Three summits along the Garden Wall, Bishops Cap, Mt. Pollock, and Piegan Mountain, are a great day trip for those looking for some wonderful views above Going-to-the-Sun Road and the Highline Trail. The route is most frequently accessed from Lunch Creek just east of Logan Pass, but my buddy Blake Passmore, from Climb Glacier recommended going up the dry creek bed between Pollock and Bishops Cap. I’d gone the opposite way in the past and this route sounded great, so I gave it a whirl!
I met Cary on my way up to Apgar Lookout. We chatted for a bit and he mentioned he was coming back up to Glacier National Park and wondered if I would be up for a climb. I told him to shoot me an email to see if it would work out, but I’d love to! We initially were thinking of Mt. Jackson, Iceberg Peak, or the Floral Park Traverse. I had already done the first two and they are bigger days that I wasn’t super excited about. Floral Park was out because part of the trail to get to the off-trail was closed to bears, so I suggested the Garden Wall Summit Trifecta. Cary was down.
The morning was great, the flowers were popping on the Highline Trail. We broke away from the trail right above Triple Arches and navigated the creek bed all the way to the saddle between Bishops Cap and Mt. Pollock. Bishops Cap is a bit tricky towards the top, but is a sweet tabletop summit. It got us pumped for the ridge walk back to the saddle and up to Pollock. From there we found the popular chute route and squeezed down, then passed some other climbers coming up the other direction.
We took a quick break at the saddle between Piegan Mountain and Mt. Pollock and continued on to the summit where we recorded the blog, soaked in the views, then headed down Lunch Creek.
All in all, an epic day. Tired bodies and rejuvenated spirits.
9 responses to “Garden Wall Summit Trifecta”
Just a reminder- you can never pan too slowly!
Good to see you still around. 😉
Do you have the GPS tracks for this route?
I should. Drop me an line on my contact page and I’ll get them to you.
A bit late for me, but I did the hike anyways on August 17th. Unfortunately, I was in the clouds after around 7500′, so I decided to just do Polluck then descend to the saddle between Piegan and Polluck before returning to Logan Pass via the Going to the Sun Road from Lunch Creek. It was my first hike in Glacier National Park. What a way to start.
[…] I had already climbed this route a couple of times, including last year for the blog titled “Garden Wall Trifecta“, my wife and a couple of friends hadn’t and asked if I’d want to do it again. […]
Hi,
I would be very interested in the GPS track too.
Also, how difficult is the scramble really? Can it be done by 2 experienced hikes with only average scrambling experience?
Thanks in advance,
Hans
Shoot me an email on my contact page. Overall, it’s not super hard to figure the route… especially if you do it the way we did it from Bishops Cap to Piegan. I’d consider purchasing Blake Passmore’s Climb Glacier book which has photos and such.
Hey Jake, I’d really to get the route you took for this! How could I get that?