Mount Hague to Mount Wood, A Southwest Ridge Traverse from Mystic Lake
After a family trip to Colorado where I climbed Mount Yale and Snowmass Mountain, I returned home to Montana with a bit of summit fever. After working a few days at Montana Ale Works, I took it upon myself to take a short trip out to the Beartooths and climb one or two of Montana's 12ers. I had just had a long and difficult but still very comfortable summit of Snowmass Mountain a week prior, so I was feeling the urge to really challenge myself and push my limits in terms of endurance and exposure. I played around with the idea of Granite Peak, Beartooth Mountain, and a couple of others but I had summit fever; I wanted more than one. After some research (not much), I decided on Mount Hague, Mount Wood, and Pyramid Mountain, hoping to summit all three in a day.
I set out from Bozeman around 11 AM and started hiking at about 3. I packed up to Mystic Lake, crossed the log jam and set up camp at the west end of Mystic Lake, just below the beginning of the steeps. After a short swim, I settled down to a fire and dinner before turning in for an early start up the south ridge of Mount Hague.
As usual, I slept in, and I didn't hit the trail (there isn't actually any trail whatsoever) until 5:15 the next day. It was steep and nasty all the way to treeline, but thankfully there was very little undergrowth and no bushwhacking to be done. From treeline it was a breeze to the top of Mount Hague which I summited at 8 AM.
![Granite Peak and the Beartooths]()
Granite Peak and the Beartooths
That's when the fun began. I had hit my goal of an 8 AM summit, thus allowing me the time for an attempt on the ridge to Mount Wood, but one look at the ridge was all I needed to start having second thoughts. The exposure was high and rock quality was poor. The consequences of a slip, slide, or broken hold could easily have been disastrous. Despite this, and despite never having heard of an attempt on this ridge, I went for it. Dropping down into the ridge proved trickier than I had imagined from my computer at home, but once on the ridge proper it was a mix of loose class 3 scrambling with the occasional series of class 4 moves over loose scree, large boulders, and all types of imaginable fun stuff.
There were several gendarmes that needed to be navigated around to avoid major class 5 climbing and one of these almost stumped me. I found myself traversing across the south side of one of these gendarmes with my hands in a double undercling at about knee height, doubting the quality of the next few footholds I needed. I kicked out at the next one and sent it flying down 30 feet to a steep ledge and then bouncing on down a much larger cliff for a couple of hundred feet. I instantly puckered up and backed off to reassess. As I looked at the next couple of moves, I felt a little better about it so I went for it. When I regained the ridge after traversing around that gendarme I realized that better route finding might have allowed me to avoid that series of low grade class 5 moves.
![Halfway along the ridge]()
Halfway along the ridge. Exhausted and puckered up.After about 2.5 to 3 hours on the ridge I arrived at the final major obstacle, a large cliff face with massive exposure to the south side. From here I was forced to traverse through loose scree along the north side of the ridge. When I was finally able to climb back up to the ridgeline, I found myself right on route with the southwest drainage route up Mount Wood. From here it was relatively easy class 3 scrambling to the main summit which I reached a little after noon, 4 hours after leaving the summit of Mount Hague. Here my GPS was telling me that in 7 hours I had hiked just over 8 miles from camp and ascended about 7400 vertical feet. Wanting to be absolutely sure I made the top I went back to the west summit and snapped a quick picture of the route from Mount Hague.
From here I took the standard southwest drainage route back down the the hanging valley and and then made it down the nasty, steep, treed slope back to my camp. The final 5.5 miles back to the trailhead were among the most exhausting I have ever hiked.
I ascended the south ridge of Mount Hague and descended the southwest drainage of Mount Wood. I am curious to know if anybody else has ever attempted or completed the ridge between the two peaks; I have never heard of it being done before. To any who would be interested in repeating this route I would not recommend it very highly. The rock quality was very poor in places. There was some significant exposure and high consequence moves that I had to make. I spent four hours on the ridgeline and any storm that came in could easily have caused some significant problems. From the ridgeline it is possible to descend down either side, but even so it is a long way to treeline over exposed talus and scree. It is not a good place to be during a thunderstorm.
To those who might still choose to attempt this is a route for experienced mountain climbers. Being in top shape and having excellent route finding skills is a must. Bring too much water, you may still run out. Same goes for food. KNOW YOUR ABILITIES and don't be afraid to turn back if need be.
If I were to do this ridge again, which will probably never happen, I would do only one thing differently. I would leave the trailhead at around midnight or 1 AM with a large daypack and make straight for the summit of Mount Hague. From there I would traverse the ridge as I described but I would continue on the Pyramid Mountain from Mount Wood and make it a triple. From Pyramid Mountain you can descend straight down the southern slopes to the trailhead without having to return to Mystic Lake. This would be a brutally epic day.
I would love to hear from anybody who has ever attempted this ridge or if anybody has ever attempted the triple.
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