*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

November 06, 2015

Chief Mountain June 30, 2014

I had done this hike once before and a group of us wanted to attempt it this year.  To hike this peak you need permission from the Blackfeet nation so you must obtain a permit to part on their land.  We got our from K & D Implements in Cardston.  Also if you are Canadian you need your passport to cross the border as this peak is actually in the U.S.  So we had a few members of our group who had to turn back because they couldn't enter the U.S. without a passport.  Anyways, the trail is accessible by a 4x4 only road off of the chief mountain highway north of Babb.  At about 10 miles from highway 89 there is a road on the south side of the highway and you take this for a while until you come to a meadow where my google track starts.  This is an awesome hike.  The Mountain itself is crumbling pretty bad and the top is pretty sketchy at times but if careful you will be safe.  There was a fair bit of snow on the top so some of our group decided not to summit but 5 of us made it to the top.  This is the most recognizable summits from Southern Alberta and this is a mountain I think most people want to summit.  Definitely on the bucket list for some people who see its grandeur from the Southern Alberta Prairies every day.  The hike up the back side is pretty slow going with lots of shale as you scramble your way up.  The old saying one step forward, two steps back is almost true at times as you head up the backside shale.  Once you reach the top it is all worth it as you look down over the bald prairie to the east and the rocky mountains to the west.  This mountain is almost paper thin as you have an insane cliff on east and another equally dangerous cliff on the west, so be very careful.  One slip and you are gone!

Starting view of the front face of Chief Mountain

Coming around the mountain starting to see the side view

Glacier Park to the west of us

This little obscure peak is called Ninaki

Start of the scree shale climb with Ninaki behind us

Looking up at the shale slope we have to climb

Another view of the shale and the cliffs above

The best part about the scree slope is resting and looking behind you

Almost at the cliffs

Another view of the cliffs above

Finally high enough to look over towards the East

Looking east through a crack in the cliffs

This is looking wet from the same spot as the picture above was taken

Looking East

Looking west, this is when some of our party turned around

The above two pictures were looking east and west, this shot is looking south to what is left to climb

This is looking north up what we climbed to get on the current ridge

Had to get through a little snow up on top

Beautiful views all around

We are now on the top ridge looking south to the true summit.  This is what I referred above as the paper thin mountain, well not exactly paper thin but very thin for such a tall mountain

Beautiful view to the Rocky Mountains to the West

Carter on the true summit with his "hands up in the air"

View from the top looking east to the Prairie

Summit view looking west to Glacier Park

Carter's captain morgan pose

Father and son shot at the top

Amazing cliff formations

Mom wouldn't have liked this picture if she was here

Quite a cliff!

I don't think you would survive a fall here

View of cliff, there are sections of this mountain that fall off every now and then and I suppose some of those huge boulders below were once part of the mountain

Heading down (I called the cliffs behind the "cliffs of insanity" which references the same cliffs in the Princes Bride movie)

Last view of the East cliffs

This picture shows some of the cliffs you descend, the picture actually makes it look harder than it was

Panorama View from False Summit

Google Sphere view from ridge near the top

Video on Summit

Video of East Cliff

Video of how thin Mountain is

Google Track of Hike

Stats of Hike:
Total distance: 10.95 km (6.8 mi)
Total time: 8:10:16
Moving time: 6:19:56
Average speed: 1.34 km/h (0.8 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 1.73 km/h (1.1 mi/h)
Max speed: 5.40 km/h (3.4 mi/h)
Average pace: 44:46 min/km (72:03 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 34:42 min/km (55:50 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 11:07 min/km (17:53 min/mi)
Max elevation: 2747 m (9013 ft)
Min elevation: 1889 m (6198 ft)
Elevation gain: 2841 m (9321 ft)
Max grade: 124 %
Min grade: -74 %
Recorded: 6/30/2014 9:39 AM
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