Red Mountain - Oct 7, 2023 - Glacier National Park, Montana

As fall set in on the mountains in Alberta, and snow started to show up on upper elevations, I had considered going into the Ya Ha Tinda area for a peak that had eluded me once before, but it was a long way into the backcountry, and with the recent bear attack, this just wasn't something that I was prepared to do alone. Thankfully, there are many adventure-seeking scramblers out there that are quick to invite their friends to join them on trips. Such was the case for Oct 7 and 8.

Andrew Nugara was gearing up for 4 mountain days back-to-back, and invited me to join him on a couple of routes in Montana. His targets were Red Mountain and Heavens Peak. I had never heard of either, but after some quick searching, and reading of Sonny Bou's excellent trip reports on these, I was hooked! Andrew is one of the nicest humans that I know - never a harsh word about anyone or anything, and very quick to extend an offering hand to anyone. He offered me a comfortable bed to sleep in at his cabin near Waterton on the night before heading into Montana, and while he had offer me the use of his cabin on several occasions before, this time I graciously accepted.

The plan was to pack our gear into his vehicle and cross the border at Carway at 7:00 AM, so his cabin was an ideal staging location for this. Rafal Kazmierczak also would also participate in the adventure, and oh what an adventurous 2-day adventure this was! We stuffed all our gear into Andrew's car, and set off for the border crossing, arriving exactly at 7 AM, and continued onwards to Two Medicine Lake campground for the first ascent (Red Mountain). It was very interesting hearing and watching Andrew and Rafal point to the various peaks that we kept driving by - some names that I had heard of before, but many that I had not. It is as if these guys have all the mountain names and routes memorized - such a wealth of knowledge and a privilege for me to listen to!

Andrew had booked a campsite to ensure we had both a camping spot as well as a place to park the vehicle for the first mountain (Red Mountain). We didn't set up the tents when we arrived - instead, we parked, and set out on the trail to ensure that we maximized our use of the daylight for the hiking and scrambling.

Andrew and Rafal are very fit individuals, so we made our way along the trail around Rising Wolf Mountain at a reasonable pace - a pace that was commensurate with the approx. 20 km distance and 1700 m elevation gain that we would take on for the day. We each like taking photos on the trips that we go on, so there also was a fair bit of break time when we would spy something that was of particular interest to us. For this particular route, I was particularly interesting in the multitude of lakes, the red argillite, and the expected snow along the summit ridge - all of these would make for some very interesting photos.

We largely based our ascent on Sonny Bou's trip report, and while we had a gpx track from a guy who traversed between Red and Spot Mountains (Spot is east of Red), none of us were particularly drawn to ascend Spot Mountain, so we used Sonny's and Zosia's ascent line to gain the summit ridge of Red Mountain.

Once we got to the upper mountain, we had a difference in appetite for the terrain that the upper mountain offered. I chose a higher traverse, angling to stay as close to the spine of the ridge as possible, while Andrew and Rafal chose to stay lower before turning upslope closer to the summit. Both routes worked well for our preferences, and both were through moderate scrambling terrain. I did experience some Class 4 terrain on my ascent line (so, arguably maybe my route had some "difficult" scrambling). We were all on the same slope, so largely could keep track of each other's progress.

After re-connecting at the summit, we also discussed a potential descent option that would require that we descend to Pitamakan Pass, before then hiking what we expected was a relatively easy trail back to the campsite. We ended up choosing not to do that option, and I think that was very wise for a couple of reasons (time of day that we got to the summit of Red Mountain, and a worrisome/challenging traverse to Pitamakan Pass from Red Mountain). We got back to our campsite just in time for the anticipated setting up of tents in the dark :D.

The colours that bathed my eyes all day were beautiful: reds (rock, some lichen, low vegetation), yellows (lichen, shrubs, trees and lichen), greens (grasses and trees), blue (sky and lakes), and white (snow). I really enjoyed the hands-on scrambling that the upper mountain afforded us. I didn't find it terribly exposed, and the route-finding was very easy. This is definitely a route that I would recommend to anyone that asks me what there is to do around Two Medicine Lake.