| Crazy Peak, Montana Trip Report |
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| Crazy Peak, Montana   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Montana, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 46.01771°N / 110.27355°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Aug 12, 2006 Activities: Scrambling Season: Summer | Page By: HedUp Created/Edited: Jan 9, 2007 / Oct 7, 2007 Object ID: 258527 Hits: 854 Loading... Page Score: 87.63% - 5 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
A Little HistoryCrazy Peak...my first summit. August 27th, 2005 was the first time that I summitted this peak. This trip report will be for my second summit in 2006, but first I need to give a little credit where it's due.
The credit goes to Jeff Raths...the "Godfather of the Crazies". He's a good friend who spent a lot of time in the Crazy Mountains and has summitted every single peak in the range. Jeff showed me the way up Crazy peak, and in doing so, sparked a fire for mountaineering inside of me.
The "Godfather of the Crazies" |
Thanks Jeff!
The 2006 TripBig Timber Canyon Trail
We started our route at the Big Timber Canyon Trailhead at Half Moon campground. It's an easy hike all the way to the second bridge that crosses Big Timber Creek. We stopped at Big Timber falls for a short breather and a quick photo op.
Just after we crossed the second bridge, we veered off the main trail through a rough campsite onto a very indistinguishable trail. This trail follows all the way to the Thunder Rapids where the hike turns tough! The Thunder rapids are a not very well known beauty of the area that most people pass by. Taking the Thunder Rapids route cuts off a lot of distance, but the elevation gain is substantial in a very short distance.
We made it to Thunder Lake with no problem except a torn strap on Shelby's backpack (my buddies dog). My favorite campsite was taken so we found a nice grassy area at the base of an old gold mine excavation pile.
 Abandoned gold mine at north end of Granite Lake
The weather was nice and we just sat around freezing our feet in the stream enjoying the scenery. After enjoying a horrific MRE meal, we stretched out on our thermarests and had a great night sleep...except for the dog thinking I was her thermarest!
Summit Day
We got up, watered up, had another MRE and headed toward the peak at about 0900. The treck up the first chute was enjoyable with the nice little stream running through the rocks...made for some nice photos.
 Small glacial stream that runs into Granite Lake
After this chute, we started across the kind of tundra area. Its just steep enough for this spongy ground to burn the legs a bit...and of course, I stepped in the stream that is hidden underneath.
We started up the scree slope on the north face of the west ridge at around 0945. This slope is quite loose and you seem to slide about as much as you go forward. Shelby the dog had a close call heading up this slope...I stepped on a rock that immediately slid out from under my foot and it started rolling. I turned around and yelled "Rock!" at my buddy, but Shelby just stood there like a deer in the headlights until it bumped her shoulder and then she decided it was time to haul ass out of the way! It was scary, but ended up alright...just a little nick on the paw.
We made it to the ridge without any other excitement where we passed up a group who we gave directions to earlier in the day. They had almost climbed Conical Peak on accident thinking it was Crazy Peak. Oops!
We headed along the west ridge which was a nice stroll after the steep climb to the ridge. About 2/3 of the way, you head down a short descent before heading back up to the false peak. We had to tie up the dogs and summit without them because where you start back up to the false peak, there's a nice little (very little) exposure that was just a bit to much to lift the dogs up. By about 1100 we were on the false peak and ready for a little break.
 Breather at the false peak
We started down the well known chute leading down the south side of the false peak...and then back up the short treck to the summit.
At the bottom of the chute, there is another chute that leads down to Hidden Lake. It's not a chute that I would want to ever attempt to go down, but the view is spectacular...Hidden lake has multiple colors and from that angle, you can see every one of them.
11,214 - Standing on Crazy Peak |
By 1130, we were standing on the summit of Crazy Peak. It was my second summit, and my buddies first (on this peak).
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From the Summit #2 |
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The Descent
After maybe a half hour on the summit in the cold wind, we headed back down. My legs weren't quite in the shape that they usually are so I descended a bit slower than my buddy and his younger dog. I hung back with the older dog and we took our time and enjoyed the view! We were all back at the campsite by 1245.
Five minutes after returning to our campsite, it started to rain on us pretty hard. We waited it out for a little bit and after an hour or so (and another nasty MRE) we decided to bag it and head back to the car.
I think we got back to the car around 1600. We took the main trail down because we knew it would be more stable in the rain and my buddy hadn't seen that route yet. It was a nice walk in the rain and fog, but the burger we had in Big Timber was pretty nice too! Images
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Crazy Mountains
