Climbing Triple Divide

The hike to Triple Divide Mountain in Glacier National Park is an eight mile slug up a long and gradual trail to Triple Divide Pass. The trail begins in forest and meadows along the North Fork of Cut Bank Creek, then after passing Atlantic Campground, begins a sun-exposed four mile march to the Pass.

Bring plenty of water!

Climbing this mountain may not be the tallest, or the most difficult, but Triple Divide Peak stands out as one of the most unique mountains in Glacier. Sitting along the Lewis Range in the Cut Bank area, Triple Divide marks the hydrological apex of the North American continent. On this peak, the Great Divide which runs north to south along North America converges with the Laurentian or Northern Divide which flows towards Hudson Bay.

This hike is exciting for climbers and hydrologists alike, as according to author Gordon Edwards, “a bucket of water poured carefully on the summit cairn will drain off into three different directions; part toward the Pacific Ocean, part toward the North Atlantic and Part toward the Gulf of Mexico!” It is however up to the climber’s discretion which receptacle he uses to carry the water up to the summit.

I opted for a can of beer.

An earlier attempt at Triple Divide by the author was tried on June 1 this year, but had to be abandoned due to unexpected snow and an adult grizzly walking towards us on the trail. This time, a massive bull moose was spotted along the trail in the river, but dashed away before the camera went off.

Once reaching the pass, a climbers’ trail is noticeable along an eastern shelf below the saddle between Triple Divide and Razoredge Mountain. We took a moment to study the route and opted for a lower shelf with less snow.

This lower shelf led to a scree chute at the lowest point of the Triple Divide-Razoredge saddle that both Edwards and author Blake Passmore describe as the correct path.

The chute began with steep and loose scree that turned into a class II/III traverse over to a series of ledges. We decided to climb this section more spread out due to the amount of falling rocks from the lead climber.

Once reaching the saddle, we were on the Great Divide. We made our way towards the summit and were greeted along the way by some curious sheep that kept their distance.

The summit was quite rewarding after the long hike. Some climbers may link this trip with summits on Norris Mountain or Razoredge.

On our return trip, we found an easier way down through a different scree chute that had much less technical climbing; it is located about half-way between Triple Divide and Razoredge. Those interested in this climb may want to consider this approach.

The hike was a total of 19 miles and took roughly 9 hours to complete with 2,900 feet of elevation gained, and lost.