Mount Gould
August
18, 2011
Mountain
height: 2470 m
Elevation gain:
900 m
Roundtrip time: 6:00
Scrambling
with Raff.
In
our search for good weather, Raff and I headed south to Glacier
National Park.
We were all over the idea of one of Glacier’s 10,000 ers, Mount
Jackson, until
the morning greeted us with unexpectedly cloudy skies. Scowling,
swearing, and
discouraged we drove to Logan Pass to explore other ideas. By the time
we
reached the pass the clouds were starting to dissipate and so with it
our
misplaced ire. 
It was now too late to attempt Jackson as a day trip,
but
another statuesque mountain stood very nearby and both Raff and I were
interested in a go at it – Mount Gould.
The
trip started off with a wonderfully scenic stroll along the impressive
Highline
Trail, terrific views as well as fellow hikers in abundance. The ascent
of
Gould was classic class III Glacier Park terrain – fun, interesting
scrambling
up ledges and short rockbands, with a healthy dose of decision-making
and
route-finding. And of course the rock was brilliantly colourful!
I
don’t think either of us were surprised to arrive at the summit to a
magnificent panorama in all directions – it’s what we’ve come to expect
in the
Southern Rockies. Mounts Allen, Siyeh, Wilbur, Cannon, and Heaven’s
Peak were
particularly noteworthy.
The
descent was far from trivial. A multitude of cairns leading in a
multitude of
directions meant that route-finding actually seemed more difficult than
on the
ascent. Nevertheless, we made it down without incident and had fun
doing so.
A
very enjoyable trip.
The clouds disspaiting at Logan Pass
I cannot help but take several photos of Mount Clements when at Logan Pass - it's such a beautiful mountain
Reynolds
(far left), a little chunk of Clements, a BIG chunk of
Oberlin, Cannon at the right, and Heaven's Peak at the far,
distant right
The west face of Gould
Approaching Haystack Butte
Another view of Gould's west face
Bishop's Cap, directly east of Gould; for obvious reasons, traverses from the Cap to Gould are unheard of!
Raff sizes up the west face
Raff finds a path through two rockbands
The summit view to the northwest; Cleveland and Merrit in the distant right
Raff and the view to the northeast
Looking down the immense east face of Gould
Raff at the summit
Mount Allen
I took the high road, Raff took the snow road - very lame!!!