*I hope people use their own wise judgement when hiking always plan ahead and be prepared. One should never go beyond their abilities.*

Over the years I've had a few goals my first was to Summit all the Peaks of Waterton. Here is My Waterton Summit List I completed that goal on September 26, 2016.

My next goal I'm still working on and that is to summit the 6 10,000 foot Summmits of Glacier National Park. I have one left Kintla.

My 2018 Goal that I accomplished was to summit 40 peaks in my 40th year and that I finished on September 26, 2018.

Not sure what will be my next goal, once Glacier's Summits are done?

I commonly use 3 Hashtags on my social media. The first one is #itookthepathlesstraveledby which is to reference this blog. The next two relate to my father and grandfather who were also hikers. #milesformarkellingson is to remember my
Dad, Mark Ellingson and #dustfromthetrailandhowitsettledonme is to remember my Grandfather Earl Ellingson

July 21, 2018

Mt. Merritt Glacier National Park July 17-19, 2018

So this is a hike we had been planning for a while.  Our group on this hike was the same as had done Mt. Stimson the year before.  So out of the Six 10,000 ft. summits of Glacier National Park this was my 3rd.  Three to go: Kintla, Jackson and Siyeh.  One thing we've noticed about these peaks so far is that they aren't easy ones.  The approach to Merritt was a long 23-24 km hike from the Chief Mountain border crossing, that was the 17th.  It was a beautiful day just very hot.  We made good time and settled in at Mokowanis Lake campground that evening.  The 18th we got up early and started our ascent.  We started with some bushing and then had scree slopes then had some scrambling to a ridge and then a scramble up the ridge to the top.  Our group got separated for a bit and I was in the group that had to backtrack below a snow pack near the top.  We eventually summitted and enjoyed the amazing views.  J. Gordon Edward claims this is the best view in the Park and I must agree with him.  You have amazing views of all 6 of the 10,000 ft. mountains and you have some amazing views of a whole bunch of glaciers and lakes all around.  Our summit time was amazing, little to no wind and not too cold.  We stayed for a while and then descended basically the way we came except for a little change down a drainage basin near the end.  We slept good that night and then got up the next morning and hiked our big long day out.  The stop at Wieners of Waterton to eat that night was much needed.

On our way with our goal in sight! Mt. Merritt in the middle

Another shot of Mt. Merritt on day one

Crossing the suspension bridge

Cosley Lake with Mt. Cleveland on right

Our first view of where we would be climbing up the next day.  We climbed just below the shadow on the right and traversed over to the saddle in the middle

One of the Moose we saw

At Mokawanis Lake looking up at our goal

Amazing waterfall on our way up to Margaret Lake

Margaret Lake

Summit day the bush we started with

On our way up looking down at Mokawanis Lake and Stoney Indian Pass behind it

Margaret Lake

Glen's Lake with Cleveland behind it

Scrambling up to the ridge

Our first good view of Old Sun Glacier

Check out some of the cracks in the Glacier

The snow pack we had to back track around

Summit view looking down at Glen's Lake

View from the summit looking towards the myriad of Glaciers and Lakes we saw

Summit Cairn

Summit Photo

Margaret Lake on the way down

Mokawanis Lake the morning we left

Summit Panorama







Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)