Swan Traverse (Smith Creek->Holland Lake)

 

Maddie on a portion of the traverse

Every good adventure starts with a seemingly good idea and some mishap. Ours started with a punishing hangover. After a freshman year style, Thursday night pub crawl, my girlfriend Maddie and I woke up and loosely threw some things together and set off to attempt a rather large objective which we had set this weekend aside for. We were planning on traversing a portion of the Swan mountains near Condon MT, something that had been a goal of ours for quite a while. The plan was to go from Smith Creek Pass and traverse the ridge crests and basins to Holland ridge trail and then down to Holland lake. To do this we opted to drop a car at Holland lake and bikes at the Rumble Creek trail, in case we wanted to bail from Holland peak. 

We left town unreasonably late in the evening and planned on meeting at Holland lake. Since I would be faster than Maddie in her stellar van I drove to the Rumble lake trail head and dropped the bikes. We met up at Holland Lake and there I realized that I forgot the running vest I was gonna use at home. Accepting that I would just use my little school backpack, we drove off in her van for about 2 miles before realizing that I left the only phone charger we had on the trip in my car back at the trailhead. A short trip back to my car had us on the road again headed for the Smith creek trailhead. It was then that Maddie realized earlier when she went into the Bonner gas station to get ice for the cooler, that she paid for ice however never actually got it from the ice box. The ice would have been used to keep the unconventional camping food items (ground beef and a half gallon of milk) we bought from spoiling. 

We made it to the next trail head in the dark and planned to cook all the ground beef we had and tried to drink as much milk as we could to get our money's worth. We were less than surprised when our propane ran out 2 minutes into cooking the ground beef we had. So instead of the pasta dish we had planned we drank milk, accepted the fate of our ground beef and ate other various things we had brought with us. I was very excited to fall asleep and forget about my day-long hangover, but I was still not surprised to wake up an hour later and learn about the family of mice that was also living in the van with us. The next hours of the night that followed were tiresome and a little brutal on morale as we were kept up by this family of stowaways, three of which unfortunately had to be destroyed. 

A couple hours after my standoff with the mice my 5 am alarm started blaring. I quickly hit snooze as Maddie didn’t budge to the sound and I also could not face the task of starting our day… At this point it was quite hard for me to envision our success on this mission as it seemed everything was going very wrong. Regardless, we started our day at an impressive 6:40 am and began moving through the sunrise up the smith creek trail. The sight of the Missions in the morning almost made me forget about the day prior.

Sunrise glow on the Missions 

Maddie blasting up the trail! 

Soon we were at Smith Creek Pass and began our way up Cooney Mountain, the first peak of the day.The views from here were great and we got a good view of the day ahead of us. We proceeded down the ridge and dropped some elevation to a saddle before we began going up again, this time up steeper, looser terrain. From the top of the next peak we could see Holland peak in the distance and the next ridgeline we had to traverse. 

Maddie scrambling up Cooney Mtn

Maddie coming down Cooney

Maddie heading up the next peak of the day

the view looking towards holland from our second peak of the day

We began descending the ridge and came down to a small basin which we traversed across to save time getting up to our next peak. A nice little scramble later and we were looking at a very cool small glacier across from us. We walked the first sort of knife edge ridge of the day and cut across the ridge just on top of the glacier. On our way up I heard the noise of moving earth and Maddie witnessed it! A massive rock fell and rode the glacier down to the bottom. From there we continued along the ridge and got to what the Caltopo map calls Albino peak. 

The cool glacier

This is where the real stuff began. The ridge ahead looked thin and exposed. The gorgeous ramp slabs that formed the ridge were intimidating yet enticing features and I could tell that this was going to take us a while. We drank water and ate food and tried to refuel before we dove into what would be the crux of the day.

Maddie on the start of the knife edge ridge 

Maddie getting Scrambly! 

