I Found Out Why They Call It Goat Mountain. Ungulates Only.

Clearly you must be a goat to get up there. Or a sheep. Or because I like to show off new words I learn in the Jammer Tour Guide, some kind of four-legged ungulate.

This is a great peak on for the East side of Glacier, which I really enjoyed. What I did not enjoy was the 4000 feet of gain in about 2.5 miles. Yeah, try and find that incline setting on your treadmill (hint: turn it well beyond the ‘death’ notch). But it is so easy and comfortable. Well, not physically. Goat Mtn has a wonderful scree dome for the last 1500’, with a nice little forest to climb thru.

The main drainage of the climbing route I took was basically a walk-up with zero cliffs and NO four-point climbing. You just need to be able to look at something really big in front of you and just keep chugging up it for 3.5 hours. Until you hit the point where there is nothing but sky. And if you have a locked vintage iPod with a bunch of heretofore unknown Lindsey Sterling buried on it, let me just tell you that her electric violin really gets into your soul. It will make those feet do put in many thousands of steps you never thought possible.

I would have to say the best thing about this particular peak are all of the ridges to run. There are about 1.5 to maybe two miles of wonderful, wide, broad, scree ridges you can walk. Some of them could be considered on parr with the impressive summit itself. But once you have paid the gain in elevation, everything up there is yours for the taking.

If I were to climb Goat Mtn again, I’d plan on a comfortable 4-5 hours up. Lunch on the summit. Then spend 2 hrs. ridge-walking taking in all the surrounding views, then a quick down. And I mean quick. That scree that was like quicksand coming up is an express elevator on the descent. I was back to the car after leaving the summit in 1.5 hours, AND I stopped to talk to an old couple at the bottom when I hit the main trail.

They were really nice people. The older fellow asked me right off ‘how was Goat peak?’ He ended up being an old park employee from Rising Sun Motor Inn back in the 1950’s and had climbed it back in the day. He then commented how his beloved wife, standing next to him, that wouldn’t let him go up again, not with his 80-year-old knees. His face lit up just talking about the peak. And doing the Siyeh Pass trail at 80 is no small feat. That’s where I want to be in 25 years.

Biggest bonus of all with the summit of Goat: no rodents on top to eat, chew, or steal my precious ******* gear. Never knew before how nice of a climbing attribute that would be. The post storm blue skies helped a lot; views were really outstanding. What I loved the most was the fact that Going to the Sun Mtn is not only massive, but it actually BLOCKS most of the peaks of Logan Pass. I like this because….. those peaks are so iconic that is all people ever look for when the climb the summits nearby. When you take them out of the picture, you can really enjoy the panoramic and appreciate the East side mountains along with the distant craggy summits which are so commonly overlooked.

You can see most of the major glacier systems from this vantage and follow the continental divide for many many miles. I was able to squeeze in a little ridge walking (with my limited time), and on descent picked up some pieces an old climbing trail. What I could tell instantly is this: not a lot of people go to Goat Mtn. Zero boot marks on the summit ridges, and very very few in the scree slopes. Those sliding jump-steps going down are soooooo comfortable on the knees and fun, but do leave scars in the scree that lasts for years and years. Using other peaks I’ve been up on this summer as a benchmark, I would doubt if this summit sees maybe a handful of visitors a year.

Finally, after witnessing so much over-use and loved-to-death, it’s a relief to see one tiny nook that hasn’t been blown up on social media as a ‘hidden treasure’ and promptly pilfered and plundered into submission. Which means I’ve given all of you reading this a great social responsibility. Fortunately only eight people will ever read this post, and the odds of them having that kind of gain left in their knees to get there will be pretty few and far between.

Rock on.