Mount Siyeh - South Slope, August 2012
*Report by Paul Klenke
The last 10,000-ft peak Sergio and I planned to do during our Glacier National Park visit was Mt. Siyeh, which comes in at 10,014 ft. This peak is the easiest 10,000-footer in the park to climb so it was a welcome change from the grueling nature of Mt. Jackson two days prior. It also apparently has the best view of the lay of the jagged land in the park owing to its central location. For us it would also have much better views than we were able to experience on Mt. Jackson due to forest fire smoke. Plus the air would be easier to breathe. The mountain resides really close to Going-to-the-Sun Road. From where the road makes a pronounced horseshoe at Siyeh Bend (5,850 ft), the summit is less than 1.5 miles away as the crow flies. The mountain can be seen from the road there and is actually somewhat picturesque even with all of its scree slopes.
At the early hour we started out we were the first car in the parking lot, which isn't really a lot but pullouts on the side. It would seem like we'd have the whole valley and mountain to ourselves. But I think we knew better. Siyeh Bend is really close to Logan Pass and Logan Pass becomes a zoo of homo sapiens sapiens (or God's creatures if you're a creationist) exhibits during the middle of day. We made really good time hiking the roundabout trail toward the peak. The first mile of trail goes the wrong way, but whatever. We eventually got to the trail junction for Preston Park and went eastward up the intermittent meadows and forest bands. Mt. Siyeh rises to the left of Preston Park and the Edwards guidebook says to look out for a particular set of features marking the easiest route through Siyeh's lower cliff band. Edwards' guidebook is not very useful in this regard, most notably because you can't really see these features he's talking about from the trail due to the forest bands getting in the way. It would have been better if he had just said where (how far up the valley) to leave the trail. (more...)
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