Three Apostles

The Three Apostles known as North Apostle, Ice Mountain, and West Apostle from left to right in the picture below offer an excellent technical climb. We were able to drive all the way up the 4-wheel drive road to the trail head on Saturday afternoon. We dump camped on the edge of meadow, and built a campfire to cook dinner over. This is an amazing place to dump camp. We were up in the mountains with nice views and the luxuries and ease of camping next to a vehicle.

Sunday morning we woke up to a perfectly clear sky. After warming up with some hot chocolate we hit the trail. The trial works its way up a valley and into Apostle Basin. From the edge of tree line the trail is not well defined and we scrambled up to a saddle between North Apostle and Ice Mountain. From the saddle we made our way north-east to the summit of North Apostle. This climb was not too difficult but involves a lot of loose rocks. From the summit of North Apostle, you can look south-west at the daunting view of Ice Mountain.

The way up Ice Mountain looked very difficult from the top of North Apostle. However, as we started climbing, we found that getting up Ice Mountain was possible. We took our time as we scrambled up the ridge as we worked towards the summit. As my Dad would say, this was "fingers and toes" climbing.

From the summit of Ice Mountain we continued to have nice views, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. To get to our next destination, West Apostle, we headed down a gully of loose rock on the south-west face of Ice Mountain until we could traverse across the slope towards a saddle between West Apostle and a false-summit of Ice Mountain. From the saddle we worked our way up West Apostle, which turned out to be a non-technical climb. The summit of West Apostle offers views of Lake Anne below towards the north-west and Ice Mountain to the east.

From West Apostle we worked our way down a couple ridges and a scree field to Lake Anne. We took a quick dip in the refreshing water of Lake Anne (maybe the last of the summer season?). When we left Lake Anne, we quickly returned to the forest and hiked the last two miles our to the car.

North Arapahoe, Ice Mountain, and West Arapahoe


Huron Peak


View looking North from Apostle Basin


Ice Mountain from North Apostle


View from Ice Mountain


Kathleen climbing Ice Mountain


Lake Anne from West Apostle