Charity Peak, Reservation Divide

Charity Peak from the south.

It was my birthday on Friday the 5th, and to celebrate, I wanted to bag a low summit in the Missoula area on Saturday. I chose Charity Peak, which sits above Evaro, to the west, at 6559', and which came to my attention when it was added to the Missoula Horizon Peaks list this year, put together by the Rocky Mountaineers. 

During the past couple of falls and early winters, I've enjoyed exploring lesser known summits and their surroundings in the Missoula area. It's a bit of a unusual hobby, I admit. The mountains are often known by few, aren't particularly spectacular, and require some research and rough travel to get to. In a way, these peaks are an excuse to spend a day in the mountains, but I also like the feeling that I'm getting to know my back yard well.

My route came up from Evaro on Flathead Reservation land. I had intended to gain the ridge to the north of Frog Creek, but I ended up on the ridge to the south (it was cloudy and hard to navigate), which ended at a cell phone tower located at the summit 6229' just south of Charity. I was surprised to find a couple electricians up there working on the tower. They informed me that the road to the tower, owned by AT&T, is kept plowed through the year. 

It was very cloudy on top at the tower, and so I couldn't see the true summit of Charity to the north. After chatting a while with the electrician fellows, I started down. But a Rocky Mountaineers' facebook post had shown a large cairn that I wasn't able to find, so I had a suspicion that I hadn't actually reached the summit. I stopped after 5-10 minutes of descending and brought up the Rocky Mountaineers facebook page on my tablet to read their Charity Peak trip report. In one of the pictures, the cell phone tower sat below in the background, so I knew that I hadn't reached the peak after all. 

I turned around and climbed up to the cell phone towers again. By then the clouds had cleared and Charity's summit was visible to the north.The walk over and up to the top was the best part of the outing. The sun came out, and it was beautiful country up on the ridge line. 

Pudge and the summit cairn with the Mission Valley in the distance.

The last steps to the summit. The cell tower is just visible in the clouds.

The cell tower in the clouds.

Pudge resting.

Heading down, Pudge leading the way.

Looking back at Charity.

Last push back up to the cell tower before descending.

On the way down, Missoula Valley in the distance.