MTMNTCLIMBR69 - Jun 20, 2023 4:45 am Date Climbed: Jun 17, 2023
Weather Was Awful but Still Managed
Climbed up from Deerhead lake and it was super pretty.
huskertriguy - Sep 30, 2020 10:27 pm Date Climbed: Aug 31, 2020
Spelling Torrey?
This was part of a Montana trip involving county high points for Shoshone (ID); Mineral; Ravalli; Granite; Deer Lodge; Beaverhead; Fremont (ID); and Madison. (Initially I had wanted to go after the remaining county high points in the Beartooths (having summited Granite Peak in 2018), but my body was providing some signs that I not provided myself sufficient recovery time this summer, so I kept this trip to day hikes/scrambles.)
My cursory background on Torrey and Tweedy and the identity of the Beaverhead County high point is in my Tweedy report.
Thanks to my flat tire the day earlier after completing Tweedy, as well as a mid-morning snow forecast, I decided to get a true alpine start at 3 a.m. after 6 hours of sleep. I determined with this start I would be back to my vehicle before the stuff hit. This also allowed me plenty of time for whatever tire work needed to be done without encroaching on the following day. Because I did Torrey mostly in the dark in a sleepy haze (I was so eager to get Torrey taken care of that I decided to forego my morning coffee, a first for me), my notes are pretty limited as I did not take any stops.
I drove the 1/4-mile from Dinner Station Campground to the trailhead, unnecessary and embarrassing to me in hindsight, but anything at this point to save time seemed worth it to me. Already the sky seemed to have become overcast, so without any star- or moonlight, using the headlamp was necessary. This made clambering over deadfall all the more tedious, and even the short distance to the north shore of Deerhead Lake seemed to take an inordinate amount of time. From Deerhead Lake I was not always certain of the route but opted to stick to the rib in general. Stupidly, I had expected that the deadfall would thin out or end there. How wrong I was. ;In hindsight it seemed both a painfully long and a short amount of time for me to exit the trees: long because I never thought it would end, and short because I only remember it as a blur.
Once out of the trees, I began boulder-hopping my way to the summit. It seemed briefly after I exited the trees that I was enveloped in fog in the waning morning light. This was a disappointment to me, as I hadd hoped to be descending by this time. It took me over 5 hours to reach the summit, well longer than what I had planned. I spotted neither a register nor a benchmark, but it was incredibly cold, my fingers were numb even in my baselayer gloves, visibility was low, and I was just ready to descend. I rested in the certainty that Gaia told me I was on the summit.
Getting back to treeline felt like a slog, but I make it just after tiny ice crystals started to fall; in the trees this seemed to become more of a mist. For the rest of my descent it spat on and off, but no snow ever hit me. The descent took almost 4 hours.
I poured myself into the drivers seat and made the slow drive on my donut to Les Schwab in Dillon. The verdict was a rusty nail, repaired free of charge due to the insurance I got on those tires (which has been worth its weight in gold). This process took under two hours from the time I puledl up to the time I took off.
My tire malady addressed, I drive to a campground outside Rexburg where I relaxed in the back of the vehicle. I fell asleep before sunset without a second thought given to supper.
Beautiful and challenging, but blowdown makes for a longer day!
Perfect weather - lots of sun, and no rain-bearing clouds in sight!
Some notes:
- Total active time: ~10 hrs (see below for a rough breakdown).
- No trail register at the top :( Instead, just a partial metal chunk where the register used to be. Some folks tried to carve their names into this metal, rather unsuccessfully...
- Choose the north side of Deerhead Lake to get to the ridge. Much quicker than the south side.
- There is a LOT of blowdown throughout this area, and it's getting worse year over year as more trees die. Picking your way up the ridge takes a long time, even if you're in great shape, simply because it's a bit of an obstacle course. Expect slow travel as you dodge-duck-dip-dive-and-dodge!!
- Active ascent time of ~6hrs. Descending the mountain at a pretty quick pace with virtually zero breaks took ~4hrs. Be prepared!
Camped out and got an early start. Went up the East ridge to the summit. Awesome hike. Total stats were about 10.86 miles and 4,000 gain.
Peaker - Jun 28, 2015 9:50 pm Date Climbed: Jun 28, 2015
Birch Creek
Came up from Birch Creek below the small 10000 saddle halfway up the east ridge. Gaining the ridge proved to be a bit of a slog but aside from that it was an excellent hike.
MTfred19 - Mar 13, 2012 6:37 pm Date Climbed: Mar 10, 2012
SE ridge from Birch Creek
MtnEar and I started skinning out from the bridge about a mile and a half before the Dinner Station campground around noon. We climbed the east ridge and dropped our packs at a flat spot around 8500 feet. Originally we were going to camp and then summit in the morning, but worries about weather the next day caused us to continue to the summit that night. We arrived at the top to witness a beautiful winter sunset!(And some fiercely cold wind!) We then took our time enjoying the descent back to our camp on the ridge with headlamps on and bright stars shining overhead. I had to sit down for a while before going below treeline just to soak it all in. A great trip on a great mountain! (I only wish I had brought snowshoes instead of skis for this trip- the skiing conditions were horrible!)
ianc82 - Jul 5, 2011 1:20 am Date Climbed: Jul 3, 2011
east ridge from deerhead lake
An amazing day and a great early season scramble. My dog and i started from birch creek TH at 8 and reached the summit at noon. Still a fair amount of snow. Bushwhacking was pretty straightforward.
Climbed the east ridge solo. Saw no one else that day.
alpine climber - Sep 1, 2008 8:58 pm Date Climbed: Aug 31, 2008
Labor Day surprise
Double summited Tweedy and Torrey from Torrey Lake. Great day for my first time in the Pioneers. Storm moved in and we woke up to six inches of snow on Labor Day!
Rocker Paully - Mar 21, 2008 8:19 pm Date Climbed: Mar 21, 2008
Winter solo
snowshoed it alone from the bridge (about a mile before Dinner Station). Got going at 6:45, followed Birch creek road past the "primitive road" sign for about 1.5 miles and cut straight up the hill. Summited in blizzard conditions at 11:45, weather got worse after about 10 minutes on summit, had to come down in total whiteouts, it was pretty fun, loved my nice white view from the top.
bakcast - Mar 14, 2008 1:07 pm Date Climbed: Jul 15, 2007
From Torrey Lake
Climbed from Tweedy Lake via east ridge on beautiful July Day. Getting to east ridge was class 2-3 and fairly simplebut BOY are the rocks loose on the north side of that ridge! Helmets and careful footing for groups!
ATV's on the trail up to the lake were a pain in the ass!
I have climbed this one 2 times. The second time my sister and I were almost stuck by lightening! Our hair was standing on end. Talk about feeling helpless.
Route Climbed: Deerhead Lake Date Climbed: July 30, 2005
An excellent day. Kept it on the down low and really enjoyed the ascent. As with most peaks, the views just kept getting better and better on the ascent. Spotted three others on Tweedy's summit and some campers at Torrey Lake.
MTMNTCLIMBR69 - Jun 20, 2023 4:45 am Date Climbed: Jun 17, 2023
Weather Was Awful but Still ManagedClimbed up from Deerhead lake and it was super pretty.
huskertriguy - Sep 30, 2020 10:27 pm Date Climbed: Aug 31, 2020
Spelling Torrey?This was part of a Montana trip involving county high points for Shoshone (ID); Mineral; Ravalli; Granite; Deer Lodge; Beaverhead; Fremont (ID); and Madison. (Initially I had wanted to go after the remaining county high points in the Beartooths (having summited Granite Peak in 2018), but my body was providing some signs that I not provided myself sufficient recovery time this summer, so I kept this trip to day hikes/scrambles.)
My cursory background on Torrey and Tweedy and the identity of the Beaverhead County high point is in my Tweedy report.
Thanks to my flat tire the day earlier after completing Tweedy, as well as a mid-morning snow forecast, I decided to get a true alpine start at 3 a.m. after 6 hours of sleep. I determined with this start I would be back to my vehicle before the stuff hit. This also allowed me plenty of time for whatever tire work needed to be done without encroaching on the following day. Because I did Torrey mostly in the dark in a sleepy haze (I was so eager to get Torrey taken care of that I decided to forego my morning coffee, a first for me), my notes are pretty limited as I did not take any stops.
I drove the 1/4-mile from Dinner Station Campground to the trailhead, unnecessary and embarrassing to me in hindsight, but anything at this point to save time seemed worth it to me. Already the sky seemed to have become overcast, so without any star- or moonlight, using the headlamp was necessary. This made clambering over deadfall all the more tedious, and even the short distance to the north shore of Deerhead Lake seemed to take an inordinate amount of time. From Deerhead Lake I was not always certain of the route but opted to stick to the rib in general. Stupidly, I had expected that the deadfall would thin out or end there. How wrong I was. ;In hindsight it seemed both a painfully long and a short amount of time for me to exit the trees: long because I never thought it would end, and short because I only remember it as a blur.
Once out of the trees, I began boulder-hopping my way to the summit. It seemed briefly after I exited the trees that I was enveloped in fog in the waning morning light. This was a disappointment to me, as I hadd hoped to be descending by this time. It took me over 5 hours to reach the summit, well longer than what I had planned. I spotted neither a register nor a benchmark, but it was incredibly cold, my fingers were numb even in my baselayer gloves, visibility was low, and I was just ready to descend. I rested in the certainty that Gaia told me I was on the summit.
Getting back to treeline felt like a slog, but I make it just after tiny ice crystals started to fall; in the trees this seemed to become more of a mist. For the rest of my descent it spat on and off, but no snow ever hit me. The descent took almost 4 hours.