We began creeping along the crest of the ridge line, I would go first and then turn around to watch Maddie as she followed behind. After slowly moving across the first portion of the ridge, with a couple little scrambles up slab in there we arrived at what I was assuming to be the technical crux of the ridge. We came to a notch in the ridge line that appeared to require a down-climb and a big step over to the other side. On either side of this notch was a fatal drop that would carry you into either the Bob Marshall wilderness or to the eastern side of the Swan range. We stopped and assessed the notch for a second and I soon determined that the move was to carefully down-climb onto a small ledge and then step over onto the other side. I began to make the spooky feeling move down to the ledge and as I did the wind blew up from the east side of the notch making the move quite exciting. 

Once I was on the ledge I was able to make a big step over and on to the other side of the notch. I waited and watched as Maddie made her way down and over. The wind still blew up the notch like a cannon as she downclimbed and stepped over to where I was. Happy to be done with that move we proceeded up the technical ridge that seemed to never let up. 

(There is other beta for the notch crux that involves climbing over the knife edge and onto the east side of the ridge and then traversing and using a ledge to walk your way over to surpass the notch. Doing this avoids the down climb but seems to be much more exposed) 

There is a recurring feeling I seem to experience while on technical alpine scrambles that I usually get when I realize just how serious a situation is. (When I get stressed out I also stop taking photos for some reason!) After we crossed the notch I began to realize that reversing our path to bail would be more risky than going on and that making it to Holland peak was pretty much the only choice. As I stood on the knife edge and looked at the terrain ahead and then turned and watched Maddie move up towards me, I started to get that feeling. Anxiety and stress began to fill my mind and I was trying my best to keep calm and solve the problem that was the ridgeline. Once Maddie reached me we kept on moving, slowly but surely we made it to the point of Holland's ridge that led directly to the summit. The top looked quite close and that was something I found I kept on telling Maddie. 

Looking up Hollands direct North Ridge

“We're almost there.” I would say.

On this part of the ridge we had to make one sketchy down climb on the wet slippery slab, but aside from that move the rest was easy going,  just very exposed. After several false summits were finally made it to the top and we were able to take a big sigh of relief. We hugged and admired the view from the Swans highest point. Holland's challenging north ridge lay behind us now and I looked back at it and followed the ridge all the way till it was out of sight behind other peaks we had been on that day. Cooney mountain was poking out in the distance and it made me think of the very eventful day(s) we had had so far. 

Maddie scrambling up the final parts of the N ridge 

Looking down at Rumble Lakes from the N ridge

Maddie making her way towards the summit, all the hard stuff in the past! 

We ate food and I mentioned the decision of having to either bail here and go down the rumble creek drainage to the bikes, or to continue onwards to Holland lake. Maddie mentioned her knees were beginning to hurt and my hips felt quite worked at this point as well. 

“Let's keep moving and decide when we get closer to where we would have to bail from” I said. 

We descended down Holland peaks much more tame south ridge and eventually made it to where we would either head for the rumble lakes or continue on. 

“Part of me wants to go down now, but I really don't want to have to do that again,” Maddie said. 

“Yea, it's just getting late and I think that if we continue on we will certainly be walking out in the dark.” 

Maddie descending Holland Peak S face

Maddie on the S ridge

We contemplated. We were feeling good physically but we had spent a lot of our time on the ridge and were facing several more hours out if we continued. 

“I think we should do it,”’ Maddie said. 

“Yea?” 

“Yea” 

“Ok then we need to start moving right now”

Looking towards our next goal of the day (another ridge!)

On that decision we started jogging down the ridge line and aimed for our next stopping point, Rubble lake, where we would refill on water. We planned on bypassing the peak above Buck creek basin to save time. We tried moving as fast as we could, side hilling our way above the Buck Creek basin. The crux of this part was moving across the loose and slippery side hill and then crossing over the very deep runnels that came off the peak above us. Eventually we made it to the saddle overlooking terrace lake. Ahead of us now was one last technical ridge scramble that was necessary to climb so we could then drop down to Rubble lake. 

From Where we were the scramble looked hard and exposed and I think that because at this point I was starting to feel a little tired, I began looking for another option. I spotted a steel looking couloir filled with dirt that we could use to bypass the ridge scrabble, however to get there we would need to do a little more sidehilling. 

I proposed this idea to Maddie and she told me that she thought we should take the ridge.

“That chute looks like it would be a super sketch to climb up. It looks muddy” she said. 

