05/30/14 Ch-paa-qn Peak 7996' #35

On May 30th, I headed out with my friends, Kyle, Jordan, and Kyle's dog, Karma, to try to get up high and see the snow pack along the Reservation Divide.  I thought if we could get up Ch-paa-qn it would be huge, but mostly I just wanted to see how much snow was up that high as I had been looking at some peaks further to the west along the Reservation Divide.

A view of the cornice on the southeast ridge

We had a late start of about 11:15 a.m. from Missoula and made our way toward the Reservation Divide Trailhead.  I knew there would be a lot of snow, but I wasn't sure how much.  We made it to about 5000 feet on the road before it was blocked by snow.  We parked the car and headed out along the road to go as far as we could or wanted.  At first the road was just covered with sporadic patches, but by the time we reached the trailhead at a little over 6200 feet, there was consistent cover with some drifts still being 4-5 feet deep.

We decided to attempt to follow the trail and see how we felt.  Despite almost complete coverage (there were a couple of five-foot snow-free sections), the trail was easy to follow.  It was not difficult to distinguish the trail corridor and we steadily made our way up.  At one point the trail tops out and drops to a low spot before traversing around the mountain and making the final climb.  It was somewhere in that low spot that we lost the trail and decided to make our own way up.  We opted against traversing around the mountain to the southwest ridge and just picked our way up the snow through the thinning trees up the south face.

Mission Mountains

We found the easiest going to be on snow and were able to stay on snow most of the way.  At spots, it had melted out and we had to cross some rock or brush, but we were able to get back on the snow.  As we climbed high enough we came to the southeast ridge as it was bending to go more directly north.  At this point, we could tell that the snow as part of a cornice--a large one--and we opted to climb up the rest of the way on the rocks next to it.  The rocks were a broken jumble of large and small rocks that seemed to all move and shift as we added weight, but they seemed safer than being on the cornice that seemed to be weakening and ready to fall off the edge of the mountain at any moment.

Before long we found ourselves on the summit.  It was a beautifully clear and sunny day and we could see for miles.  The Mission Mountains were especially impressive and we could see Flathead Lake.  With binoculars I could pick out Stimson, Jackson, Rainbow and Carter, Kintla, and I think even Saint Nicholas all in Glacier.  We could see the high peaks of part of the Bob Marshall and in the Selway-Bitterroot Wildernesses.  Ch-paa-qn is so isolated and tall that the views were great in all directions.  We could even see all of Missoula and the peaks around it that looked so small.

Dead tree high on the mountain

We hung out on top for awhile enjoying a windless day and all the views around us.  Before heading down we found the benchmark that still says, "Squaw Peak" on it.  After that we started down, thoroughly enjoying the descent on the snow.  It was much faster on the way down and we found ourselves at the Trailhead in a little over an hour.  The hardest part of the day was the walk back on the road.  The sun had warmed the snow enough that we sunk in much more than on the way up and the road now seemed very flat and the going very slow.  Had it been that difficult on the way in we would have never made it all the way to the top.

Elevation gain:  2000'     Total gain:  54,165'