Mount Powell with Al and TC

TC climbing the final slope up to the summit of Mount Powell. Note the larch on the near ridge and the Pintlers in the background.

For the past week, I've had a research visitor here in Missoula, named Tiangang Cui, or TC to his English speaking colleagues. He's from China and is in between a job in Houston and a faculty job at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.  TC is both a top notch computational mathematician and an all-around great fellow. I met him on my sabbatical in New Zealand; one of his PhD advisors, Colin Fox, was the guy I visited at U. Otago in Dunedin. Colin was also the post-doc advisor of my good friend Al Parker, from Bozeman, so Al has known TC even longer than I have. In order that Al and TC could see each other, and also so that TC could enjoy a uniquely Montana outing, we all decided to get together for a hike this weekend. We chose Mount Powell outside of Deer Lodge, because it's in between Bozeman and Missoula, and Al's been wanting to do it for a while. The hike is 12 miles round trip with 4000 feet of elevation gain. It has some steep off trail sections and is challenging, but there's nothing too difficult about it, so it turned out to be a great choice and a great day. As Al said in an email to me after the trip, "TC's like us, he likes to connect with people and places. He'll be back."

For directions to the trailhead and the route we used, see this Summitpost page.

TC and Skila on the climb up.

TC and some alpine larch.

Walking tundra before the final slope up to Mount Powell.

Al in the same spot, with peaks of the Flint, and turning alpine larch, in the background.

TC and the view south on Mount Powell.

Pudge looking off toward Deer Lodge Mountain.

Same shot, Pudge and Skila.

Old friends on the summit of Mount Powell.