Canadian Road Trip 5th stop: North Trapper Creek in the Bitteroot Mountains SW Montana

The only place in MT I had never been was NW MT. So Lucas and I took the scenic route down to Kalispell. We started by crossing the border into Eureka and found some breakfast. Then we went over to Lake Koocanusa and checked out Stone Hill. Next we drove down to Libby and then headed East towards Kalispell. Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenai river are gems of Montana that I cant believe it took me 27 years to see! We found a beer or two and kicked a skunk with some friends in Polson before cruising down to Darby. Coming off our success in Canada, Lucas and I wanted to try and repeat an Alex Lowe route on the North Face of Trapper Peak. With no beta beyond 'the North Face of Trapper Peak' we hit the trail early with every piece of climbing gear we had. We ended up at the North Trapper Creek TH. A little over an hour, maybe an hour and a half up the trail (eating Huckleberries the whole way) we spotted a beautiful tower. Not only did it look big and solid but it also had the appeal of potentially unclimbed. So we walked up the hill and sent it in 8 stellar pitches. I remember yelling down at Lucas "you shouldnt have given me this pitch... its incredible!" but then on the next one he would yell down the same thing. There is no doubt in my mind we climbed one of the best 5.10 granite jam cracks in MT (and I have been in the Humbugs)! Of the 8 pitches, one went at 5.11, 2 at 5.10 and the rest were 5.9 to 5.8. We got to the top without seeing any trace of previous ascents so we were stoked thinking we just got a MT classic first ascent. BUT, on our 3rd rappel, Lucas found some really old webbing with a really old Chouinard oval beaner on it. Damn. We knew that was too good to be true! Oh well. Its was still an amazing experience and a perfect ending to a once in a lifetime trip with my best friend. Onsighting towers in the backcountry is the type of climbing level I wanted to reach and we did it.

The tower we climbed is about mid-photo. 

There she be.

We climbed straight up the South Face, diretisima style. 

Looking South towards the Trapper Peak massif.

We found an ice climb in July! 

Pitch 1.

Trapper Peak in the background.

A couple of pitches up.

THE BEST pitch! The 5.10 jam crack.

This looks like me sending one of the last pitches.

I think this was the 2nd to last pitch or somewhere thereabouts. Or was it the last one?

When we topped out, look at the tower that greeted us! There's a must do someday!

Yup, Thats a real place.

We made a cairn on the summit.

Looking up at the tower after we climbed it.