Little Matterhorn via Southwest Face
June 30, 2008
My friends and I set out to climb up Little Matterhorn this week. We hit the trail at about 4am.
The trail was dry until after the junction for Odessa Lake where we hit some hard packed snow. The snow was come and go until we got to Lake Helene which had some great views of Notchtop and Little Matterhorn just before the sun hit.
Deciding to head directly down into the valley instead of going on to Odessa we picked a line down hoping to avoid the hard snow slopes still lingering on this year.
Once down the climb up towards Little Matterhorn's ridge was short and steep and was a nice change of pace from the almost highway trail coming out of Bear Lake.
The ridge heading to the summit is spectacular and the combination of route finding and exposure made it a very enjoyable scramble. All of the upper slopes and the entire ridge was completely snow-free.
The ridge is very exciting as it narrows drastically in several places offering very tempting views of the summit cairn up ahead.
We initially wanted to stay on the knife edge up top but soon discovered that it cliffed out periodically.
Finally settling on traveling up the north side of the ridge below the knife edge the periodic cairns led directly up to the summit.
The only truly exposed place I felt was a narrow ledge leading up to the summit but it was very short and quite exciting.
Once on the summit we noticed the even larger cairn on a large block at the very end of the ridge.
After a bit of nosing around I decided it was possible to reach by a short downclimb to the north and then a very highly exposed and tricky move back up towards the cairn.
It was quite a thrill and the exposure loomed twice as much on the return climb to the actual summit but it felt good to be out on the edge of such an great peak.
After getting back to the ridge our initial thought was to reach the divide by scrambling up onto Knobtop Mountain and the trekking up to Flattop and down the normal trail. Unfortunately after making the climb up to the gully leading up we discovered that it was still quite packed with snow and several people in our party felt uncomfortable trying it.
So we made a quick descent back into the valley via some great glissades and decided to hit Flattop anyway.
Taking one last look back on Little Matterhorn... We picked a straight line straight for the summit from Lake Helene and the steep northern slopes gave me a new respect for the peak.
Once up top we had some snacks and took the tradicional group shot against Tyndall Glacier and heading back out as the clouds were starting to build.
Just as we hit the parking lot about 3pm it started to rain.
Perfect timing and a nice end to a great hike!
My friends and I set out to climb up Little Matterhorn this week. We hit the trail at about 4am.
The trail was dry until after the junction for Odessa Lake where we hit some hard packed snow. The snow was come and go until we got to Lake Helene which had some great views of Notchtop and Little Matterhorn just before the sun hit.
Deciding to head directly down into the valley instead of going on to Odessa we picked a line down hoping to avoid the hard snow slopes still lingering on this year.
Once down the climb up towards Little Matterhorn's ridge was short and steep and was a nice change of pace from the almost highway trail coming out of Bear Lake.
The ridge heading to the summit is spectacular and the combination of route finding and exposure made it a very enjoyable scramble. All of the upper slopes and the entire ridge was completely snow-free.
The ridge is very exciting as it narrows drastically in several places offering very tempting views of the summit cairn up ahead.
We initially wanted to stay on the knife edge up top but soon discovered that it cliffed out periodically.
Finally settling on traveling up the north side of the ridge below the knife edge the periodic cairns led directly up to the summit.
The only truly exposed place I felt was a narrow ledge leading up to the summit but it was very short and quite exciting.
Once on the summit we noticed the even larger cairn on a large block at the very end of the ridge.
After a bit of nosing around I decided it was possible to reach by a short downclimb to the north and then a very highly exposed and tricky move back up towards the cairn.
It was quite a thrill and the exposure loomed twice as much on the return climb to the actual summit but it felt good to be out on the edge of such an great peak.
After getting back to the ridge our initial thought was to reach the divide by scrambling up onto Knobtop Mountain and the trekking up to Flattop and down the normal trail. Unfortunately after making the climb up to the gully leading up we discovered that it was still quite packed with snow and several people in our party felt uncomfortable trying it.
So we made a quick descent back into the valley via some great glissades and decided to hit Flattop anyway.
Taking one last look back on Little Matterhorn... We picked a straight line straight for the summit from Lake Helene and the steep northern slopes gave me a new respect for the peak.
Once up top we had some snacks and took the tradicional group shot against Tyndall Glacier and heading back out as the clouds were starting to build.
Just as we hit the parking lot about 3pm it started to rain.
Perfect timing and a nice end to a great hike!
