Iceberg Peak (August 24th, 2009)

From the summit of Iceberg peak we had awesome (but somewhat vertigo-inducing) views looking straight down upon Iceberg Lake... To the north the sea of peaks include Ahern, Ipasha and Merritt; Wilbur dominates the view to the to the south. Swiftcurrent mountain fire lookout and the southern end of the Highline trail can be spotted as well.



Another group scrambled up with us to the notch (they hiked to the notch and did a loop descending below Swiftcurrent mountain to the trail and back to Many Glacier).



Ascending to Iceberg notch was really fun (solid class III the entire way). I was apprehensive about descending this way but it worked out fine... one just had to be careful not to trip on all the marbles that cover the ledges.

Other possible descent routes that we discussed were: 1. descending to the Highline trail below and following it back to Swiftcurrent pass and back to Many Glacier. 2. Descending to a saddle between Swiftcurrent mountain and from there dropping down via a goat trail, crossing above Windmaker Lake to the Swiftcurrent trail (this route was a bit exploratory... but David, a dude in our group had done it years before... we discussed it briefly with the other group that we met ascending to the notch and they managed to pull it off (we met them back at the parking lot at the end of the day). Not sure if I have described this second descent route correctly... looking down from the summit, I couldn't see any goat trails to get accross!



We passed B7 pillar on the way up (a 5.8/9 rock climb; two rope pitches) that Ken Mc. had done earlier this summer.



A classic ascent with the Glacier Mountaineering society!









Round trip: 12 hours
Total Ascent: 1,387 m (4,552 ft)
Total round trip distance: 23 km (14 mi)