Mount Hague sits on the northern edge of the Beartooth Mountains manifesting the dichotomy of plains and mountains as it rises nearly 7,000 feet above the ranches and farms far below. It's a massive mountain with a long south ridge and a view from the summit that peers right into the heart of the Beartooths'.
Bridget and I hiked into Mystic lake skirting the lake on the southern side. This portion of the approach was strange. The lake was very low so we thought we could easily skirt the lake rather than break trail through snow by following the trail above the lake; it wasn't so easy. The lake shore was much like a glacier with huge cracks and sags all covered by fresh snow. I fell into a few holes where my legs never touched the bottom... it almost felt like we should be roped up. We ended up camping near Island lake on an amazing sandy beach.
We carried ice gear along hoping to climb Jim Rott's route "Stupidity is a gift" or the melt-freeze lines in the froze-to-death-cirque (i.e. "scottish leather face", or Olin and Jimmy's awesome route "Gran Carámbano") but it proved much to warm. We ended up climbing the long south ridge on Mount Hague that rises from Island lake. It was a great conditioner climb and we had the entire valley to ourselves (it felt similar to climbing the west face of Mount Dickey in Alaska). It was a stellar, good-old-fashioned-mountaineering, excursion.
Cheers, Loren