The Retort

MSU Billings Student Challenges Beartooth Monolith

October 23rd, 2009 by Kalan Horton For The Retort

“It’s like running a marathon with a bag over your head” said Political Science major Alan Lamb when asked about the physical difficulty of scaling Montana’s highest peak.

A combination of Sherpa strength, cardiovascular endurance, dry socks, and protein bars were all factors contributing to the success of Kalan’s climb last July to scale the peak. “Most people don’t know difficult it is to move at altitude above 12,000 feet” said Lamb.

At over 12,800 feet, Granite Peak has shared a fair amount of rescues, deaths, and successful summits over its climbing history. Lying in the heart of the Beartooth Wilderness, getting to base camp involves a 13 mile hike over 5,000 feet of elevation gain. Granite Peak is arguably the second hardest highpoint to climb in the United States, just behind Mount McKinley in Alaska.

This high altitude adventure starts just outside of Fishtail, Montana, in West Rosebud Canyon. The popular day hike to Mystic Lake is the standard starting point for the climb. A 3 mile, 3000 foot hike up the finely named “Switchbacks from Hell,” will leave you with the final task of navigating the 4 mile Frozen to Death Plateau, one of Montana’s highest plateaus, before you are greeted by mountain goats in the luxurious rock shelters scattered around base camp.

With the easy part accomplished, all that is left is a 10-hour summit day climb beginning in often below zero temperatures at roughly 5:00 a.m. that leads you crossing a snow bridge, navigating car size boulders, and climbing vertical cliffs with exposure that would make any graduate admissions test seem like a walk in the park. A successful team will be left with a feeling of accomplishment, severe dehydration, and a view to die for, almost.

You may be wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to attempt this climb, only then to turn around and repeat the trip in reverse. So why did Alan, a seemingly normal, sane MSUB student gear up for this alpine adventure? Alan responded, “I wanted to see if it was as hard as people say it is. And trust me, it was.”

SteepWorld owner and Granite Peak climber Jim Rott says, “This should not be your first mountain because only a high degree of skill from an experienced climbing team can only assure a safe trip.” Rott suggests beginning climbing in a gym, where you can be assured a safe environment before taking your skills outside.

When asked if he would ever go back, Lamb responded, “I don’t think so. It takes a certain breed.” Lamb suggests that anyone interested in mountaineering should first take rock climbing classes to learn about ropes and anchors.