Cleveland & Merritt

Iceberg Peak

Mt. Gould

Mt. Jackson

Matahpi + Going-to-the-Sun

Up via Notch Route from Iceberg Lake. Down via Ahern Pass and Highline/Loop.

As usual, DO NOT attempt to follow our route. I very much have the "go up until I find something I can't climb" disease, and I fear I may be infecting Patrik a little bit.

This was the mountain that we did by far the least preparation for. I understand that there is the possibility of keeping it class 3 pretty much the whole way, but we made no real attempt to do that and just had fun finding our own way. Hit a couple of low class 5 moves on the way up to the notch, and I hit one on the way down the Iceberg cliffs (which Patrik easily found a way around after I had already committed). Had an absolute blast though, and honestly would have been a little disappointed if a mountain this dramatic-looking had been class 3 the whole way. Instead, it felt like we got to put together all the preparation we'd been doing up to this point in the season into one capstone hike.

Obviously the views from the top were outrageous, but we were a little pressed for time as we started after 2pm, and it took us longer to reach the summit than we expected. Without a GPS track, we weren't 100% certain where the standard route from Highline was, and didn't want to get stuck navigating cliffs in the dark, so we headed back down the way we came and made for Ahern pass, which we reached just as it became too dark to go further without headlamps.

A lovely 5 mile night hike on a completely abandoned stretch of Highline got us to Granite Park Chalet a little after 11pm, where some nice hikers let us know they had cell service, and we were finally able to call and arrange for a pickup at the loop around 1230am (thank you Cameron and Jackson for sparing us from a very challenging hitchhike!)

I've been told (by Patrik and others) that the Loop Trail can be brutally hot, but the grade was just perfect for light jogging downhill, and the air was nice and cool in the middle of the night, so it was an exceptionally pleasant last 4 miles to end it.

All in all just a great day. Used lots of different skills, saw wonderful scenery, and had a peaceful 9 mile night hike with lots of lightning off in the distance. Just about the entire hiking experience packed into one afternoon and evening.

Coming to Glacier this summer was one of the best decisions of my life. And I would not have recovered nearly as much of my long atrophied ability if Patrik didn't start dragging me up mountains before I was ready for them.

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John of Nowhere

Iceberg Peak

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Cleveland & Merritt

Iceberg Peak

Mt. Gould

Mt. Jackson

Matahpi + Going-to-the-Sun

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