The peak traverse, as it is known to some, is a grueling, 16 mile + climb that I undertook with some coworkers last year. This year, I passed it on my way to Cut Bank Pass. Named from right to left, the climb totalled at over 5,000ft of vertical, with multiple dips and false summits to boot. All named for Blackfeet chiefs by James Willard Schultz, a white man who married into the tribe, Mad Wolf is by far the most well known name. This chief was a warrior and made a controversial decision to adopt another white man, Walter McClintock, to be his son. He did this in hopes that Walter would help conserve this area.

Walter was a well educated man, a forester graduate of Yale, and handpicked as a surveyor by then Chief of the Forest Service Gifford Pinchot. He found himself in Blackfeet country, fell in love with it, and has since become an integral part of the Glacier landscape, with a peak bearing his name. This valley, the Cut Bank Creek, served as his first journey through Blackfeet country, and so bears many of his adventures that he wrote in his book, The Old North Trail. Adorned with his own photos taken of the area, Walter is well spoken and a good writer to boot. I highly recommend The Old North Trail if you want to learn more about Glacier and the Blackfeet from an insider's perspective at the time of the early 1900s.