When I met Gunner Madsen in March 2021, he had only been climbing in the gym for 11 months, but was stoked to begin trad climbing. I decided to mentor Gunner with the intent of getting him ready for a route on the Elephants Perch in the Sawtooths of Idaho. We began climbing together every weekend, and by late June he had the confidence and skills needed to head into the alpine. We planned a trip to Blodgett Canyon in Montana to gauge our efficiency as a team.

About halfway through the drive from Spokane to Blodgett, an idea popped into my head: What if we went into the Cabinets instead and tried to do a first ascent? I had seen A Peak (8,634’) in the Cabinet Mountains in 2019—ever since, I’d dreamed of climbing it. Now seemed like a good opportunity.
The Cabinets are about an hour southwest of Libby, Montana, and A Peak is the second highest mountain in the range. In 2018, Scott Coldiron and Jess Roskelley completed an ice and mixed route called Canmore Wedding Party (2,500’, AI5 M7), which climbs the huge central gully on the north face. I’d been eager to explore the rock to climber’s right of this. [Editor’s Note: Over three days in August 1962, Dan Doody and William Echo climbed a route up the north face of A Peak that likely started to the left of the line described in this report; it eventually entered the central couloir taken by Canmore Wedding Party and ascended that gully’s right wall (AAJ 1963).]

Gunner and I left the parking lot at 11 p.m. via the Granite Lake Trail and walked the 6.5 miles into Granite Lake. We bedded down for a couple of hours and then headed up to the base of A Peak’s north face. We climbed four pitches up on new terrain, built an anchor, and rapped—we needed to make it back in time for work on Monday.

I called Gunner the next day and told him I had to go back. The peak was too inspiring to forget. This time, knowing what we were getting into, we planned with militaristic precision. We headed out Saturday evening, and again left the parking lot at 11 p.m. On Sunday, July 4, we reclimbed the four pitches we’d already done and added another six that day. The rock quality in the first six pitches was variable—at times absolute choss. But by pitch eight, after a long leftward traverse on broken terrain, the rock became quite good and remained so for the rest of the route.

We reached a giant flat ledge area, which we called Tier One, in the dark, and decided to bivy here. On our first visit to A Peak, there were no mosquitoes, but it was a different story this time. From pitch six to the summit, we had a permanent cloud of mosquitoes trailing us. The omnipresent buzzing made sleeping difficult.

In the morning, 300’ of unroped easy terrain brought us to the base of a big, clean wall. Next came three rope-stretching pitches, all over 200’, each with at least a few moves of 5.10—one sequence of which, on pitch 11, saw me about 40’ run-out. The 13th pitch was classic: splitter hands, an incredible position, and a small roof to boot. I had thought it might spit us out on the summit, but how wrong I was: When we finished the pitch, around 1 p.m., we were on yet another big ledge, which we called Tier Two, with an 800’ tower still looming above us.

Following a bit more unroped scrambling down and to the right, we climbed three more long pitches and reached the summit around 5 p.m. We had completed The Stumbling Stone (2,800’ of climbing, V 5.10). It was more than either of us had hoped to achieve as climbers, but we didn’t stop to appreciate that at the summit; after a couple of quick pictures, the mosquitoes got us moving again.

The descent went better than expected, but we were physically and mentally exhausted. We got back to the car around 1 a.m. and started driving home for work on Tuesday. We had climbed the route in 53 hours car-to-car, with four hours of sleep (two hours each night). If I did it again, I’d plan for 72 hours.

— Kelty Godby

Route Description 

P1 (100’, 5.9): Start at a dihedral and traverse a large ledge right or traverse small ledges left to a small dihedral. Climb until you are below a small roof and belay to the right on a ledge.

P2 (100’, 5.9): Traverse left under a small roof and continue up a small dihedral until you are 15’ below a large roof with steep crack systems to the right.

P3 (150’, 5.9): Traverse hard left off the belay for about 50’, and head up on broken terrain and cracks to a small tree and belay.

P4 (180’, 5.9): Head left and up off the belay over broken terrain and poor rock. Meander up a blunt prow to a small ledge with a dead tree. Belay 20’ under a roof with some red lichen up and right.

P5 (120’, 5.10): Head left of the belay and gain a dihedral. Continue to a nice ledge. Go left on the ledge and climb the arête to a nice ledge just right of a decent-sized triangular roof 30’ up.

P6 (220’, 5.10): Continue up dihedrals and broken terrain to a ledge with a couple of trees. Belay to the right and below a large darkish brown roof, about 100’ up.

P7 (250’, 5.5): Simul-climb for approximately 250’, traversing hard left and up slightly on broken terrain and ledges, until directly below a huge dihedral system.

P8 (350’, 5.7): Continue up a dihedral. A little grassy at the start but turns into really fun climbing. Belay at a tree 60’ below huge chockstones in a chimney.

P9 (210’, 5.8): Climb up the chimney behind the chockstones. Exit the chimney climber’s right onto a ledge. Continue up the dihedral to a tree and set the belay.

P10 (210’, 5.8): Continue up the dihedral through a roof to a giant ledge system (good bivy, referred to as Tier One).

We did the next 300 feet unroped. Head up and left on broken terrain until you are below a big clean wall.

P11 (200’, 5.10): Climb up nice cracks until you are under some steep terrain. Traverse right through a bit of a runout and set the belay on a ledge below a big yellow-lichen roof.

P12 (230’, 5.10): Head up and left to an offwidth, and then continue trending left and up on nice crack systems to a ledge with a tree below a beautiful steep wall.

P13 (230; 5.10): Climb up the main crack system on the wall through a small roof. Belay at the top of Tier Two (summit is finally in view).

We unroped here and went down and hard right, then climbed up some chossy gullies to a big ledge system below a short wall with a good-looking crack system.

P14 (150’, 5.8): Head up a nice crack system to a chossy ledge. Belay below a huge yellow-lichen dihedral.

P15 (180’, 5.8): Head up the yellow dihedral. Belay below a large offwidth flake.

P16 (200’, 5:10): Climb up the offwidth flake, then head up the arête on gorgeous rock to the summit.

Descent: Multiple options with different hazards and pros/cons exist. If you can’t figure out the descent options, I don’t recommend the route.

Hazards/Safety: The rockfall hazard is extreme.