A rock cairn marks the route near the top of Trapper Peak in the Bitterroot Mountains. Setting a goal can help provide motivation for climing Montana’s mountains. PIERRE LABOSSIERE

Start early, set goals to summit Montana mountains

By PIERRE LABOSSIERE

One way to get ready for hiking or climbing season is to set a goal.

Sure, one goal is to have fun – which is important – but being essentially lazy, I do need something to motivate myself to get up out of bed at the crack of dawn and begin a six-mile, 4,000-foot climb before it gets hot.

Last summer was a wash for me because several weeks were wiped out by a move from one end of town to the other and I didn’t trust taking my old, oil-spewing truck out of town. But, two years ago, I set a goal of climbing 90,000 vertical feet. I tend to keep track of uphill gain rather than miles hiked because I think up and down are tougher on the body than sheer length.

Here’s how it worked for me. I have a very twitchy groin and an even twitchier calf, so I have to start slowly in the spring so I don’t pull anything. You can do stair climbing in the winter to work on those specific muscles you need for going uphill, but I get bored with that quickly, personally. I like getting outdoors.

I started out slow in the early spring, hiking up to the “M,” the “L” or over and back on Waterworks Hill. Do that every other day and those few hundred feet start adding up. Then in the late spring, I was climbing Jumbo or Sentinel two or three times a week.

Watching those hundreds of vertical feet gained increase to thousands and then cracking 10,000 accumulated feet kept me motivated.

And then something slowly started happening. My legs got stronger; I got in better shape. I got less nervous about pulling muscles. I lost weight, and I could go on bigger and longer climbs without getting tired. I could go over Jumbo and back without getting tired. I climbed both Jumbo and Sentinel in one day without getting tired.

Your legs need to be in good shape not so much to get uphill, but to get back down. Going downhill after several hours of hiking is when people really tend to get hurt. When your muscles get tired after hours on the trail is when you stumble easily, especially on steep mountains such as Trapper Peak, Ward Mountain or Little St. Joseph Peak. Those three are murder on your legs.

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By late summer, Trapper Peak, which darn near killed me the first time I tried to climb it years ago, was a piece of cake. That season culminated with climbs of Half Dome, El Capitan and a 14,000-footer in California – three big hikes (48 miles and 12,000 vertical feet) in four days. According to people on the summit, I was the only person at the top of Half Dome who had come all the way from Yosemite Valley. (Most people climb it from nearby Little Yosemite Valley.) I certainly didn’t feel like a Superman, especially nursing some nasty blisters on my heel, but I could not have built up to that feat if I hadn’t started slow and easy with those little hikes up to the “M” and the “L” in March.

I cracked 90,000 feet at the end of September and topped out at 96,000.

This summer, after taking a year off from climbing goals, I tried to come up with a new one. I didn’t want to do 90,000 feet again, so I came up with an idea to climb nine 9,000-foot peaks (including six mountains I’ve never climbed before) this summer. Some will be in the Bitterroots, but to get to that many new 9,000-foot mountains, it will mean driving all over Montana in my new rig, and I’m planning on tackling a 9,000-footer in Canada.

I don’t know if I can do it, because it will depend on the weather and fire season – and not pulling anything. I’m calling it “Endeavour 9X9,000,” which is my way of making fun of mountain climbers because they like to give their goals high-falutin’ names like that.

But I have learned that going on 4,000- or 5,000-foot climbs in August depends a lot on what you do in March. You can never start too early, and a goal will get you going in the morning.

Missoulian assistant news editor Pierre LaBossiere can be reached at 523-5258 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .