Going to the Sun Mountain

Going to the Sun Mountain (El.= 9,642 ft.; el. gain = 3,700 ft).
and Matahpi Peak (El.= 9365 ft; el. gain = an additional 1,065 ft)

A few weeks ago on Saturday, Aug. 11th, I joined a group from the Glacier Mountaineering Society for a scramble up Going to the Sun Mountain. It was perfect timing and we had a clear day with great views! (Forest fires have been plaguing the Rockies this summer and it has been quite hazy in August. I stayed nearby in Waterton after the hike and by the next day, it had already hazed over completely and you could not see any peaks further than a couple of kilometres away in Waterton).

You can see Going to the Sun from different areas but most prominently from Logan's Pass. From most angles, it is hard to see an obvious route to climb Going to the Sun Mountain, however, the route that our group took was not insanely hard. We followed the West face route that is described pretty well in Edwards book.

After gaining the col between Mahtapi Peak and Going to the Sun, there were awesome views looking down on Siyeh Pass trail and the Sexton Glacier... Across the valley there is Goat Mountain.

From the col, we traversed along a faint goat trail until we found a gravel-filled gully that took us up almost onto the ridge. The hardest part of the trip was the loose rock in the gully and we took great care not to kick rocks down onto each other. There was a brief bit of interesting scrambling on the top of the gully before we gained the ridge.

At the col, a chap named Pat joined us on the trail (this was after a couple of hours.) It was kind of odd that this person showed up out of nowhere, but he knew Steve Smith, our hike coordinator and Steve was happy to have him along... unfortunately, Pat twisted his ankle quite badly at some point and he had an extremely tough time getting down. He was a pretty tough cookie though, and said he has done much worse to his ankle in the past. Even with the gimpy ankle, Pat made it down ok but it took perhaps about 10-11 hours.

Matahpi: After descending to the col, I ran up Mahtapi with a couple of people and snapped a few pix of the views from that vantage point. Views from the top of Going to the sun were awesome, as were the views from Matahpi.