Monitor Peak

Monitor Peak is in Montana, a few miles north of Gardiner. It's prominently visible from Mammoth but is less noticeable than it's taller neighbor to the southwest, Sheep Mountain. I saw Monitor Peak every day pretty much the last two summers, but never really was aware of it until I realized there was a trail going all the way around it. In an 18 mile day I could hike up the southwest valley, around the north side of the peak, then down the eastern valley. It would be a short off trail tundra walk to the summit from a saddle to get amazing 360 views of the Absaroka Mountains.

Or so I thought. This isn't a common hike at all, so there's very little information about the mountain. So boy was I surprised when I got up to the tundra and saw that the very top of the peak looked like this:



I've never been so close to the top of the mountain only to turn back. I investigated the base of the summit block and found a way to start up.

Then I saw this:

and my ascent was over. I could probably have climbed up that, but I didn't like my odds of getting down. Definitely class 4, maybe 5.0, and I don't do that solo when the consequence of a fall is 40 feet of air to jagged rocks on the side of a mountain 8 miles from the nearest trailhead. I could've thrown a rock onto the summit from where I turned back.

Still, if the summit had been more accessible and I had made it to the top, this hike would've been much less of an adventure. It's one thing to go hiking and find great views and solitude, it is another to push yourself to a point where you find your limit, and return safely knowing you made the right decision. I enjoy mountains that I can climb, I respect mountains that I can't.