Bearhat Mountain

July 12, 2008

Mountain height:         2647 m
Elevation gain:            823 m
Ascent time:                8:00
Descent time:              6:45

Scrambling and mountaineering with Mark.

Mark had found a picture of this beautifully aesthetic mountain in Glacier National Park, Montana, several years ago on the SummitPost website and an ascent of the peak immediately made it onto our “to-do” list. After purchasing a copy of Gordon Edwards A Climber’s Guide to Glacier National Park and getting some route information from Dave Stephens and Blair Piggot, the trip stood on the back burner for another few years before this weekend.

We spent the night at the pleasant Rising Sun Campground and then set out early in the morning. The trip starts at Logan Pass – the Glacier National Park equivalent to Highwood Pass in Kananaskis - a very high pass near treeline. Therefore ascents in the area require little bushwhacking and minimal elevation gains.

The scenery was absolutely spectacular from beginning to end. Gorgeous Mount Clements garnered most of our attention right at the beginning and then Bearhat Mountain above Hidden Lake came into view – what a magnificent sight!

The ascent was fantastic. Lower down there enough remaining snow to make for some amazing almost glacier-like scenery, as melting carved the snow into beautiful shapes. Once onto the rock, the route-finding and scrambling were outstanding. As well, the views of the surrounding area improved dramatically; especially those towards the “Matterhorn” of Glacier National Park - Mount Reynolds. We took our time ascending the rock, choosing a few more challenging lines.

Right before the summit ridge a shapely cornice barred the way, but was easily circumvented. From there it was a short walk to the north summit, where another phenomenal view awaited.

The traverse to the south (true) summit was far more challenging and time-consuming than expected. It didn’t look like much from the south summit, but involved exposed downclimbing, traversing narrow ledges and much route-finding. It took us over 1.5 hours to traverse a distance of not more than 700 horizontal metres. The view from the true summit was very similar to that of the north summit.

As has become our style, we decided to try an alternate descent route (not something that I’m bragging about!). This started off great. We lost huge amounts of elevation on the southeast side of the peak and it looked like we would make it to the south side of Hidden Lake, where an easy hike would finish the day. That was until a huge cliff band appeared in front of us. Getting down from this point was a long, arduous, and challenging exercise in route-finding and employing some rather unorthodox mountaineering techniques. Once down to Hidden Lake it was an easy walk back to the car, though both of us were physically and mentally exhausted from the tricky and involved descent.

Still, a thoroughly outstanding day on a wonderful mountain, in a beautiful area. Hopefully the first of many trips to Glacier National Park.