GLACIER PEAK CIRQUE / JULY 1979

It was a really really long time ago that I first went to the Beartooth range. 1979 was a big year. Big in the sense that we were on the road from June until the first week of Oct. Now thats a trip. On the heels of a very successful visit to the Bugaboos, Mary, Dennis and I meet up with Chris Hassig for a ten day excursion into the heart of the Beartooth Range.

1979 seems like ages ago. Thus, I am not surprised that I can not recall alot of what happened on that trip. What I do remember is that the four of us ... Chris, Dennis, Mary and myself, spent 10 days in the Glacier - Villard region ... four of which were spent getting in and out of the somewhat isolated terrain on the north side of these very alpine peaks. Weather was more or less reasonable because I do remember doing two good climbs while in there.

At the end of the second day we set up camp in a meadow above the tarn below the big wall the dominates the west end of the valley. We scouted possible routes the next day. A couple of days of down time came next as a front moved thru the region. When it cleared, we broke camp and moved up the valley to a dramatic campsite directly across from the N Face of Glacier Peak. We then broke up into two groups and headed off to do our chosen routes. Chris who had been there before wanted very much to do the very attractive 10 pitch route on the sub-peak above the hanging glacier on the north east side of Glacier Peak. Mary and I had spied out a nice rock buttress leading to the long mellow snow and ice slope on the N Face of Mt Villard. The gully on the NW side of the peak had been our objective from pics Chris had shown us, but the very alpine conditions he had seen first time in there were gone and the gully was partially melted out. The snow & ice conditions we found were typical for mid July.

Anyway, our route went well ... a wee bit cold on the rock buttress early in the morning. Touch of aid to get by some dicey spots. Emerging into the lower angle upper face we had an uneventfull day moving up 40-45 degree slopes. Route ended up taking 16 rope lengths to complete. Can't recall how we got down from the top, but the typical cloud build up gave us some incentive to move fast.

A one day storm blew thru and then Chris, Dennis and I headed up the very obvious Beckey gully to do the just as obvious light colored open book on the false peak east of the main summit. Some nice situations and good climbing resulted in a III 5.9 route. We rapped the route and glissaded the gully as another afternoon buildup gave us a taste of rain. So far we had good mornings and rain every afternoon except the day we moved up to high camp.

The next morning, we packed up and left the valley by crossing the high pass at the east end. Dropping down into the Sky Top River Valley, we eventually made our way back to the trailhead in two uneventful days. Didn't see anyone the whole time other than the fishermen who gave us a 4wd lift that saved us a bunch of hiking on the first day.