Hoodoo Peak and Raven Ridge

Hoodoo Peak - 8464' - SE slopes Class 2 / Raven Ridge - 8590' - North face - Class 3
October 2014

As I was driving back from Montana after finishing a long 3 day trip in the Beartooths, I decided to solo these 2 peaks. It was a beautiful day out and at 9am, after driving all night, I arrived at the Libby Lake TH.

I made quick work of the trail to the small cabin where I left the trail, scrambled up to the ridge on Hoodoo and scrambled to the summit. I topped out just before noon. The larch trees were incredible...the most I had ever seen in color. This basin was literally filled with thousands of them! From the summit, views towards Oval and Star displayed many more golden larches flanking every peak I was able to see!

After 15 minutes on top, I ran down the SE face of the mountain instead of returning down the ridge where the rocks were truck sized. I made it back to the cabin along the trail in 20 minutes and hiked the remainder of the trail to Libby Lake. From the lake, I located the talus gully giving access to the east-west oriented Raven Ridge. This 900 foot gully was filled with loose rock but after a half hour of thrashing my way up, trying to stay on more solid rock on the left side, I made the ridge and scrambled talus on the other side of the crest for a half mile or so to the higher east summit of Raven Ridge. Even though the USGS maps show the west summit to be higher, looking across the east summit is very obviously higher. The summit block of Raven Ridge had a nice, 1 move Class 4 spot.

I spent a few minutes atop but the cold wind drove me down. I ran down the loose gully, knocking many rocks down in the process, then proceeded to run the 5 miles down the trail and made it back to the car at 3:30 PM...just 6.5 hours RT for both peaks!

Photos below. Enjoy the larches