Goat Ridge

Goat Ridge (GNP) – September 6, 2009

Roundtrip time: 10:45

Scrambling and a little climbing with Mark.

We are not about to start ascending every unnamed GR in sight in Glacier National Park (Montana), in the same way that we have attempted to do in the Canadian Rockies. GNP has more than 250 named peaks, of which at least 200 will take priority over an unnamed peak! However, the day’s dismal weather prompted us to downgrade our original objective to something more modest – officially named Otokomi Mountain was that choice. As the trip title suggests, we didn’t end up on Otokomi.

Rising above and to the west of the Rising Sun Campground lies a beautiful ridge, with a striking summit block at the west end. This is actually on outlier of Goat Mountain and became our objective for the day. After hiking the Otokomi Lake Trail for a few kilometres, we left the path, crossed a creek and then followed a good game trail to the base of the ridge. The less-than-stellar weather was an appropriate compliment to a less-than-stellar ascent from there. The initial section of the ridge didn’t provide the interesting scrambling we were hoping for and was more of a labourious plod than anything else. Coupled with the grey/white skies, I found the ascent, up to that point, to be a few steps below enjoyable.

Of course, GNP wasn’t about to surrender its perfect 9-0 record without a fight (a reference to the 9 terrific ascents completed in GNP up to this date). Although the weather didn’t improve, the ascent suddenly became very interesting, courtesy of the substantially sized band of red argillite. The rock stood atop the ridge in huge blocks and strikingly beautiful pinnacles. Further along the ridge, another surprise: the wonderfully blue waters of Goat Lake. The picturesque lake reminded us very much of Carnarvon Lake in South Kananaskis. Its red argillite-lined shores were something we had never seen before and we immediately starting looking for routes down to the lake. There did appear to be one, however, the almost bizarre absence of visible game trails around the lake made us a little uneasy about the accessibility of the area – Goat Lake would have to wait.

More weather woes, as a brief, but significant rain shower passed by, rendering the lichen-covered rock, slick and dangerous. This (and some descent exposure) prompted me to retreat from a potential route back up to the pinnacled ridge (we were below the ridge at this point). Forty-five minutes later, after a ton of traversing back and forth across the most accessible ledges, I embarrassingly found myself at exactly the same point from where I’d backed down. At least, by now the rain had stopped and the rock had dried out. Gaining the ridge again turned out to be quite easy, though a rappel would be necessary to descend this way.

Negotiating the fascinating ridge quickly turned into the highlight of the trip. Huge, vertical pinnacles constantly impeded progress, but a little searching always seemed to reveal routes around or over them. Unfortunately the ride suddenly came to an abrupt halt. After climbing a steep wall to regain the ridge yet again, I arrived at a step I had no hope of safely ascending. It actually reminded me of the second notch on Mount Cline, where you have to step over a horrendously exposed gap in the rock to gain the other side. Here, the exposure was not as bad, however, you would have to step onto a vertical rock-face that was devoid of any decent handholds. Circumventing this step would have required a decent elevation loss on the right side of the ridge, possibly with a rappel or two. Although we had the gear to do so, we did not have the time. Continuing would have assured doing the entire descent by headlamp. I rappelled down the wall and we started back.

The descent was generally excellent. Cloudy skies finally gave way to clear skies, highlighting the magnificent rock formations and their brilliant colours. We managed to avoid all the tricky terrain, thus eliminating any need to rappel, and once off the stunning red argillite, a direct route down to the Going-to the-Sun Road was possible. In fact, this route would probably have made for a far more expeditious ascent, however, we didn’t know that at the time. Walking along the road back to the car by headlamp was a far better alternative to trying to find the game trails we had used on ascent.

Definitely the worst weather we’ve experienced in GNP, but still a thoroughly enjoyable day in the U.S.

Note: on the days preceding and succeeding the Goat Ridge trip, we did two, short hikes near the Belly River. The first day was characterized by clear skies over the mountains, where as on the second day a wall of storm clouds poured over the mountains at sunrise. This resulted in some magnificent cloud colours and a fairly prominent rainbow.

Belly River Hike 1

The Moon over Mount Blakiston