Boundary Peak, Glass Mountain Ridge, Montgomery Peak

28-Sep-96

By: Charlie Knapke

We had one cancellation and three no-shows but still had seven participants. We did Boundary & Montgomery on Saturday. We approached from the northwest via Hwy. 6. This has become the most popular route to these peaks even though it is not published in the DPS climbing guides.

We met at 6:30 a.m. across the highway from Janie's Ranch. Everyone drove into the parking area at the mine. We then consolidated into 4WD vehicles to drive the last part of the road to the trailhead in the saddle.

We followed a well defined use trail from just south of the saddle all of the way to the summit of Boundary, loosing it in just a few places. One of our group decided he had enough excersie for this trip and decided to hang out here while the rest of us went for Montgomery. Three of our group had failed to get Montgomery on a previous trip so they were well motivated.

The route out to Montgomery seemed to be much looser than it did when I climbed it on a Maris Valkass trip in 1992. At Montgomery, one of the group became ill and we quickly retreated over Boundary and down to a lower elevation. She did not seem much better but she was able to continue back to the vehicles. Several hours later it became apparent that she had nothing more than a common cold -- must be terrible to have a cold at 13,000'!

We camped at Sawmill Meadow Campground at the base of Glass Mountain Ridge. We expected to meet another DPS group which were doing Patterson & Glass but they never showed. Sunday we got a very late start (7:30 a.m.). The two women decided to head for home but the rest of us and ran up and down Glass in less than 2-1/2 hours. The Aspens were changing color and they created a great site from the summit. They contrasted with millions of reflections of light from the black obsidian glass particles which covered the near slopes.

The group consisted of Devra Wasserman, Keith Martin, Rich Gnagy, Jim Schoedler, David Leth, Gary Craig, and Rose Stein.

Thanks goes to John Cheslick for his impeccable assistance.