Sweet Relief!

It being a beautiful, clear January day in Missoula, I find my thoughts already drifting to the summer. And in my estimation, there isn't a better way to spend those warm days than high on a windy peak or ridge in the Northern Rockies, away from the increasingly sweltering towns and valley bottoms. Naturally, I harken back to an especially grand trip I made across Glacier in 2002 with my good friend, Andy. Starting out at Gunsight Lake, we went cross-country over passes and peaks, through snowy meadows, along rocky ridgelines, following the Continental Divide all the way to the seldom-used Cut Bank Camp on the park's east side. In 4 days we visited the Blackfoot and Jackson Glacier basins, lonesome Almost-A-Dog Pass, historic Red Eagle Meadows and Pass, and then J. Gordon's classic Norris Traverse that tops out on 2 peaks--Norris and Triple Divide--before exiting out the Triple Divide Pass trail to Cut Bank. The pic was taken from atop Norris Mountain on our last day, with the deep Nyack Valley about 6000 vertical feet below towering Mt Stimson.