved away from the pass itself, perhaps north of the pass in the power line area so there isn’t such an intersection of skiers, cabin users and drivers heading to Showdown to cross country ski.
I’m always glad to get away from the pass as I begin my ski.
The snow machine users offer an interesting contrast to the skiers.
It used to be that in the battle for recreational lands, snowmobilers would point to cross country skiers as “elitist” recreationists implying a higher income.
All one would have to do is observe which recreationist is spending the most money in enjoying their sport. One snow machine is worth 10 times any cross country skier’s equipment. That doesn’t include the expensive vehicles it takes to haul the machines.
I’d argue the economics of snowmobiling makes the snow machine recreationist economically elitist. I sure couldn’t afford that sport.
The snowmobile is getting more and more powerful and venturing further and further into the backcountry where conflict with the cross-country skier is increasing.
I’m seeing the snowmobiles in areas clearly marked as off limits and reserved for cross-country skiers even as far more areas are set aside for snowmobiles.
Which brings me back to O’Brien Creek.
Snowmobiles continue to trespass into area marked for skiers.
Too much of the trail is shared by skiers and snow machines.
You can count on snowmobile tracks on the lower three miles of the trail, which gouge the trail, ice it up and make it difficult to navigate.
With all the snowmobile trails designated in the Little Belts and less than 35 miles of cross country trails set aside, you’d think the best cross country trail could be marked for skiers only.
All that aside, I had a great ski, saw no other human, and only heard the whine of the snowmobiles (although I had to ski on tracks) in the three hours it took to do the trip.
I was thankful that other parties had been over the trail before me.
There is about 8 inches of new snow, which would have been tedious to break.
Happy New Year!

Let the backcountry ski season begin!

Katie Myers practicing tele turns

There’s no denying it. No matter how dry and warm the weather is down here in Great Falls, there’s enough snow in the high country for cross country and backcountry skiing.
I’ve been out twice now and the skiing is good above about 6,500 feet in the Little Belts Mountains south of town.
It was particularly beautiful on Tuesday, Dec. 28. The skies were bluebird and sunny. The hoarfrost on the snow twinkled so much it brought the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” to mind.
I had gotten out two days before Christmas to limber up and test the snow off King’s Hill Pass.
I had the usual problem of fighting the downhill skier traffic to the pass.
About three miles from the top I came on a car pulled off to the side of the road and the driver looking over the side into a steep ravine. I looked down and there was one of the trucks that had passed me dangerously on a curve. It was on its top. Luckily, none of the four guys in the car were hurt and they were able to climb out through one of the windows.
My friend H. Wayne Phillips was the first to lay down tracks on the Deadman Creek run from the pass on Monday, Dec. 27.
I followed his tracks Tuesday about halfway through, lingering in the telemark slopes to practice and find out what kind of early season shape I’m in. Not bad.
At that 7,000 foot level there is about 18 inches of snow; about six powder/hoar on top of an icy base of about a foot. I suspect there could be avalanche potential after the coming storms top it.
We stopped briefly at the Silvercrest track ski area and saw numerous cars and skiers there.
I say let this season begin, if belatedly!

