Ahern Pass

Seen from the goat trail that traverses the Ptarmigan Wall. At this point, the exposed sections are all behind you (or all yet to come), but climbing the snowfield to reach Ahern Pass can be dangerous due to hidden ice caves on one side and steep slopes on the other. I cheated, sort of-- I downclimbed the cliffs above the snow. This involved Class 4 moves and tricky route-finding, but it let me bypass the snow since I didn't like the looks of it so late in the summer. The pass is less than a mile away now. Glacier National Park, MT-- August 2009