Intending to have a nice, somewhat leisurely outing to complete my goal of climbing all the 12,000’ peaks in Montana, Elaine Kennedy and I set out to climb the prominent Beckey Couloir on the north face of Glacier Peak (12,340’) on August 17. [Editor’s note: Fred Beckey and Dave Beckstead made the first ascent of the face via the prominent central couloir and several rock pitches on the headwall. see AAJ 1965) What ensued was a bit more than we bargained for, all stemming from what could be the biggest navigation blunder in my menial climbing career.

The 11.5-mile approach originating just beyond Cooke City took us past Goose Lake, over Iceberg Pass and back down, and around the west face of Glacier Peak across a heinous rock glacier. The talus hopping in the Beartooths, as usual, didn’t disappoint. We bivied below the west face at the base of the rock glacier, and finished the approach to the base early the next morning.

Entering the small basin below the north face, I spotted an obvious couloir, assumed it was the Beckey, and we began climbing without giving it second thought. Booting up the perfect 55–60° degree snow, we made excellent time. However, as the couloir began to bend to the right after about 600’, the snow ended and we hit rock sooner than expected.

From here we trended up and left. Fourth-class rubble turned into 5.7 face, followed by two pitches in a dirty, wet chimney, then out left onto some runout 5.6 slab, followed by two more pitches of 5.7/5.8. I hadn’t brought my rock shoes to save weight, and I need to work on climbing in my bulky size 16 boots. At this point, we were pretty sure we were not on the Beckey.

We found ourselves in a somewhat improbable location where the only climbable way was a scary 5.8 rightward traverse with little pro. The following 70 meters of rubble-strewn 5.4 went quickly, but the crux was still above us.

Elaine took the lead and attempted to attain the top of a rib above and left of us. Everything left looked hard, so we continued up the easy ramp as far as possible, to where it curved into a dihedral. Unfortunately, multiple microwave-size blocks teetered on the brink of freefall. Elaine took a wicked fall here and was lucky to be unscathed—she's a tough girl. I climbed to where she fell and built an anchor, and after some TLC, we were both above the looseness without knocking anything down.

I searched for a way up the final 40 feet to easier ground and rounded a large boulder with some serious air. Amazingly, I found a bomber 5.8 hand crack. With darkness nearing, we did one more long 5.4 pitch and found a place to bivy. That night was magical, as we lay on a knife-edge ridge under clear skies with dazzling meteors. Throughout the night, I recalled past trips to this mountain range for which I have an enduring fondness.

The morning sunrise behind Granite was the perfect energizer, and we finished the climb with one class 4 pitch up the rib to the summit plateau. Upon summiting, I realized definitively we did a route nowhere near the Beckey Couloir, as we were way off to the west. We were ecstatic with our accomplishment, though, and probably still a bit scared, and we had a lot to talk about during the 10-mile hike back down the south slopes and past Aero Lakes.

After returning to civilization, we did some research and determined we had initially started up the Catch-a-Fire Couloir, which eventually ends at a notch in the ridge and has been skied several times. No one we spoke to seemed to have any knowledge of any summer climbing routes in the vicinity of the couloir. We named the route Catch-a-Sunrise (2,000’, III/IV 5.9 PG-13).

– Matt Lemke