Montana's Granite Peak

Address:Red Lodge, Montana

Challenge yourself by climbing one of the most difficult highpoint climbs in the United States. Granite Peak is the highest point in Montana, and has gained its reputation as a formidable challenge because of the technical climbing, frequency of poor weather, and difficult route-finding. The base camp on Granite Peak is called Froze-to-Death Plateau, but nevertheless, every year climbers from all over the world come to Montana raring to challenge the 12,799-foot summit.

Climbers typically spend two or three days ascending the peak with its talus-strewn class 3 and 4 climbing, but some ambitious athletes ascend the peak in a single day! The most common approach to Granite Peak is from the West Rosebud trailhead, at the end of a long, dusty, road beginning near Fishtail, Montana. A good trail leads uphill a few miles to Mystic Lake, with a hydroelectric dam popular among for fishermen. From the east shore of the lake another trail leads steeply uphill to a notch at the northern end of the barren, rock-strewn plateau of Froze-to-Death Mountain.

The summit offers a fantastic view of the desolate high tablelands of the wild Beartooth-Absoroka wilderness. Enjoy the view, but don't stop long, because thunderstorms are often on the way, and it is best to be back on the Froze-to-Death plateau by 1 PM or so. Granite Peak is notorious for the brutal thunderstorms that lash its slopes regularly on summer afternoons. Lack of a good high camp, a horrible access road, a short but dangerous ridge of snow, and lots of rotten rock are other factors making even the easiest route on this monster a real adventure. If this sounds tough but tantalizing to you, go ahead and give Granite Peak a shot!

Granite Peak lies within the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness of Montana, 10 miles north of the Wyoming border and 45 miles southwest of Columbus, Montana. The nearest major airport is in Billings, Montana.