A 'sweet' December climb

West Butte

Gold and East buttes from top of West Butte

I’ve always had a quick excuse not to climb in the Sweetgrass Hills, just south of the Canadian border and north of Shelby.
Either I’m in a hurry on my way to Calgary or Lethbridge, or I’m off to Glacier Park or the Rocky Mountain Front where I’ve been satisfied to view this “island range” from afar.
The lack of snow and thus the opportunity to do some backcountry skiing has had me casting about for places to hike this December.
We’ve been hitting the unique butte country west of Great Falls in pursuit of recreation while we wait for enough snow to accumulate to make putting on the skis worthwhile.
On Saturday the right stuff converged for a West Butte climb. At 6,984, feet, West Butte, is the highest of the three large buttes that most folks identify as the Sweetgrass Hills.
It is an area that looks a lot like Baldy in the Highwoods. There is a 2,400 foot rise from the parking area to the top, so it is a respectable.
Several years ago I climbed in the East Butte area of the Sweetgrass Hills north of Chester, bagging that area’s highest peak, Mount Brown, elevation 6,977 feet, just seven feet shy of West Butte.
I had sort of set my sights Saturday on doing not only West Butte, but also Gold Butte, 6,456 feet, but because of the short winter day and long drive from Great Falls (120 miles) we’ll have to do that some other time.
This volcanic range, really a clustering of small peaks, rises like a mirage off the otherwise brown, desolate prairie that is pocked with oil and gas development, saline patches, and cattle ranches. We saw some evidence of wheat and even irrigated land in this otherwise barren landscape. From the map we could see that the area had been prospected and mined. From our knowledge of local history, we know that the Blackfeet Indians considered this area to be a sacred place, which had been used to collect the “sweet grass” necessary to ceremonies and for vision quests.
The mountains are an oasis. We found evidence of healthy elk and deer herds on this climb.
Although there are patches of BLM and State Lands, permission is required to hike the West Butte, and one of our party secured that.
The weather held up. It was in the 40s and 50s most of the day with the exception of right on top when the wind whipped up and chilled all of us to the bone.
We got to our hike by taking the Sunburst exit off I-15 and following a good road that turned gravel, pointing the car directly toward West Butte.
The climb was straightforward. You can see what you need to do from the southwest approach we used. We got into a small gully, topped a ridge with a laccolith extrusion, and alternated between grass, talus and white pine forest clusters.
The talus was laced with old game trails, which makes traversing the face of the mountain easier.
The top is rounded and marked with a low cluster of rocks and a good-sized metal register box that we all signed.
It was interesting to see how many Canadians had crossed the border to climb this landmark. I know that it is clearly visible from north of Milk River, Alberta and from the Alberta Writing on Stone Provincial Park.
We could see the other buttes from the top. The pointed Gold Butte looked the most interesting. I was surprised to see the many prairie potholes from above.
On the eastern and southern horizons there were the other “island” ranges like the Bearpaws, the Little Belts and Highwoods. The west, the Front as far south as Sawtooth and as far north as Waterton and the Canadian Rockies. Directly, the vast void of the plains.
When we finished we took a drive around the southern end of West Butte to examine the gorgeous high cliffs and rocky outcroppings.
While I was happy to climb this late in December, it worrisome to realize how dry it is.
We desperately need moisture and snow or we’re sure to have fire next summer.

Square Butte in December

If you live in the Great Falls area you know that Square Butte between Cascade and Sun River is one of the area’s most visible physical features.

You might say it is one of our symbols, so much so that the great western artist Charlie Russell would use it in his early 20^th century paintings.

I’ve been driving past this gorgeous butte for more than 30 years, admiring it and always saying to myself that someday I would climb it. I’ve craned my neck from my airplane seat to get good looks at this massive hunk of rock.

Square Butte, not to be confused with another gorgeous central Montana butte near Geraldine, is a laccolith, a volcanic extrusion. The magma has found a crack in the crust and squirted up through it, creating these flat-topped semi-mountains.

These buttes dot the horizon between Great Falls and the Rocky Mountain Front.

The problem is that the butte is not on public land and it takes some effort to track down a landowner and get permission to go on top. Nearby Crown Butte, closer to Simms, is run by the Nature Conservancy, and doesn’t require permission getting. If you’re intimidated by seeking out landowners and dealing with them, that’s a great place to get started seeing these buttes.

The weather here this December has been quite open and dry, not exactly good skiing weather. I’ve seen reports of six inches of snow in the Teton Pass country and Showdown has only 24 inches, which isn’t great for cross-country skiing in the backcountry. Hiking the butte is a great alternative.

So I finally tracked down a friendly landowner and got permission to climb Square Butte from its southeast flank.

The weather Sunday was cloudy and foggy to begin with, but by early afternoon it had cleared sufficiently that we could get breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountain Front to the west, and see the Big and Little Belt mountain ranges, the Highwoods, Sweetgrass Hills and Bearpaw Mountains, as well.

Driving up, the butte looks impenetrable, its volcanic walls rising 1,000 feet above the valley floor. There was a fresh skiff of snow, which coated these hills like frosting on a layer cake.

As you near the walls themselves you realize that they are not as solid as they look from afar, but have many breaks in them, presenting interesting climbing possibilities.

We decided to do a rock climbing route that required the use of our hands most of the way up, although there’s a much easier walk-up on a rough road not far from where we started. It is about 1,000 feet from the road through the rock wall. To the top-most point on the butte’s northwest side, is 4,793 feet, about a 1,300 foot gain.

Once on top there’s undulating grass as far as the eye can see. I had heard that the top of this butte hadn’t been grazed, but I was quickly disabused of that notion when I saw cow pies, fence, and a stock-watering pond.

We kept to the perimeter of the butte, gaining and losing a couple of hundred feet many times as we walked this “square” butte that is about a mile and a half wide and two miles long.

The most interesting features of walking it this way are the regular “cuts” in the rock buttresses. They revealed massive rock faces. We enjoyed poking around these cuts admiring the views and figuring out routes down them.

Throughout the day we encountered large herds of mule deer on the butte itself and below us as well.

Once the clouds had lifted and the fog cleared, we were treated to the snow-covered Rocky Mountain Front marching out in front of us, and the surrounding buttes.

One of our party remarked that a walk like we had done should be required of all school children in the area because it revealed such amazing scenery so quickly and easily. It is about a half-hour drive from town to its base.

How could I disagree?