Climbing
The eastern face of the mountain rises over 1,500 vertical feet (457 m) and the easiest route on this section is rated class 4 by mountaineers. The rock is also primarily sedimentary and provides poor anchor points, which in turn is a contributing factor to the difficulty rating. Henry Stimson and two other explorers, including a Blackfeet Indian, climbed the difficult eastern face on September 8, 1892, and this is the first known ascent of the peak by white explorers. Upon the summit, Stimson's party observed ceremonial remains including bison skulls that had been left behind by Native Americans. The eastern face of the peak wasn't successfully climbed again until 1951. Though the summit can be gained by approaching from the west, the easiest access is from the east, and the Blackfeet tribe issues camping and access permits to cross reservation lands. National Park Service visitor centers at St. Mary, Montana and at Many Glacier have additional information available.
Read more about this topic: Chief Mountain
Famous quotes containing the word climbing:
“These are the warnings
that you must forget
if you’re climbing out of yourself.
If you’re going to smash into the sky.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”
—Nelson Mandela (b. 1918)
“There is, however, this consolation to the most way-worn traveler, upon the dustiest road, that the path his feet describe is so perfectly symbolical of human life,—now climbing the hills, now descending into the vales. From the summits he beholds the heavens and the horizon, from the vales he looks up to the heights again. He is treading his old lessons still, and though he may be very weary and travel-worn, it is yet sincere experience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)