The North Face of Glacier Park's Mount Reynolds a mountaineering challenge

After a series of false starts Ayden Douglas and I started up the Going-To-The-Sun Road in the late afternoon in hopes of finding adventure and attempting a potentially unclimbed route on Mount Reynolds’ North Face.

 We made short work of the boardwalk from Logan Pass and found ourselves peering up at the partially shaded face of Reynolds as we neared its lower saddle.

 Picking our way across the loose scree-shelf we traversed towards the middle of the face, working around the remaining snowfields to reach the base of a prominent “A-shaped” feature we spotted from below. 

Peering up at the complicated terrain we spotted a series of weaknesses that bisected the various cliffbands overhead.  Scrambling through slightly wet corners and ledges we picked our way through the first steep cliffband to reach a slanting traverse we could see from below.  

The terrain was just easy enough to keep the rope and rack on our backs as we cruised through fourth and fifth class terrain that angled towards the middle of the face.  A series of ledges and steepening gullies pushed us right as the rock quality began to deteriorate. Stopping to examine the terrain above, we took in our position in the middle of the face and couldn’t help but smile at the quality of climbing thus-far.  

With the summer sun waning we moved swiftly, reaching the bisecting goat trail that crosses Reynolds North Face in just over an hour from when we started climbing below.  Peering off at the menacing terrain below we were happy to have found a quality route through the path of least resistance directly up the face to reach the peak’s famous goat trail.  Looking up at the final section of looming headwall my memory rewound back two years when I climbed the upper face through rotten rock and hairball climbing, reminding me how unfavorable it was. We sat and pondered. Ultimately we opted to not climb the final headwall due to the speedy departure of our evening light. Thankfully it was the right decision as descending into the darkness proved interesting enough with the few slivers of light we had left.  Reaching our bags at the base of the face by headlamp we quickly packed and retraced our steps back to the boardwalk, now cloaked in shadows from the nearly full moon peeking over Mount Reynold’s North face.  

We believe our climb is likely not to have been a first ascent of the North Face, but it could be a new route through varying terrain and climbing difficulties up to 5.4.  It goes without saying that vertical rock climbing in Glacier Park is extremely dangerous and should not be taken lightly, always go with a partner and remember that coming home is priority No.1.