The Badger Two Med sacred peaks

Approaching Scarface

There was some use of hands on this climb

Up from the grand valley at the bottom of the three sacred mountains

We're losing daylight and gaining snow

The Badger-Two Medicine area on the Rocky Mountain Front is beautiful, remote and wild enough that when I visit there I’m as satisfied as if I had been to Glacier National Park.
Over the years I and Mark Hertenstein have developed an amazing traverse there that includes climbing Scarface, Morningstar and Poia mountains. The peaks are named for main characters in the Blackfeet Sun Dance story that reads much like the Christian story.
I took a Glacier Mountaineering Society group to this Blackfeet Reservation place for a climb Saturday, as I have done in the past, and while we didn’t get all three climbed, I found myself satisfied with what we had accomplished.
I climbed Scarface and passed on Morningstar to assist another climber who was having difficulty. The rest of the group went on to Morningstar. Even with this abbreviated trip I still got in more than 17 miles of walking and more than 5,000 feet of elevation gain on a trip that started in early daylight and ended in the dark.
The trip consists of walking long, broken limestone ridgelines and dropping into wild, isolated valleys. When we dropped into the tangled bottoms we encountered gorgeous, small waterfalls. We also passed through large elk meadows beneath towering headwalls.
On top we could see into Glacier Park and pick out some of my favorite peaks.
Although I was disappointed that I didn’t get the group through the full traverse I was quite happy with a day in this amazing country.