Racetrack Peak

This past weekend I took several friends from Missoula gear shops up to the lodge. I put them to work Saturday creating a massive bonfire stack to be burned this winter. On Sunday, I took the guys up Racetrack Peak which is about six miles from the lodge. The tour first takes you to Goat Mt., which at just over 9200' offers great view of the Flint Creek and Pintler Mountain ranges. The photo below looks toward Racetrack from Goat's summit.


From Goat we continued over a dramatic alpine ridge connecting Goat and Racetrack. The ridge stays at about 9000' between the summits, which all sit above 9200', with Racetrack at about 9500'. It is sort of surreal hiking in alpine environments like this with sprawling meadows and mountains all around you.

Once we reached Racetrack's north ridge we decided to climb the spine of the ridge which offered some mild exposure and very fun boulder scrambling. Below Nate and Brett descend the ridge.

At the summit we enjoyed lunch and looked at some great ski lines. Overall a fun day and I can't wait to tour this in the winter.

Get Pumped!

Rain unable to stop Bear Den progress

Denison and Jamie have been making some serious progress on the Bear Den, and it is really starting to take its final form. The trickiest part had to be getting the trusses in place way up on the roof, but everything seems to have gone smoothly. Although it has been nice to get the moisture the rain has been slowing the process. Once the roof is up there will be a nice dry place to work and we can do the inside work. It would be great to have this done as nature seems to be throwing fall at us early. I can't wait to go up this week! More on the progress after my trip.

The Bear Den is starting to look liveable

Jamie, wishing the roof guy would get to work

Roof Assembly

Denison is making serious progress on the new bunkhouse. The frame was up last week when I was last up there and it looks like he is starting to put up the trusses for the roof. Looks like he was able to lift the heavy trusses with the excavator, saving a big hassle as those things are preassembled and very heavy. Looking forward to seeing this building at completion, it's looking great.

Bunkhouse nearing completion

Few more days left with the big machine/toy

The area

When I talk to people around town about the lodge the first question that usually comes up is what kind of terrian the lodge accesses. Having hiked around I can safetly say there is an unbelievable amount of quality ski descents. Below is an image from Google Earth showing prominent peaks that are easily within a day tour from the lodge. Feel free to leave any questions about terrain offerings in the comment section and I can ellaborate on what is back there.

Goat Mountain

This past weekend I took my family on a nice hike up to Goat Mt which offers amazing views of the Flint Creek mountains and Pintler Wilderness. The hike takes about three hours and is over moderate terrain. Goat Mt sits just over 9200' and shares a lengthy ridgeline with Racetrack Peak and East Goat Mt. The ridge top meadows are amazing and the terrain up here will offer unbelievable ski lines come winter. Can't wait to share this with everyone when the snow starts falling.

East Goat Mt seen from the summit of Goat Mt

Pike's Peak from the same vantage

Snow fills in several pencil chutes in this cliff band offering great advanced ski lines