Granite Peak trip

Zane Aldworth, Jonathan Baker, Charlie Gray, Bruno Olshausen, and Spunky


These photos are from our trip into the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness on Sunday, August 17, 2003.  We started from our camp at Mystic Lake, hiked up to the Froze-to-Death plateau, followed by an ascent of Mt. Tempest, then down to Avalanche Lake and back.  The names say it all.  It was a 21-hour, 20-mile odyssey that began at 5 a.m. and ended at 2 a.m. the next day.  In between were about 5,000 ft. elevation (up and down), a snow storm, lots of boulder hopping (including about 2 hours of wet, moss-covered car-sized boulders), and about six hours of hiking in the dark with headlamps, mostly off-trail with sparsely distributed trail cairns.  For the hearty among us (ZA and JB), the trip also included a late afternoon swim in the glacier-azure waters of Avalanche Lake.  Fortunately, it also included some of the most spectacular mountain scenery you will ever see.  Photos courtesy of JB and ZA.


Mystic Lake, as seen from the Froze-to-Death plateau.  It took about two hours to get up to this point from our camp at the lake.  It's about 7 a.m.


We have just come into sunlight after reaching the Froze-to-Death plateau.


View from the plauteau.


Hiking across the plauteau.


After hiking across the plateau for about 4 hours, we can finally see Granite peak, highest point in Montana.  You wouldn't want to fall off of this mountain...

Skies are looking gray so it doesn't look good for an ascent.  We decide instead to ascend Mt. Tempest, just to our left (not visible here).

Click here for pan of Granite Peak area.


Bruno peers out from the summit of Mt. Tempest.


Zane (foreground) and Jonathan on Mt. Tempest.


Looking down from Mt. Tempest.  Visibility is limited because it is beginning to snow.


We are soon engulfed in a full-fledged snow storm that, oddly enough, smells like smoke (probably from the fire burning in Big Timber to the north).


Beginning our descent from the plateau down into Avalanche Lake.  It's a long way down and this is just the beginning.  Charlie is in foreground, Bruno bringing up the rear.


Looking up toward Granite Peak, now enveloped in the clouds, from the notch between Granite and Tempest.  

Zane (bottom center) continues descent to Avalanche Lake.


Taking the glacier express.  Zane (foreground) skis on his feet.  Charlie (background) clings for dear life as he begins sliding out of control in his slick rainpants.  Spunky looks on.

Click here for movie.


On the way down we can see Avalanche Lake.

Which way around the lake?  That's the $20 million question.  We choose the left shore because the topo shows it having a gradual slope.  Ooops...  USGS was a bit sloppy in making that map.  Note the cliff in the distance on the left shore.  We don't learn until we get there - after traversing many treacherous, wet, moss-covered boulders - that it drops straight into the water.  It is now about 5:30.  Jonathan and Zane do some rock-climbing and go for a bone-chilling swim while holding their packs aloft.  Bruno and Charlie backtrack and go around the other side of the lake.


Jonathan and Zane have just completed their brave feat and are rewarded with this visit by a mountain goat near a waterfall flowing into Avalanche Lake.  

We meet up shortly afterwards.  It is now about 8:30 p.m. and we have 3 more lakes and about 3000 ft still to descend, mostly off-trail.  Fortunately there are some people camped at the lake who give us directions.  We make our way with headlamps, losing the trail multiple times.  There is no moon.  Oftentimes it is Spunky that finds the way ahead - her eyes reflect our headlamps, serving as a beacon.  We finally make it back to camp at 2 a.m., completely exhausted.