glacier

After bailing out of our original plan I had a day off. My good friend Tribhu from Spokane came by the hostel to surprise me. I had bad blisters which had opened up and bled the day before so getting a new pair of light weight trainers from him was just about the best present possible. We headed upto St Marys’ campground to be in position for hitting the trail again, pitched our traps and sat around a couple of hours drinking beers enjoying life.

Day 4- Because we stopped early on trail a couple of days before we had an extra 14miles to our journey. We added river crossings over downed trees for fun. After the 14miles began our 6 mile to the top of Triple Divide pass. The snow was heavy and ice axe and crampons were essential to gain higher areas. I’ll admit using crampons in soft trainers was a bit unusual but progress was fast. Instead of using switchbacks to the top of the mountain we decided to ascend straight up a snowslope for the last 300meters, topping out were the trail could be seen. We expected the other side of the mountain to be clear of snow(south facing). What we found was even more snow. This was a ‘Yikes’ moment. Its potentially dangerous to go on snow slopes late in the day on southern facing aspects when in the sun due to avalanche risks. We scrambled along the ridgeline to gain snow free talus to descend. After a few hundred feet we found the descent path and to our relief it was snow free. The walk down the valley had a few more interesting stream crossings banked out with snow. By the valley bottom we had covered 30miles and decided to take an easy road walk the next day due to rain forecast overnight. It did rain. And to my joy my tiny tarp sheet held up and kept me dry, allowing me also to dry my socks and gloves.

The next morning we covered the 22miles back to the hostel. I’m now getting ready for approx 200miles of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. P.S. My feet hurt and are very blistered.

So, Me and my friend Josh have just finished hiking Glacier park.

Day 1….. After getting permits we started from Chief Mountain on the Canadian border crossing. Walking through long meadows, and hiking to the top of Red Gap Pass, which was clear of snow, the descent down made easier by glissading a snow field on the other side instead of walking the switch back path. At the bottom of the valley as we come through a clearing a grizzly bear pops up and runs a few metres, we hear what we think is another bear in the trees and walk quietly on. From half 1 to half 8 we cover 20miles and feel like progress in the park will be good.

Day 2….. The morning starts well with a black bear encounter , Josh leading the way and the bear jumping up about 10meters away and sprinting to a safer point away from us(see pic). We take this as a good sign and keep hiking. Around 8am it starts raining, heavy. As cold as it is we push on, occasionally climbing over the downed trees from the winters avalanches, the forces involved in stripping the hillside and tumbling and splintering them to pieces must be immense. A few hundred feet up the valley we hit the snowline. The path cannot be seen so we make our own route, crossing snow bridges and keeping in awe of the tree tops pointing out of the snow. Because of the heavy rain we decide to scramble out own line up the pass instead of risk unstable snow slopes. The wind cuts to the bone through our wet layers so stopping is no option. We push as fast as we can to the top and descend over the other side, crossing snow slopes at pace axe in hand to arrest and falls. As we descend we pick a route carefully to avoid the cliff edges and weakening snow bridges, some looking no more than 6inches thick and spanning metres over icey rapids we hear running below. By the time we descend to the going to the sun road we are struggling to stay warm, shivering and jaws chattering. We decide the safest call it to bail out route and come back with dry gear. 7 hours of continuous rain and wind whilst winter mountaineering was not the original plan. 25miles covered this day. Finished by 3pm.