I tried to argue and say that it would be less exposed and less risky to go that way than to take the ridge scramble and then began moving down towards the saddle above Terrace lake. Finally when we got to the point where we would either take the ridge or go for the steep muddy chute Maddie stated that she did not feel comfortable climbing up the muddy chute and said she thought we should take the ridge. I sided with her choice and started moving up towards the technical ridge. 

We came across from the right side of this photo above the scary couloir in the left side of the photo

Maddie topping out the last ridge scramble! 

Looking at our descent path towards Rubble lake 

In the end her decision was probably the right one because the scrambling was a lot easier than I had thought it would be. We made decent time up the last technical ridge and began our descent to Rubble lake. 

We were able to move pretty quickly going down and for the most part avoided slipping and falling on the beargrass. Once we got to rubble lake we refilled on water and tried to refuel ourselves for the last little part before we would link onto the Holland ridge trail. We left the lake and were greeted with a lot of sidehilling. At this point we were racing the sun, trying to get as far as we could before darkness would inevitably fall and make everything more difficult. 

Maddie side-hilling the basin above Necklace Lakes

At around 7:30pm we were side-hilling our way across the basin above Woodward lake. Darkness fell quickly and we were soon traveling by headlamp towards our goal. Once we were above Necklace lakes a couloir appeared out of the darkness and we were standing right at the bottom of it. Wondering where its mouth was I looked at my map and realized that we were just 400 feet from the ridge line. I proposed to Maddie that we climb up the couloir and get onto the ridgeline to make traveling a lot easier. I figured that walking on the ridgecrest through grass would be alot easier than sidehilling the grass. We started up the couloir and eventually made it to the ridgeline. From here I looked back into the darkness and noticed a small fire light coming from one of the Necklace lakes. 

We kept moving along the ridge, and eventually made it to the Holland ridge trail. We had done it (almost). Now all we had to do was walk the last 5 miles on the trail down to the car. Before we began the final descent, we refueled and drank some water. As we were doing this, a blood red moon began to rise peering over the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Maddie, of course, got her camera out and took some long exposure photos. While she did this I took my time and looked out over the sea of darkness that was pure wilderness. Down in the distance I saw little orange glimmers of campfires and way out I saw a light I'm assuming from a headlamp. It was truly incredible to be there at this moment, every part of the day was absolutely wild and this was the first moment of the day I felt I was able to settle down and take everything in. 

A terrific photo of the blood red moon from where we linked to Holland Ridge trail

The descent was full of “Hey Bear”s and eventually me loudly singing entire Built to Spill Songs. It would be very fitting to the story for us to have run into a Grizz at the very end of our journey, however, we seemed to be the only creatures in the dark forest that night. After a knee crushing drop of 4000 som feet, we hit flat ground and were walking next to Holland lake, then finally we saw the trail head sign with a blue Subaru parked near it. 

I want to say that we made it to the car around 11:30 which made for a 16 hour day (I think?) and around 21 miles + close to 9800ft of vert. We were destroyed. My hips felt like they were torn to bits and Maddies knees were both shot. I gave Maddie a big hug and without a word we loaded into my car and headed back to the van. We got there at Midnight and after some chips and salsa (It was all we had) we swiftly passed out. 

Maddie rewarding herself with chips and salsa! 

This was a very meaningful and challenging day out in the mountains. It was exciting, long and had all the key features of a great adventure. I think now that knowing what to expect we could try to do this again and have it go a little smoother! Regardless, it was awesome to share this experience with Maddie (my favorite mountain partner)  and tick off an objective that we had been dreaming about doing together for a year.

*route beta* I personally found the N ridge of Holland to be quite tough and very committing, perhaps I chose our route poorly, but it sure felt like some parts of this were low 5th class scrambling especially on the upper N ridge towards the summit. However aside from the daunting notch crux, the real crux was the exposure on this thing. Pretty much DFU zone the entire way and would be a bad place to get caught in a storm. I also think that it would be a better move to climb back up to the ridge crest after getting water at Rubble lake to avoid the slow process of side-hilling through the basins afterwards. I Definitely recommend this outing to anyone interested in the Swans as you get to really explore this part of the range!