I poured myself into the drivers seat and made the slow drive on my donut to Les Schwab in Dillon. The verdict was a rusty nail, repaired free of charge due to the insurance I got on those tires (which has been worth its weight in gold). This process took under two hours from the time I puledl up to the time I took off.
My tire malady addressed, I drive to a campground outside Rexburg where I relaxed in the back of the vehicle. I fell asleep before sunset without a second thought given to supper.
BlueHatHiker - Jul 11, 2020 10:03 pm Date Climbed: Jul 9, 2020
Beautiful and challenging, but blowdown makes for a longer day!Perfect weather - lots of sun, and no rain-bearing clouds in sight!
Some notes:
- Total active time: ~10 hrs (see below for a rough breakdown).
- No trail register at the top :( Instead, just a partial metal chunk where the register used to be. Some folks tried to carve their names into this metal, rather unsuccessfully...
- Choose the north side of Deerhead Lake to get to the ridge. Much quicker than the south side.
- There is a LOT of blowdown throughout this area, and it's getting worse year over year as more trees die. Picking your way up the ridge takes a long time, even if you're in great shape, simply because it's a bit of an obstacle course. Expect slow travel as you dodge-duck-dip-dive-and-dodge!!
- Active ascent time of ~6hrs. Descending the mountain at a pretty quick pace with virtually zero breaks took ~4hrs. Be prepared!
wallacecasper21@gmail.com - May 8, 2020 12:02 pm Date Climbed: Sep 29, 2018
Hike from Birch CreekCamped out and got an early start. Went up the East ridge to the summit. Awesome hike. Total stats were about 10.86 miles and 4,000 gain.
Peaker - Jun 28, 2015 9:50 pm Date Climbed: Jun 28, 2015
Birch CreekCame up from Birch Creek below the small 10000 saddle halfway up the east ridge. Gaining the ridge proved to be a bit of a slog but aside from that it was an excellent hike.
MTfred19 - Mar 13, 2012 6:37 pm Date Climbed: Mar 10, 2012
SE ridge from Birch CreekMtnEar and I started skinning out from the bridge about a mile and a half before the Dinner Station campground around noon. We climbed the east ridge and dropped our packs at a flat spot around 8500 feet. Originally we were going to camp and then summit in the morning, but worries about weather the next day caused us to continue to the summit that night. We arrived at the top to witness a beautiful winter sunset!(And some fiercely cold wind!) We then took our time enjoying the descent back to our camp on the ridge with headlamps on and bright stars shining overhead. I had to sit down for a while before going below treeline just to soak it all in. A great trip on a great mountain! (I only wish I had brought snowshoes instead of skis for this trip- the skiing conditions were horrible!)
ianc82 - Jul 5, 2011 1:20 am Date Climbed: Jul 3, 2011
east ridge from deerhead lakeAn amazing day and a great early season scramble. My dog and i started from birch creek TH at 8 and reached the summit at noon. Still a fair amount of snow. Bushwhacking was pretty straightforward.
bruceg - Sep 17, 2008 3:37 pm Date Climbed: Jul 4, 1985
First Montana peakClimbed the east ridge solo. Saw no one else that day.
alpine climber - Sep 1, 2008 8:58 pm Date Climbed: Aug 31, 2008
Labor Day surpriseDouble summited Tweedy and Torrey from Torrey Lake. Great day for my first time in the Pioneers. Storm moved in and we woke up to six inches of snow on Labor Day!
Rocker Paully - Mar 21, 2008 8:19 pm Date Climbed: Mar 21, 2008
Winter solosnowshoed it alone from the bridge (about a mile before Dinner Station). Got going at 6:45, followed Birch creek road past the "primitive road" sign for about 1.5 miles and cut straight up the hill. Summited in blizzard conditions at 11:45, weather got worse after about 10 minutes on summit, had to come down in total whiteouts, it was pretty fun, loved my nice white view from the top.
bakcast - Mar 14, 2008 1:07 pm Date Climbed: Jul 15, 2007
From Torrey LakeClimbed from Tweedy Lake via east ridge on beautiful July Day. Getting to east ridge was class 2-3 and fairly simplebut BOY are the rocks loose on the north side of that ridge! Helmets and careful footing for groups!
ATV's on the trail up to the lake were a pain in the ass!
Rocker Paully - Jun 14, 2006 11:47 pm
Route: Deerhead LakeI have climbed this one 2 times. The second time my sister and I were almost stuck by lightening! Our hair was standing on end. Talk about feeling helpless.
montanaboy - Oct 8, 2005 11:37 pm
Route Climbed: Deerhead Lake Date Climbed: July 30, 2005An excellent day. Kept it on the down low and really enjoyed the ascent. As with most peaks, the views just kept getting better and better on the ascent. Spotted three others on Tweedy's summit and some campers at Torrey Lake.