Mission Mountains Climbing

A range made up of thirty-or-so major peaks between the Flathead and Swan Valleys. Much of the West slope of the range is located within the Salish-Kootenai Reservation where a recreation permit is required. You can buy a year long permit at gas stations in St. Ignatius as well as Bob Wards in Missoula for $10-15.

The rock is know as 'Belt Rock' and is rather crumbly sedimentary stone. Usually, the higher you go, the better the rock. Because the rock is such poor quality, the only sane option is to climb it when it's frozen. Many faces and ridges over 1000' tall and néve formed from the humidity rising off of Flathead Lake to the west make the Missions an adventurous mixed climbing area.

Approaches are rather long. Intense off-trail bushwhacking and post-holing are a large portion of many of the approaches.
The spring conditions are so good that they make us go back again and again, forgetting about the hellish approaches.