Any Good Alpine Climbs in Montana?

Hey everyone, thank you in advance for your input!

I am looking for beginner/intermediate alpine routes in Montana that are long and committing!

I live on the east coast and have been to Bozeman a few times and I’m fascinated with MT! I plan on going out there to do some alpine climbing in the next couple years.

My initial plan is to climb Mt Cowen in the Absaroka Range. One of the couloirs or a rock route. I have the guidebooks Select Alpine Climbs to Montana.

Can anyone recommend other alpine routes? I’m interested in winter style ascents (doesn’t have to be winter. Any time of year is fine as long as alpine ice and/or water ice is of present).

That also leads to another question. What time of year do the crazy thunderstorms stop? I was caught in one on the Bridget Range several years ago before I started climbing and it was very VERY intense!

My experience:

Ice: lead WI4 multi pitch. I’ve been ice climbing for 5 season in the Northeast.

Alpine: I’ve climbed several winter alpine routes in NH, primarily Mt. Washington’s Huntington Ravine and Cannon Cliff.

Rock: minimal. No leading. Can follow 5.9. (I plan to improve in the next year and start leading.

In the spirit of reply...Check out the Northwest Area and you’ll find the cabinet mtns. Late spring early summer is good on Ojibway Peak for rock climbing.  Ice climbing would defer to some other location near Bozeman...maybe Granite Peak...

Does anything on Granite Peak ice up enough to justify the tools?  I went up the Aero Lakes side last year and spied some tempting couloirs, and there was a small amount of ice on the standard route.  Vertical rock there would give me the heebie jeebies though...

Edit:  sorry, must have been hallucinating...nothing up that way but lost tourists, hungry bears, and the occasional conspiracy theorist.  If you’re lucky, the lightning will get you before they do.

-Jeremy Nelson wrote: In the spirit of reply...Check out the Northwest Area and you’ll find the cabinet mtns. Late spring early summer is good on Ojibway Peak for rock climbing.  Ice climbing would defer to some other location near Bozeman...maybe Granite Peak...

In the traditional spirit, as far as Montana climbing goes, “no, no good climbing here, of any kind”.

Ben Garza wrote: Hey everyone, thank you in advance for your input!

I am looking for beginner/intermediate alpine routes in Montana that are long and committing!

I live on the east coast and have been to Bozeman a few times and I’m fascinated with MT! I plan on going out there to do some alpine climbing in the next couple years.

My initial plan is to climb Mt Cowen in the Absaroka Range. One of the couloirs or a rock route. I have the guidebooks Select Alpine Climbs to Montana.

Can anyone recommend other alpine routes? I’m interested in winter style ascents (doesn’t have to be winter. Any time of year is fine as long as alpine ice and/or water ice is of present).

That also leads to another question. What time of year do the crazy thunderstorms stop? I was caught in one on the Bridget Range several years ago before I started climbing and it was very VERY intense!

My experience:

Ice: lead WI4 multi pitch. I’ve been ice climbing for 5 season in the Northeast.

Alpine: I’ve climbed several winter alpine routes in NH, primarily Mt. Washington’s Huntington Ravine and Cannon Cliff.

Rock: minimal. No leading. Can follow 5.9. (I plan to improve in the next year and start leading.

May not be the best beginner area, but... 

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/112214517/thunderdome

http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201213778/A-Peak-and-Blackwell-Glacier-Area-New-Ice-and-Mixed-Routes

https://americanalpineclub.org/cutting-edge-podcast

Granite peak right now is probably good.  North couloir or regualar rock route is probably spicy enough.  Skins requires and BC skills.  Wanna go?

Nope, nothing good...better go check Colorado ;p

Just kidding, go climb Montana centenial route!

Oops just noticed ice...

Idk when your gonna be around but Cali ice has seen ascents as late as June... Or other climbing in the beartooths... 

Ben Garza wrote: Hey everyone, thank you in advance for your input!

I am looking for beginner/intermediate alpine routes in Montana that are long and committing!

I live on the east coast and have been to Bozeman a few times and I’m fascinated with MT! I plan on going out there to do some alpine climbing in the next couple years.

My initial plan is to climb Mt Cowen in the Absaroka Range. One of the couloirs or a rock route. I have the guidebooks Select Alpine Climbs to Montana.

Can anyone recommend other alpine routes? I’m interested in winter style ascents (doesn’t have to be winter. Any time of year is fine as long as alpine ice and/or water ice is of present).

That also leads to another question. What time of year do the crazy thunderstorms stop? I was caught in one on the Bridget Range several years ago before I started climbing and it was very VERY intense!

My experience:

Ice: lead WI4 multi pitch. I’ve been ice climbing for 5 season in the Northeast.

Alpine: I’ve climbed several winter alpine routes in NH, primarily Mt. Washington’s Huntington Ravine and Cannon Cliff.

Rock: minimal. No leading. Can follow 5.9. (I plan to improve in the next year and start leading.

"Beginner/intermediate" and "long and committing" don't usually go together, at least not in the alpine climbing context...

There's lots of good alpine climbing in Montana. The entrance exam is usually between 5-10 miles of hiking or skinning to get there at minimum, plus bears, bushwhacking, and bugs. Sometimes it's more like 20 miles of walking and post-holing.

If you're climbing in winter, chances of being caught in a thunderstorm are pretty low. Not enough heat energy in the atmosphere to create thunderstorms. Late summer it's more common. Not as cyclical or predictable as Colorado though.

In all honesty, Summitpost is an okay place to find info on mountaineering/snow routes. There really isn't that much info on MP that fits your criteria. Google Earth is also sweet. Set the imagery date to sometime in the late winter/spring and spend hours zooming around the Beartooths, Madisons, Absarokas, and beyond. Finding those snow/ice lines that don't involve some rock climbing or mixed climbing is pretty rare. You could start by looking at some of the routes listed here in Beehive Basin and on Black Mountain on Summitpost and go from there.

Go with a good partner. Bring bear spray. Probably a sleeping bag unless you're wicked fast. Maybe a machete.