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| Granite   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Montana, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 45.16330°N / 109.8072°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Aug 1, 2002 | Page By: grandwazoo Created/Edited: Nov 19, 2003 / Object ID: 169162 Hits: 1173 Loading... Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
We arrived in Red Lodge after our completion of Gannett the same day and looked for a good place to rest. The next day; two in the group got fishing licenses and than it was off to the Mystic Lake trailhead we went. Oh we couldn’t forget the post climb cocktails, two six packs were placed in the stream just before the trailhead.
We set off from the trailhead around 10:00 am and had perfect weather for the 8-mile trip to Avalanche Lake. The trail gains elevation on a relaxing climb to Mystic Lake. I took plenty of photos while taking in the scenery and awesome weather. After climbing to Mystic Lake we stopped on the beach and took in the views, it was a little windy. From here we continued along the south side of the Lake (while on an undulating trail) to the Huckleberry Trail. After crossing the wooden bridge make a quick left and follow the stream up hill until to find the trail leading off up hill. This area gets used a lot by people fishing and camping so the whole area is trampled down. We followed the trail to the west side of Huckleberry Lake, staying up in the boulder field. The next lake will be Princess Lake, we stayed to the north and east of this lake, look for the inlet stream and follow this to Cold lake. After Cold Lake is another little lake before reaching Avalanche Lake. Here is where the fun begins, if boulders are not your forte than this route was a mistake. The boulders range from a couple of feet in diameter to the size of two story building with no marked or beaten trail. We finally found the location to camp near the southeast side of the Lake as mentioned in Jacob’s book. We had a well deserved dinner and listened to the goats lick our urine while trying to sleep. Note: Piss a few hundred meters away. The next morning we got up around 4:00 am and hit the trail, (damn goats ate a hole in the top of my pack). We made good time to the Tempest-Granite saddle. This route makes for a harder summit day than FTDP route. Thanks to Jacob’s book the routing finding to the summit would be a breeze. We pushed on and set up three belay stations to reach the peak. After reaching the summit it was eat, photos and get the hell off, it was getting late and the weather can be unpredictable. We made it back to the saddle where I had left some extra water, I was out. There is a good spring off the trail to the south before descending the last slope to the saddle if you run out. We contemplated glissading the snow\ice field from the saddle down. But opted out for the wonderful scre slide. We made it back to camp without incident, pumped water and rested for the night. The boulder field is so bad that we briefly tossed around the idea of bringing out gear to the saddle on summit day and exit via FTDP. The next morning we had a wonderful climb back through the boulder field (this would be hell if the rocks were wet) and down to Mystic Lake. We stopped at the bridge for lunch and a few of us were up for one of the coldest swims I’ve done in years. There was significant shrinkage factor involved with this swim. We continued the trek back to the trailhead, which went faster than anticipated. This was the end to an awesome two-peak adventure (Gannett and Granite).
Oh wait we still had the beers to tip. We stopped in at the Grizzle in Roscoe for a steak and than off to Cody for a relaxing night out for cocktails.
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Beartooth Range
