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Climbing Mount Saint Nicholas (9,376 ft.): Part One - August 19-22, 2009
Climbers: Ron Gruber and Ralph Thornton
Copyright Notice
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Most consider Mount St. Nicholas to be the most difficult climb in Glacier National Park. The route above the Great Notch is technical and there is just no easy way to the top. A few who possess some type of levitation have done it without ropes and protection but Ron Gruber and I were not in that group! Add to that the mountain's remoteness and you have all the ingredients for an appealing adventure. The photo of Mount Saint Nicholas below was taken from a nearby peak. The Great Notch is the snow filled chute to the right of the summit. Just getting to the notch is a challenge. Above the notch is where things get interesting. Fortunately for us there was not as much snow in August as in this June photo.
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Ron and I made our first attempt on St. Nicholas during August of 2008. We hiked in, climbed to the notch and made our way further up the mountain. When we were only one or two roped pitches from the summit we were hit with rain, wind and fog. Everything got wet and slippery. After waiting for over 90 minutes for things to dry out it became apparent to us that we would not have time to complete the climb. As you can see from the look on my face (below left) I was quite disappointed. We made three rappels of our full length rope to return to the notch. Hiking out we were determined to try again - next year. |
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| We began our return trek to the mountain on August 10, 2009 and planned a five day trip. This would give us two days for climbing in case the weather was bad.
We again hiked in with perfect weather. Expecting another great weather day we prepared for the climb the following morning. We awoke to low clouds over the mountains. In hopes things would clear up we started the climb. This time we didn't even reach the notch before we got hit with rain showers. These turned to a heavy downpour during the last part of the descent.
We weren't too worried though because we had the next day to make the climb. But our luck was not good and we ended up spending most of that day in the tent listening to the rain beat down on the tent's fly.
Finally, with not much else to do, we timed the interval between drips coming through the tent. It varied from about two minutes to almost five minutes between drips. Cool, eh?
By noon the rain had let up. But it was now too late to make the climb. So we packed up and began the trek out. We planned to give Mount Saint Nicholas another try as soon as we could get the time.
What follows is the story of our third attempt using photos from all three tries.
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Our third attempt began at the Walton Ranger Station in the far southwest corner of Glacier National Park on Wednesday August 19, 2009. We hiked 7.3 miles on the Park Creek trail. After a pleasant ford of Park Creek we hiked another two to three miles gaining 1,200 feet of elevation then losing some of that as we approached Muir Creek where we camped for the night. |
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The following morning we began a difficult bushwhack up the Muir Creek Valley. We climbed over 1,000 feet in the dense forest of that valley crawling over all forms of stuff. We called it "arboreal gymnastics!"
Eventually the vegetation began to thin and we could hike through grassy meadows and talus slopes. Less one might think this was too easy, some of those slopes were covered in rocks and downed trees from an avalanche.
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Late in the afternoon we left the brush for good and climbed the final 500 feet to the location of our high camp. We climbed over 2,400 feet that day carrying big packs loaded with ropes, climbing gear and the usual backpacking paraphernalia.
At left Ron is heading straight toward Mount Saint Nicholas.
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Climbing day dawned clear and calm. "Finally," we thought, "Our luck was changing." |
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The photo below shows Mount Saint Nicholas from a distance. Our first goal was to reach the Great Notch to the right of the main mass of the mountain. To see the route we followed move your mouse over the photo below.
Once at the notch we pretty much went straight up the ridge with only a little deflection to one side or the other.
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We began by climbing steadily up the broad gully in the lower center of this photo. A nice diagonal above the snow took us to the ridge and a traverse led us to the Great Notch. |
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After a couple of hours of climbing we stopped for a rest and a luncheon.
Above Left: I'm enjoying the scenery.
Above Right: Looking southwest past the east face of Mount Saint Nicholas.
Left: Ron is also admiring the ever improving view. The yellow speck in the forest is our tent.
Below Left: Drats! We reached the ridge and got our first look to the north. A thunderstorm had popped up. Fortunately it moved off to the east, the skies cleared and the rest of the day featured perfect weather.
Below Right: Once we reached the Great Notch the real climbing began. We switched to lightweight climbing shoes and stashed our boots, trekking poles and other gear at the base of a cliff. We hoped they would be there when we returned.
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