Out there with Tom: Sketchy Chisholm Peak in Adels

This will have to serve as my 70th Birthday portrait. It will be official Saturday.

This shot illustrates the mountain's difficult terrain

Gordon descending the mountain's south flank

A map of the Mount Chisholm area

I love the Adel Mountains, an appendage of the Big Belt Mountains south of Cascade.
This range is an old volcano that sent fingers out onto the plains, creating our beloved Square, Crown and Birdtail buttes on the southern Great Falls horizon. They have a maroon hue and are dotted with massive Ponderosa pine trees.
They are cut through by the Missouri River and some of the best trout fishing in the state as attested to by the growing number of outfitters and their clients who wet a line year 'round.
The problem for hikers and climbers is one of access.
There are numerous BLM and state sections in this area, but they are separated by private lands historically used for grazing, but increasingly for rural subdivision.
Finding the access is tough, but possible. Of course, there's asking the landowners, but they are hard to find.
I've done that, but usually I study BLM maps and find public lands sections that are adjacent to one another and accessible from the Missouri River Recreational Road or Interstate 15.
Probably the most accessible hike and climb I've found is located in the little settlement of Hardy just west of the Hardy Bridge Fishing Access site. There is a BLM section there below one of the more prominent mountains in the area ---- Chisholm Peak (elevation: 4,639 feet).

First Arrowleafs of the season

Finally, a Pasque flower, a real sign of Spring

In the absence of an organized Wayne's Wednesday Walk I climbed the peak with Gordon Whirry, a third time for me.
From a saddle on the west side of the peak we went to the north side of the mountain (through the trees) until we reached a gap in the ridgeline and then climbed on the peak's south side, hugging the wall and looking for logical spots to gain elevation. If you look closely you can see a climber's route and several ducks that we found helpful in navigation. It is very slow going and you have to use your hands in many spots. I would say this is full scale scrambling in spots that are high Class 3.
The rock throughout is broken igneous that moves around and it leaves patches of ball-bearing like rock that is easy to slip on.
On top the views are amazing; the Missouri River meandering in bends below the Mountain Palace and in the distance to the west the Continental Divide, dominated by the largest peak in the Scapegoat Wilderness and Bob Marshall Complex, Red Mountain (elevation: 9,411 feet). It is completely covered by snow as are the other peaks along the Divide. There is still plenty of snow in the Adels as well. We were surprised to see many beds that bighorn sheep had set up on the south side of the range.

We came down the south and then east side of the mountain through a lovely canyon and tall ponderosa trees to the railroad tracks just north of a train tunnel in the mountains.

Walking along the railroad tracks along the river back to the car there were drift boats full of fly fishermen wetting their lines.
It was encouraging to see some wildflowers in bloom. Spring has been inordinately late this year.
We saw our first Pasque flowers of the season, buttercups, fritliary, and even a blooming clutch of Arrowleaf Balsamroots! A week earlier we had gone looking for wildflowers in the Sun River Canyon and found a measly dandelion for our effort. The next day we went to the Trout Creek Canyon near York in the Big Belts and the Kelseya rose hadn't bloomed either.