Stoney Indian Pass/Cleveland Attempt August 16-18, 2016

This was a group back country camping trip we had planned for some time.  I swore I would never try Cleveland again because of the awful bush whacking but some friends told me of another route to the top so I figured we'd give it a try.  So we booked the camp sites through Glacier Parks back country camping service website.  Which by the way is awful and the Park needs to make that system better.  Anyways we got our desired sites - Stoney Indian Campsite the first night and Kootenai Lakes Campsite the 2nd night.  So we drove to Chief Mountain border crossing early on the 16th and started our 32 km hike from there to Stoney Indian Lake Campsite.  It was a long hard day carrying our huge packs that weighed around 35-40 lbs.  We started at about 7:30 am and got to the camp site at around 7:30 pm.  It was a long day and nice to sleep in our tents that night.  The next morning we got up and regained the Stoney Indian pass ridge and started up the south ridge of the Stoney Indian Mountains.  We got almost to where we would start traversing the ledges over to the crux in the ridge when my wife started to have a panic attack.  She had never really wanted to come on this hike but we were able to convince her it wouldn't be too bad.  However, in seeing her panicking we figured her and I would head down and go to the next camp site instead.  So we wished the others good luck on their hike and told them to be safe.  The rest of my day was pretty relaxing and easy.  We had a nice day at Kootenai Lakes.  Then at about 8pm it started to rain and we had quite the thunderstorm roll in.  The other group of 4 had still not shown up so we started to worry a little.  Then at about 11pm we started to get hailed on and it was crazy how hard it was coming down.  I'm surprised our tent survived the downpour.  Well morning rolled around and we put down our tent wet and headed to Goat Haunt to see if the rest of our party had made it to there instead of Kootenai Lakes because of the rain and hail.  Well they were not there and so we spend the morning worrying about them and then eventually at about 2pm on the 18th they rolled into Goat Haunt with quite the story to tell.  I guess they didn't summit till about 3pm on the 17th.  Which was way later than they should have and as a result got stuck in the storm as it rolled in and luckily found a cave on the mountain where they could seek shelter from the elements and stay the night.  They luckily had 3 emergency reflective bivy sacks and were able to stay warm enough...still cold, but warm enough to survive.  Then once morning came they headed down and we all took the International back to Waterton with an adventure to tell like none other!

Our crew upon departure

Beautiful day and scenery heading down the Belly River Basin

Way in the distance in the middle of this picture was our goal

Heading over a suspension bridge

Mount Cleveland on the right with snow on top

Waterfall along the way (our first of many)

From Cosley Lake we could see all the waterfalls were about to go to

Next Waterfall heading to Stoney Indian Pass

Another shot of same waterfall

Next waterfall up the valley

Two More, we eventually got above the one on the left

Looking back at where we had hiked, Glen's Lake in the middle right of picture

This shot was taken from the top of one of the waterfalls overlooking the valley we hiked up

View below a bunch more waterfalls

Looking down on the valley going up to the Stoney Indian Pass

Looking towards the Stoney Indian Peaks and ridge, this is the ridge we headed up the next day, the crux (low point) in the middle of the picture is where the other four would go to access the east side of the mountain and take it all the way to Cleveland

Looking down on Stoney Indian Lake from the Pass

Sunset on a gorgeous long day

View of Stoney Indian Lake the next morning as we regained the Pass

Picture of the clouds coming over Stoney Indian Peaks where our friends were hiking, my wife and I are already on our way down

Views of the Waterton Valley we were descending to from Stoney Indian Lake

Kootenai Lakes

Picture outside our tent while it was hailing

Hail still on the trail the next morning as we left Kootenai Lakes

I got this picture from facebook of the lightning storm that we were in.  I think I remember this very strike because it rattled and echoed all the way down the valley we were in.

Map my Hike track of Day 1

Map my Hike track of Day 2

Map my Hike track of Day 3 (track lost signal at end)