| Red Mountain in the Spring Trip Report |
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| Red Mountain in the Spring   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Montana, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 45.76500°N / 112.482°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Apr 25, 2004 | Page By: Steve Ball Created/Edited: Oct 19, 2004 / Object ID: 169650 Hits: 376 Loading... Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Beautiful sunny day so I decided to get out of Butte and head up into the highlands. The road leading up to Red Mountain started out ok but then became snow covered by the time you reached the turn off at the campsite. From here the road wa covered in rutted slush. I was able to make it about a mile further before I decided to park the car. I followed a snowmobile track that led up to the medow at the start of the 4wd road that leads to the gate just below the treeline. From the meadow the snowmobile track went straight up the mountain following beneath the powerlines. This made for pretty easy hiking since the trail was well packed down. When I got to the flat area just below tree line, I decided to go straight up the mountain to try and cut some time. On the way up I could see a couple of skiers coming down and heard the snowmobile but they were off in the distance and I don't think they saw me. As I got up to the lookout tower the temperature had dropped considerably and I had to stop and bundle up. The last stretch up to the top of Red Mountain was hard packed and icy snow. Once at the top of Red I could see the tracks that the skiers had made on Monument Peak and was wishiing that I had skis. Their line down the peak was pretty impressive. I sat around on the top of the mountain for a bit to soke in the solitude and also to call my mum and tell her "hey quess where I am!!". I ran most of the way back down and arrived at the car in just over an hour. It was a great day up in the mountains. In fact it was such a great day that I decided to come back a week later and climb Red again. This time it was even warmer, no shirt needed all the way to the top.
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